Sanders’ delegates – particularly those from the massive California delegations – loudly booed any mention of Clinton during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.
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Demonstrators said they weren’t swayed by Sanders’ speech at the convention Monday night, in which he said: “Based on her ideas and her leadership, Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States”.
The gathered supporters filled a nearby tent for journalists in protest. Some had their mouths taped shut.
“This was not a convention”. “We were treated like lepers”.
Among the protesters were Sanders supporters and Black Lives Matter activists. They started scaling 8-foot walls that blocked off the secure zone around the arena parking lot.
After an hour, the Sanders delegates ended their sit-in and continued protesting outside.
A large contingent of police officers stood by but did not take any action to remove them. Later, someone set an Israeli flag on fire while people chanted “long live the intifada”.
Some die-hard Sanders supporters signaled going into the convention that they were hoping to persuade superdelegates to back Sanders and make an eleventh-hour bid to capture the party’s nomination.
“We all have this unrealistic dream that democracy is alive in America”, said Debra Dilks, of Boonville, Missouri, who spoke as a protest broke up near Philadelphia’s City Hall. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, whose devoted army of followers matched Clinton’s in enthusiasm and noise level during the roll call vote inside the Wells Fargo Center. College student Cory James said he expects the Democratic Party to split over the nomination.
“We believe that today’s extreme level of income and wealth inequality – where the majority of the economic gains go to the top one per cent and the richest 20 people in our country own more wealth than the bottom 150 million – makes our economy weaker, our communities poorer, and our politics poisonous”, it says.
“I give you a leader who can unite us as a nation, a leader who can break down barriers and build a better future for every American”, said Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights hero, as he helped formally place Clinton’s name in nomination for the White House.
“Green is the new blue!” shouted some of the protesters, referring to their preference to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein over Clinton.
The Sanders camp was angered when a trove of hacked emails released over the weekend showed that officials at the supposedly neutral Democratic National Committee played favorites during the primaries and worked to undermine Sanders’ campaign. “Bernie!” And they erupted when Sanders was shown on the big screens that loom above the stage. Her supporters noted that Clinton’s achievement came almost a century after women gained the right to vote in 1920. “I think it’s a close enough race that their votes could shift things”, said Al Franklin, who held a sign at the rally that read, “Hillary is flawed, but Trump is a disaster”.
She will take on Donald Trump, who won the Republican nomination a week ago.
Bill Clinton on Tuesday cast his wife as a “change maker” who is “uniquely qualified” to confront America’s challenges, and sought to undercut one of Republicans’ chief critiques of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy: that her tenure as secretary of state unleashed chaos on the world.
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In a bit of stagecraft to promote the image of Democratic harmony, an announcement of the tally was delayed until Vermont – which passed on its turn in the alphabetical order – concluded the roll call by casting 22 of its 26 votes for Sanders.
