Many Democrats hope the convention is the pivot point when Sanders’ loyal army of people like Rickman enlists in Clinton’s cause.
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During the campaign itself, Sanders showed little interest in the Clinton email scandal, declaring in a presidential primary debate in Las Vegas, Nevada in October: “The American people are sick and exhausted of hearing about your damn emails!”.
Beyond the issues surrounding emails and Wasserman Schultz, Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, a Clinton delegate, said she expects the message at the DNC convention to be a “stark difference” from last week’s Republican National Committee convention in Cleveland in which Republicans officially nominated Donald Trump for president.
Wasserman Schultz briefly touched on the controversy while speaking Monday at a convention breakfast, where she was jeered and booed by several in the crowd. Instead, Rep. Marcia Fudge of OH was named permanent chair of the convention while DNC Vice Chair Donna Brazile will serve as interim chair through the election.
Republicans relished Democrats’ pre-convention tumult, just days after they bumped and bumbled through their convention, unsuccessfully trying to paper over their own division. As he accepted the Republican nomination, Trump said: “The legacy of Hillary Clinton is death, destruction, terrorism and weakness”. Republican campaign officials dismissed that argument. Hearing Trump demand a border wall, advocate trade wars and treat North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as obsolete, the ghost of Ronald Reagan might wonder if he had wandered into the wrong convention.
But Sanders is also expected to reiterate a full-throated endorsement of Clinton, casting the November choice in the starkest terms possible.
Sanders is due to deliver Monday’s closing address at the convention, where Hillary Clinton will receive the formal nomination for president.
The Massachusetts senator speaks Monday night in an opening lineup that also includes first lady Michelle Obama, New Jersey Sen.
It was unclear whether the resignation Sunday of party chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz would be enough to unite the party behind Hillary Clinton. Tim Kaine brings his smile and his Spanish-language chops to the race, with Clinton making a vice-presidential pick created to project both confidence and competence. “But I do know that many of us will be pushing for a few more concessions from the DNC”, said Jennifer Campoli, a Sanders delegate from Binghamton. “I understand that the party over the years, to accommodate, has moved so far to the right that we have forgotten some of our core values”.
In one of the largest rallies planned for the day, a pro-Sanders group is expected to walk across the Ben Franklin Bridge, which connects Camden, N.J., with Philadelphia. They did not succeed in passing an amendment abolishing superdelegates, but they did win a compromise deal with the Clinton camp – a “unity commission” that will review the overall procedures and will seek to limit the role of superdelegates in future elections.
“Those of us who truly are committed to the political revolution … we’re going to be working to elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump”, Rickman said.
How the emails were stolen hasn’t been confirmed, but the Clinton campaign pointed the finger at Russian hackers.
Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, declared on a morning filled with logistical nightmares for commuters and convention-goers alike that the Philadelphia convention has already been “the most professionally run, the most competent convention I have ever experienced for myself”.
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Pelosi says the matter should be “scrutinized”, and “I do think there should be some examination of what happened at the DNC and action should be taken”. Then there are Sanders’ supporters – thousands of them both inside and outside the convention hall, not all of whom are taking orders from Sanders himself.
