Sanders team planned grand aerial arrival
Bernie Sanders will not be skydiving into a California campaign rally, as was briefly but widely speculated. Yet remarkably, it does seem that the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign team explored the idea of parachuting the 74-year-old candidate into the event.
The unlikely rumour was widely shared on social media after a story in the Press Democrat, a local newspaper in northern California, suggested the Vermont senator might skydive at an evening rally hosted yesterday by a skydiving company at the Cloverdale Municipal Airport, about 145km north of San Francisco.
The campaign was swift to shoot down the rumour.
‘‘Ha, I wouldn’t count on it,’’ Sanders spokeswoman Sarah Ford texted when asked for confirmation.
However, Jimmy Halliday, owner of NorCal Skydiving, whose remarks to the paper kickstarted the speculation, insisted that the Sanders campaign team approached him directly about the idea of
We’re ready. I would love to jump with Bernie. Jimmy Halliday, owner of NorCal Skydiving
having the candidate skydive in front of a crowd.
‘‘A lot of members of his team have said this would definitely be something he’s interested in. We’re ready. I would love to jump with Bernie.’’
On Friday, Halliday, whose business is renting out airport space to the campaign, even did a trial jump with a member of the Sanders team. ‘‘They tested me out . . . I kind of showed them what Bernie might expect.’’
It appears that the staffer who jumped with Halliday was a (possibly overzealous) member of the campaign’s ‘‘advance team’’, which scouts locations and prepares for rallies. It is unclear if the queries about Sanders jumping out of an aircraft were sanctioned by his campaign headquarters.
Symone Sanders, another campaign spokeswoman, when asked if the senator had seriously explored the idea, replied: ‘‘I can’t deny for sure.’’
She didn’t rule out the possibility that he may parachute into a future event.
‘‘Now it’s on radar. He read about it . . . The senator is a longdistance runner. He likes basketball. He likes baseball. I don’t know if skydiving is the next big thing for him.’’
If Sanders and his security team had agreed to the plan, he would have jumped out in tandem with Halliday at an altitude of about 12,000 feet.