PHILADELPHIA–Two Sanders delegates slammed both Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee Sunday during a press conference and claimed that Bernie Sanders delegates may walkout, turn their backs, or remain seated during Hillary Clinton’s and Tim Kaine’s presidential and vice presidential acceptance speeches.
“There’s talk about walking out of the Vice Presidential, Presidential acceptance speech. There’s talk about total silence, remaining seated, turning backs,” Sanders delegate Norman Solomon told reporters.
“The Progressive Democrats of America have no intention of standing down at this point. We brought Bernie Sanders to this to this party, so to speak and we intend to be there, ” said Sanders delegate Donna Martin.
The Kaine pick, along with the recent DNC e-mail leaks that showed messages detailing how the party favored Clinton over Sanders, has frustrated Sanders’ supporters. Additionally, Sanders’ supporters became disappointed with the DNC’s handling of the Rules Committee meeting on Saturday, where Sanders’ rules committee delegates hoped to abolish the party superdelegate that favored Clinton this election cycle.
“And you know… that… and that was not a good showing, not a good start yesterday in terms of how they handled the rules committee. So will we have actions on the floor? I think there probably will be some.”
“One of the many, many reasons but I think it’s among the profoundly largest and most widespread reasons that Bernie delegates here and reflecting supporters around the country are so upset about the Kaine pick is not only that it’s the one thing that Hillary Clinton cannot go back on later on, she’s locked into her pick,” said Solomon. He added, “But also that we believe, from what we understand on the ground, coming from all over this country is that the selection of Kaine will make defeating Donald Trump that much more difficult.”
Solomon also told reporters the DNC made Sanders supporters feel unwelcome and questioned why the organization would go out of its way to push out some of its most active voters.
“Um, what kind of message is that, after all well above 45 percent of democratic primary voters went for Bernie. What’s the message here, uh we want you in the party, don’t let the door hit you on the way out, is that the message? We want you in the party, we want you in the room but here’s your hat what’s your hurry, what’s is this message coming from the party, the top of the party?”