It didn’t work. Enough supporters got in to give Sanders three-minute standing ovation, and his address endorsing Hillary Clinton for the nomination, was received with boos and jeers even as Hillary acolytes tried to drown it out with chants of “Hillary!”
Advertisement
It was among the first bits of action in the four-day long convention that is expected to culminate Thursday with Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state, accepting the Democratic Partys nomination for president.
“Any objective observer will conclude that – based on her ideas and her leadership – Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States”, Sanders said.
“We urge them to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith”, she said, a clear reference to Trump’s early demands to see President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
What does the Democratic Party stand for in this presidential election year?
The fragile truce will be tested once again Tuesday, when a roll call vote is held to formally nominate Clinton as the party’s nominee. But, notably, he remained silent about the first lady’s speech.
“I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters, two handsome and intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn”, Obama said. She is generally not trusted, and the majority of Americans tend to repeat what has now become a cliche invented by President Obama: Clinton just doesn’t have that new-car smell. But Mr Sanders’s delegates, who had been primed by the senator to continue fighting for the nomination long after Mrs Clinton appeared to have beaten him, were anything but mollified.
The endorsement by Sanders who has been a thorn in Clinton’s side over the past year ends a lengthy and awkward – period in which many were wondering if and how he would back Clinton. “Brothers and sisters!” he implored them, raising his right hand, “This is the real world we live in”.
Members of the crowd screamed back: “So is Hillary”.
“Clinton can’t beat Trump”. “Sad to watch Bernie Sanders abandon his revolution”.
“I can’t say who I’ll vote for in November, but it won’t be Hillary or Trump”, Arab says.
What was expected to be a tightly orchestrated convention, run with all the professionalism and experience that were lacking at Trump’s often-chaotic affair in OH, instead showed its rough edges in the early going, starting with chants of “Bernie” during the opening invocation and boos at numerous mentions of Clinton’s name.
“We’re all Democrats and we need to act like it”, U.S. Representative Marcia Fudge of OH, the convention’s chairwoman, shouted over the uproar.
The anti-unity delegates booed speakers, including Sanders and Sen.
“Our credibility as a movement will be damaged by booing, turning of backs, walking out or other similar displays, what the corporate media wants”.
“He’s got to remind America of what a presidency under Donald Trump would look like”, said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings.
Several speakers pleaded for peace between the Democratic factions. “That’s what democracy is about”, Sanders said in an effort to mollify his adoring flock, many of who wept openly as they heard him officially throw in the towel and back an establishment figure they hate.
Even some members of the Wisconsin delegation, which included a large number of Sanders’ supporters after his win in the April 5 primary, grew tired of the interruptions.
I was a little surprised at the Democrats’ rehearsed reaction after last week’s Republican National Convention.
Trump, never known to be at a loss for words on Twitter even if one of those words is often “sad”, weighed in during Sanders’ speech, perhaps trying to appeal to those “Bernie or Bust” people. On the eve of the convention, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a congresswoman from Florida, announced that she would step aside as the DNC’s chairwoman after the convention. (Throughout the night, some Sanders supporters shouted “war hawk” at various points when Clinton was mentioned).
Sanders gave a robust endorsement of his primary rival Monday night.
Advertisement
A CBS News Poll last month found that most voters don’t think Clinton is honest and trustworthy – although about the same percentage don’t think Trump is honest and trustworthy (62 percent for Clinton, 63 percent for Trump).
