Donna Brazile: Debbie Wasserman Schultz ‘Deserves’ to Be a Part of DNC

— -- Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Donna Brazile said Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the committee's embattled chair, "deserves" to be part of the party's convention this week despite recent controversy over leaked emails.

"Debbie has spent a lot of time and effort in pulling together this convention," Brazile told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America.” "She deserves an opportunity to gavel us in, turn over to the permanent chair and she deserves an opportunity, I think, to also close us out."

As the Democratic National Convention kicks off today in Philadelphia, controversy hangs over the Wells Fargo Center. Wasserman Schultz is expected to resign as chair of the DNC at the end of the convention amid the release of internal committee emails by WikiLeaks that appear to show party officials strategizing ways to harm Sen. Bernie Sanders politically during the primaries.

The committee's communications director Luis Miranda tweeted that Brazile will serve as interim chair "through the election."

According to party sources, Wasserman Schultz's role at the party's convention this week will be severely limited.

Brazile apologized for the email controversy but urged Democrats to unite. Sanders is scheduled to take the stage tonight along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and First Lady Michelle Obama.

“We need to come together,” Brazile said on “GMA.” "[Hillary Clinton's] campaign and her message this week is that we’re stronger together, we can solve our problems, we can begin to project a better country with a better future for everybody and tonight we begin that conversation."

Brazile maintained that Clinton's victory over Sanders in the party’s primary was not a result of any political jockeying by committee aides.

“Hillary Clinton won fair and square. She won the most votes, the most delegates and of course the most states,” she said.

Editor's note: Brazile is an ABC News contributor.