Sanders’ delegates boo his call to back Clinton, vow protests
‘This is the real world that we live in,’ senator says
Bernie Sanders drew loud boos from his delegates Monday afternoon when he told the crowd of nearly 1,900, “We have got to elect Hillary Clinton.”
The eruption came during a speech in which the Vermont senator was cheered for nearly every point he made — including his call to defeat GOP nominee Donald Trump.
“This is the real world that we live in,” he said, following up his call to elect Clinton. “Trump is a bully and a demagogue. Trump has made bigotry and hatred the cornerstone of his campaign.”
Monday’s meeting followed angry protests by Sanders supporters who already have hit Philadelphia’s streets to oppose Clinton’s nomination. Sanders has endorsed Clinton and has said he will do whatever is necessary to defeat Trump.
Michael Tafe of Hingham, Mass., said he and other Sanders delegates continue to believe the Vermont senator is the best candidate to defeat Trump and expressed unhappiness with Clinton’s decision to choose Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate.
“We feel alienated by the Clinton campaign,” he said. “They’ve made zero effort to reach out to us. Hillary’s VP choice is doubling down on her moderate platform, and I think the people in this room are smart enough to realize once she gets into office, she’s just going to flip.”
Monday’s convention events are taking place as delegates ab- sorb Sunday’s announcement by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida that she will step down as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee after the convention over leaked emails that reveal earlier DNC attempts to undermine Sanders’ presidential campaign.
Democrats had hoped to project an image of unity at the convention, but the emails make that more difficult. So does Clinton’s appointment of Wasserman Schultz as honorary chairwoman of her campaign’s 50-state program to elect Democrats.
“It kind of all reaffirms in the minds of Bernie delegates that we were given a raw deal, that we are dealing with a rigged system, that the primary was very much rigged from the very beginning in favor of Mrs. Clinton,” said Karen Bernal, one of the leaders of the California Sanders delegation, during a morning news conference.
A majority of Sanders delegates surveyed in a straw poll said they want to protest the nominations of both Clinton and Kaine on the floor, said Norman Solomon, a Sanders delegate from California and national coordinator of the independent “Bernie Delegates Network.”
“If Hillary Clinton wants to move today toward more party unity, she certainly has it within her power to say it’s a mistake to make an honorary chair out of Debbie Wasserman Schultz,” Solomon said. “We shouldn’t be honoring someone who ran such a, we now know, disreputable shop at the DNC.”
Sanders issued a statement Sunday saying Wasserman Schultz “has made the right decision for the future of the Democratic Party.”
“While she deserves thanks for her years of service, the party now needs new leadership that will open the doors of the party and welcome in working people and young people,” Sanders said. “The party leadership must also always remain impartial in the presidential nominating process, something which did not occur in the 2016 race.”
In appearances on talk shows earlier Sunday, Sanders had again called for Wasserman Schultz’s resignation but said Democrats should focus on defeating Trump, whom he called “perhaps the worst Republican candidate that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
“We have to elect Secretary Clinton, who on every single issue — fighting for the middle class, on health care, on climate change — is a far, far superior candidate to Trump,” Sanders said on Meet the Press. “That’s where I think the focus has got to be.”
Sanders will hammer that point home in his speech and will “rip into Trump” for denying climate change is real. He also will note the “most progressive platform in Democratic Party history” includes agreements he reached with Clinton to expand access to health care and make public college tuition-free for students from families with annual incomes up to $125,000 a year.
“We feel alienated by the Clinton campaign. They’ve made zero effort to reach out to us.” Michael Tafe, Sanders delegate, Hingham, Mass.