Protesters yell during a demonstration in downtown on Sunday, July 24, 2016, in Philadelphia. Bernie Sanders is not the party’s nominee. However, controversies and protest were well expected in the Republican Convention and compared to that everyone would have thought that the Democratic convention, which is scheduled from July 25th to July 28th, would be a peaceful one.
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(AP Photo/John Minchillo). Supporters of Sen.
“We’ve got to challenge the corporate power in the Democratic Party represented by Hillary Clinton today”, Solomon said.
In one of the largest rallies planned for the day, a pro-Bernie Sanders group is expected to walk across the Ben Franklin Bridge, which connects Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
Sanders endorsed Clinton on July 12 and – in negotiations with her campaign – managed to get her to include in the party platform issues such as abolishing the death penalty, increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour and expanding the Social Security program by raising taxes on people earning more than $250,000 per year. “We are not okay with the Democratic establishment continuing to disenfranchise us and then ask for our votes”.
Following Sunday’s news, however, Clinton responded with a statement thanking her “longtime friend” for her service to the party and, seemingly without irony, announced that Wasserman Schultz would now serve as her campaign’s honorary chair.
The Democrats had been trying to avoid the divide that was apparent in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention last week.
Efforts to promote party togetherness were not helped by the publication last week of thousands of hacked emails, some of which suggested the DNC was favoring Clinton during the primary season.
Bernie Sanders responded to the comments, saying, “Tim Kaine is 100 times better than Donald Trump will ever be”. Obama said of Silva in 2014, a message that, almost two years later, will likely be emphasized throughout the four-day convention in Philadelphia.
Wasserman Schultz’s announcement came after Sanders on Sunday repeated calls for her to go, with her leadership already under fire and impartiality called into question by the leaks. They held anti-fracking and anti-pipeline signs, some with illustrations like a train surrounded by a fireball and the words “No Exploding Trains”.
Volunteers will be handing out water all week to demonstrators as the region copes with an oppressive heat wave. Most protests during the RNC were concentrated in a tight, 1.7-square mile zone downtown.
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“I know that electing Hillary Clinton as our next president is critical for America’s future”.
