Fanned by almost 100-degree heat, tensions ran high during the first day of the Democratic National Convention as Bernie Sanders supporters booed Hillary Clinton at an event created to promote her candidacy.
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Meanwhile, inside the convention, Hillary Clinton and John Podesta-her campaign chair-were booed as Sanders delegates plot an effort to remove Kaine as the vice presidential candidate and install, against Clinton’s will, someone more progressive and less establishment.
Democratic Party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned over the weekend after Sanders’ campaign pounced on a number of leaked emails that they said showed that party officials had favored Clinton during the primaries. I’m here for The Daily Item contributing some daily thoughts and a diary of my experiences as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
“This election and every election is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives”, she said.
“I have no doubt that she is the leader we need at this time to keep our country safe, and I trust her with that most sacred responsibility of commander in chief”.
Sanders will address the full convention Monday night.
“Bernie Sanders has lit a match, started this movement, and part of it has-no pun intended-burned out of his control”, NBC News’s Kasie Hunt told Williams moments after he brushed the weather off as nothing important. As he demanded Wasserman Schultz’s resignation, Sanders made clear he wants to see Clinton win the White House.
Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, tried to shift blame for the email hack away from DNC officials and onto “Russian state actors” who, he said, may have breached DNC computers “for the goal of helping Donald Trump”, the Republican presidential nominee.
From the podium, however, some of Sanders’ allies noted their progress in influencing the party’s platform and moving to reduce the influence of superdelegates, party leaders and elected officials who help decide the nomination. Graphiq politics site InsideGov examines the Democratic National Convention and highlights the key facts and figures behind this year’s event. Sanders’ supporters believe Kaine is not liberal enough. Chants of “Bernie” echoed through the arena as the convention opened, and boos could be heard at times when Clinton’s name was raised.
Sanders has sent out text messages and emails asking his supporters “as a personal courtesy” to him to “not engage in any kind of protest on the floor”.
Still, Sanders delegate Courtney Rowe, 34, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said “we are not here to disrupt for the objective of disruption”. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., holds up a sign call calling for Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee to be fired, Sunday, July 24, 2016, in Philadelphia.
DNC Vice Chair Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic strategist who will lead the party on an interim basis after the convention, warned more leaked emails, and more apologies, could be coming. The drama played out on an oppressively hot day in Philadelphia that gave way to violent storms in the evening that included torrential rain, lightening and high winds that forced the evacuation of the media filing center. But Sanders’ aides reached out to the Clinton campaign Monday afternoon to express concerns that supporters would still try to disrupt the proceedings, according to a Democratic official.
Nevertheless, Sanders has lost a battle on his top priority: opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade deal involving the United States and 11 other nations.
As one speaker was imploring party unity from the dais, Kim Netherton, 31, a Sanders delegate from Colorado yelled out “Bulls-t!”
“What Bernie (Sanders) is doing is masterful, because what he is saying to the world is ‘We should all support Hillary, but I’m not giving up the revolution, ‘” Jacobs said. They accused Russian Federation of trying to meddle in the US election and favoring GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Sanders said he agreed.
“You look at Trump and realize he’s the ultimate. false flag, ” he said. But, she added, Trump is “actually less of a threat to democracy than Hillary”.
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“On behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and honest apology to Sen. These comments do not reflect the values of the DNC or our steadfast commitment to neutrality during the nominating process”. The DNC does not – and will not – tolerate disrespectful language exhibited toward our candidates.
