The defiant mood of the remarks at the National Press Club in Washington follow a strong weekend for Sanders.
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The Clinton campaign has responded to the accusations, saying they raised closer to $46 million and roughly $4.5 million already has been transferred to state parties, with an additional $9 million to be distributed in the coming months as state parties prepare for the general election.
The superdelegates are not elected to their roles for the Democratic National Convention, but they do frequently hold elected office – as mayors, governors, and other key positions in the Democratic Party.
However, where it gets absolutely ridiculous is with the superdelegates – where roughly 93% of them have pledged to support Hillary Clinton – no matter how their state voted.
Clinton is using a substantial amount of her time on the stump to go after Trump, whether on his claims that she’s playing the “woman card” to win votes or chiding him for stirring up the discontent that leads to violent protests at his events. So Sanders is banking on hundreds of superdelegates to change their public support from Clinton to him. She is way way way further ahead of Senator Sanders than Barack Obama was in 2008, and Senator Sanders promised yesterday that he is never the less going to contest that nomination.
Clinton’s campaign, for the first time in 2016, out-raised rival Sander’s campaign last month, according to their self-reported fundraising numbers.
“In states where either candidate has won a landslide victory, those superdelegates ought to seriously reflect on whether they should cast their vote in line with the wishes of the people in their states”, he implored. “I don’t think she’ll play it well at all”. “But, in the same way that she still has a lead in pledged delegates because of proportional distribution, she has a lead with superdelegates, too”. Clinton said later she was mistaken and that she’s committed to coalfield communities.
One year ago, Sanders remembered, “We had no political organization, no money, no name recognition outside of Vermont”.
But even prior to Sanders’ address, there was evidence that some of his boosters felt uncomfortable with the superdelegate strategy. “It makes it hard for insurgent candidacies like ours to win”, he said. If so, “all of these things are factors to take into consideration”, he said. That’s the day of the IN primary, where polls show her maintaining a single-digit lead over U.S. Sen.
Bernie Sanders has won 17 states plus Democrats overseas.
“That is admittedly, and I do not deny it for a second, a tough road to climb, but it is not an impossible road to climb and we intend to fight for every vote in front of us and every delegate remaining”, Sanders told reporters.
But in terms of pledged delegates, the race is not as muddled. He would require him to win 65% of those 1,083 in remaining states to have a chance.
No one on the Sanders campaign is pollyannaish about the size of that task. He would have to rely on superdelegates.
Clinton is campaigning in Kentucky and West Virginia on Monday.
“In other words, the convention will be a contested convention”, Sanders said. “Shouldn’t those superdelegates take into consideration a totality of the circumstances?”
Still, in one sense, this is an important concession from Devine.
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“You know what those polls show?”
