The eruption came during a speech in which the Vermont senator was cheered for almost every point he made – including his call to defeat GOP nominee Donald Trump.
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“Brothers and sisters, this is the real world that we live in”, Sanders said as he tried to quiet the crowd.
“Trump is a bully and a demagogue”, he said. “Trump has made bigotry and hatred the cornerstone of his campaign”.
Trump in the White House would “be so insane”, acknowledged Sanders supporter Marie Adams, 66, of Boulder, Colorado.
“What a mess they have going”, said Trump. “As we go through the process of improving our nominating process we will continue to move our party and our country forward”.
The star of the night was Obama, who delivered an unequivocal endorsement of Clinton and took a sharp swipe at Republican nominee Trump, sparking a euphoric reception.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz announced that she would take no part in the convention.
Democrats are also trying to overcome anger from Sanders supporters over leaked emails indicating staffers at the Democratic National Committee favored Clinton over Sanders.
On Friday, almost 20,000 emails and more 8,000 attachments from the DNC’s mail servers were released by WikiLeaks, the non-profit “investigative journalism” organization that is renown for publicly sharing private documents.
But the objections to Ms. Wasserman Schultz were evident, a stark contrast to the “Stronger Together” theme Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has adopted. “He says we’ve got to defeat Trump”, said Lawrence Hamm, a Sanders delegate from Montclair, New Jersey.
Sanders, comparing Trump’s stances and statements to Clinton’s record, said in remarks released before his speech, “By these measures, any objective observer will conclude that – based on her ideas and her leadership – Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States”. “We shouldn’t be honoring someone who ran such a, we now know, disreputable shop at the DNC”.
In her speech, Ms. Wasserman Schultz referenced successes of the DNC under her tenure, most notably the re-election of President Obama in 2012.
Sanders’ delegates strongly believe that Sanders is a better candidate to unite the party and beat Trump, Sanders’ delegate Jill Yordy said via a Facebook message.
After Democratic Party officials learned their systems were attacked in late April, they sought the help of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Inc., which then discovered traces of at least two sophisticated hacking groups on the Democrats’ network – both of which have ties to the Russian government.
First lady Michelle Obama stepped into the presidential election Monday with a forceful, impassioned defense of Hillary Clinton, casting her as the only candidate who can be trusted as a role model for the nation’s children. “That’s where I think the focus has got to be”. He also will note the “most progressive platform in Democratic Party history” includes agreements he reached with Clinton to expand access to health care and make public college tuition-free for students from families with annual incomes up to $125,000 a year. Branding himself a democratic socialist, Sanders galvanized young and liberal voters with his calls to rein in Wall Street and eradicate income inequality. He doesn’t think he’ll actively campaign for her, saying he isn’t excited about her. “Washington works great for those at the top”, she said.
Ralph Carmona, a Democratic delegate from Portland’s Munjoy Hill neighborhood, is a committed Clinton delegate.
It capped off a day of complaints from journalists about the DNC’s logistics in Philadelphia – particularly compared to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week. Indeed, when the convention opened Monday afternoon, Sanders delegates started chanting “Bernie!”
Sanders, who has endorsed Clinton and will speak on her behalf to the convention on Monday, said he would have preferred she pick U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of MA, a favorite of the party’s liberal wing, as her No. 2. “He is a very nice guy”, Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.
“They want us to fall in line and get behind Clinton”, said Dianne Fowler, a delegate from MI who was wearing blue tape over her mouth that read: “Silenced by the DNC”.
The cache of emails leaked on Friday by the WikiLeaks website disclosed that DNC officials explored ways to undermine Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign, including raising questions about whether Sanders, who is Jewish, was really an atheist. Efforts by Sanders’ supporters to pass amendments eliminating or limiting their power failed to win approval, but the sides agreed on a so-called “Unity Commission” to study the issue.
The Vermont senator said it was of the “utmost importance” that this be explained to the state delegations.
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For some, it was too soon to talk about party unity and supporting Clinton.
