Baltimore Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake brought in the Democratic National Convention, on Monday taking over for the Democratic Party chairwoman who renounced the role amid a scandal over internal party emails.

Rawlings-Blake introduced herself to the crowd as the "mayor of the great city of Baltimore" and then called it an "honor and a pleasure" to start the convention.

After calling the convention to order, Rawlings-Blake began to walked off the stage to realize that she hadn't actually struck to the podium with a gavel. Rawlings-Blake has served as the secretary of the national Democratic Party since 2013.

Party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman who had already announced that she would resign from the party after the convention, said that she would not preside over the convention's opening ceremonies, on Monday.

The email controversy, in which the website WikiLeaks has published thousands of internal emails, that has threatened the unified message which Democrats were expecting to portray as they nominate Hillary Clinton.

Rawlings-Blake was "honored to participate in the historic Democratic National Convention as the party prepares to confirm its 2016 presidential nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton,"

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By Prakriti Neogi