Bernie Sanders told his supporters ‘we have got to elect’ Hillary Clinton. The reaction was, well, mixed.
As anti-Hillary Clinton protests at the Democratic National Convention dwarfed the demonstrations seen last week at the GOP convention, Bernie Sanders pleaded to his supporters Monday to follow his lead and back the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
The crowd, a mix of Sanders delegates and supporters, were less than receptive.
“Right now, we have got to defeat Donald Trump,” the Vermont senator said to cheers from the crowd at the pre-convention delegate summit Monday afternoon in Philadelphia.
“And we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine,” he said.
The applause quickly turned to boos and jeers, forcing Sanders to halt his speech. Politico captured the scene on video.
The crowd reacts to @BernieSanders saying: “We have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine” pic.twitter.com/7v3puhTdLM
— POLITICO (@politico) July 25, 2016
The boos continued as Sanders worked to speak over the crowd.
“Brothers and sisters, this is the real world which we live in,” he said. “Trump is a bully and a demagogue. Trump has made bigotry and hatred the cornerstone of his campaign.”
Chants of “We want Bernie” soon broke out in the crowd, again forcing Sanders to pause his speech. After more than a minute of chants, Sanders went on to finish his speech, thanking his supporters and doubling down on the importance of defeating Trump and right-wing ideology.
“From today onward, we continue the fight,” he said.
As highlighted during Sanders’s afternoon speech, many of his supporters are not sold on supporting Clinton, who they see as insufficiently progressive.
Despite Sanders’s endorsement and pledge to campaign on Clinton’s behalf earlier this month, The New York Times reported Sunday that more than 1,000 people from across the country took to the streets of Philadelphia before the four-day convention to express their displeasure with the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Nevertheless, polls show a significant majority of Sanders supporters say they will support Clinton come the November election. Lesley Phillips, a Sanders delegate from Cambridge, told State House News Service she was in Philadelphia to support Sanders, but was ready to vote for Clinton come fall.
“Friday morning I’m out there ready to campaign for the nominee of this party,” she said.
Sanders is slated to address the larger convention hall during a prime-time speech Monday night in the Wells Fargo Center.
In an email to supporters Monday afternoon, Sanders touted the work by his “political revolution” to pass “the most progressive platform…in the history of the party” and highlighted their influence on Clinton’s policies.
“What we have accomplished so far is nothing short of astonishing,” Sanders said.
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