PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — Democrats wanted a show of unity this week to answer the chaos and in-fighting that characterized the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. But when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took the stage Monday afternoon to rally his supporters behind Hillary Clinton, the bitter feelings and anger of his supporters was on full display.
“We have got to defeat Donald Trump, and we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine,” Sanders told his nearly two-thousand delegates and handful of superdelegates, many of whom erupted in cries of frustration at the endorsement. As much of the crowd booed, jumped on their chairs, and chanted pro-Bernie slogans, Sanders attempted to win them over by focusing on the importance of beating Trump in the general election.
Watch:
“Brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, this is the real world that we live in,” he pleaded with the crowd. “Trump is a bully and a demagogue. Trump has made bigotry and hatred the cornerstones of his campaign. Throughout this campaign he has insulted Mexicans and Latinos, he has insulted Muslims, he has insulted women and African Americans.”
When a group in the audience tried to start a chant of “We want Bernie!” he thanked them, but soldiered on.
“Trump is a danger for the future of our country and must be defeated, and I intend to do everything I can to see that he is defeated,” he said.
Sanders then pivoted to a topic that has been a major focus of the last months of his campaign: the need to elect progressive candidates to local office. “It seems to me that if we are going to turn this country around and defeat right wing extremists, we need to build a movement that is prepared to fight at every level of government, from the school board to the city councils to county commissioners to the United States Senate.”
Though the Sanders campaign barred many news outlets, including ThinkProgress, from entering the room, the booing and chaos was broadcast nationally on CNN. Following several pro-Bernie rallies over the weekend at which voters chanted “Lock her up” and vowed never to support Clinton, and the leak of thousands of damaging DNC e-mails, it was yet another sign the Democratic Party’s wounds from the primary have not yet healed.
“Right now there’s a frustration, obviously,” said Erika Andiola, Sanders’ Latino press secretary. “Bernie talked about a rigged system, but now, after seeing it on paper [in the leaked DNC e-mails], it’s really hard to trust them.”
Andiola also questioned Sanders’ and the Democratic Party’s line of argument to the delegates. “It’s not enough to say, ‘Trump wants to deport you,’ so vote for us,” she said. “Fear tactics, for me, are not empowering.”
Though recent polling has found that as many as 90 percent of Sanders’ supporters are willing to support Clinton in November, some pro-Sanders delegates said they were dismayed at the delegates’ reaction on Monday and worried about what it means for the months ahead.
“We need to recognize that Trump is a real threat, and if all of these people decide not to support Hillary, it could be a disaster,” State Senator Martha Fuller Clark (D-NH) told ThinkProgress. “I want more of the Bernie delegates to say, ‘Ok, I kept my pledge. I voted for Bernie. It’s clear that Bernie didn’t win. And now I’m going to support our nominee because we have to win in November.’”
Clark, one of just a handful of superdelegates to back Sanders, criticized her fellow Sanders delegates for acting “angry” and “irresponsible.” She rattled off a long list of victories the Sanders’ movement has won, and wondered why the delegates were not more satisfied.
“If anyone had said a year ago that we’d be talking about a $15 dollar minimum wage, lowering the eligibility age for Medicare, or providing free higher education, we’d have called them crazy,” she said. “Those are huge wins, and it’s thanks to Bernie and his supporters. They should be thrilled to see this very progressive direction. We even got some language in the platform about the [Trans-Pacific Partnership] and convinced [Vice Presidential nominee] Tim Kaine to come out against it. What’s not victorious about all of that?”