Duluthian Rich Updegrove, a Sanders national delegate, said the senator’s speech that night – conceding the Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton – was a sort of eulogy, commemorating the life and successes of his campaign. Without any context, it might have seemed that Sanders had been speaking at the Republican National Convention – but he wasn’t. His mission: to help elect the Democrat who had run against him. Bernie Sanders wiped sweat off of his face with a handkerchief.
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“It is through our unity and engagement that we continue to tap into this awakened consciousness which has the power to transform our country for generations to come”, she said. They were acting like this was a awful loss, however, Sanders won in many ways even without the nomination itself.
Well, reality had other thoughts.
New 15,000 emails retrieved from one of Mrs. Clinton’s aides showed top Clinton’s foundation executives regularly sought special favors for themselves and their supporters from the State Department.
The former political darling now threatens to throw the presidential campaign to Trump.
Lebanon, where the official Clinton event was held, is a city where Sanders won twice as many votes as Clinton in the primary. This so called “Bernie or Bust” movement is representative of the massive privilege some in the Sanders’ camp have. A simpler, more straightforward structure-and one more in keeping with the grassroots message of Sanders’s campaign-might have been a PAC that raised only fully disclosed donations in limited amounts.
Sanders also encouraged voters to support other Democratic candidates down the ballot, before highlighting the competitive US Senate race in New Hampshire.
“What Sanders started – it isn’t even close to dying out yet”. Perhaps the prospects of a Donald Trump presidency will wither to the point where more voters than usual will go third party. Her campaign announced today she hauled in about $143 million for Hillary for America and the Democratic Party in August. But a simply not liking Clinton is no reason not to vote for her, especially when the next option is Trump. Which candidate is going to be raising the minimum wage to a livable wage?
“Brothers and sisters, we are at a momentous moment in American history”, Sanders said. The same minor disagreements arise in health care, criminal justice and Wall Street reform. But Donald Trump gets 9%, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson gets 6% and the Green Party’s Jill Stein gets 11% with this same group.
By contrast, Johnson and Sanders are supported by large numbers of citizens who consider their preferred leader among the best of the best, not the lesser of two evils. Furthermore, unlike Sanders or Clinton, she hasn’t had any experience in actually formulating policy.
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Sanders, however, stopped short of saying the foundation should be closed because he didn’t “know enough” to answer that question.
