Sanders, Dem officials dispute violence
He blames the party for his supporters’ actions in Nevada
Bernie Sanders clashed with Democratic Party leaders Tuesday over violence that erupted over the weekend at the Nevada Democratic convention, which a party official blamed on a disgruntled group of Sanders supporters.
At issue in the escalating fight is a troubling question for Democrats: Will the fire that Sanders has lit among millions of supporters with his critiques of Wall Street greed and political corruption burn the party this summer?
Democratic leaders have hoped to see the party begin unifying against the presumed Republican nominee, Donald Trump, and numerous polls have indicated that most Sanders backers are prepared to vote for Hillary Clinton if she becomes the party’s candidate.
But as Sanders’ hopes for winning the nomination have all but disappeared, a segment of his supporters have become increasingly embittered.
Their anger spilled into public view over the weekend as Sanders supporters at the Nevada Democratic convention threw chairs, tried to shout down Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., vandalized buildings and made death threats against the state party chairwoman after Clinton won more pledged delegates than the Vermont senator.
After angry complaints by Nevada Democratic Party officials and a chiding statement from Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he had spoken to Sanders and expected him to condemn the violence.
Instead, the Vermont senator issued a lengthy statement that included one line saying he does not support harassment, but mostly blamed the problems on Nevada Democratic officials.
“If the Democratic Party is to be successful in November, it is imperative that all state parties treat our campaign supporters with fairness and the respect that they have earned,” he said.
“It is imperative that the Democratic leadership, both nationally and in the states, understand that the political world is changing and that millions of Americans are outraged at establishment politics and establishment economics,” Sanders said.
The statement clearly angered Reid, who has long dominated the Democratic Party in his home state.
“Bernie is better than that,” Reid told CNN. “Bernie should say something and not have some silly statement” that “someone else prepared for him,” he said.
Sanders’ willingness to prolong an argument with powerful leaders of his own party was particularly striking because the actual stakes in the weekend dispute were tiny.
Clinton won Nevada’s caucuses in February, but the Sanders campaign had hoped to pick up some additional delegates by sending large numbers of his supporters to the state convention.
In the end, not all of Sanders’ supporters showed up and others were ruled ineligible. As a result, Clinton gained a couple of delegates more than she might otherwise have won. Her current lead over Sanders in pledged delegates nationwide is nearly 300.
On Monday, the state party lodged a formal complaint with the Democratic National Committee about the disruptions at the convention.
Sanders supporters had demonstrated a “penchant” for violence that could lead to disruptions at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July, said the letter from Bradley Schrager, general counsel for the Nevada State Democratic Party.
Schrager said Sanders supporters had screamed profane insults throughout Saturday’s convention — they can be seen in YouTube videos of the proceedings — and at one point threw chairs, leading party leaders to shut down the event because of security concerns.
The following day, Schrager said, Sanders supporters defaced the party’s headquarters with graffiti. In the days since, party chairwoman Roberta Lange has been bombarded with hundreds of threatening phone calls and text messages after Sanders activists posted her cellphone number and home address online, he said.
Sanders, in his statement, said Schrager’s claim that his supporters have a penchant for violence “is nonsense.”