Democratic Senators Threaten to Punish Bernie Sanders

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Bernie Sanders has proven he can fill a stadium with adoring fans, but Democrats say he risks being ostracized by members of his own party when he returns to the Senate unless he can reign in his supporters soon.

While Sanders’s young and energetic base is something the Democratic Party desperately wants to coopt in the general election, senior Democrats want Vermont’s junior senator to harness that anger and point it at Donald Trump. Anything less, they say, and Sanders risks coming back to the Senate alienated from his colleagues.

The violence that erupted at the Democratic convention in Nevada last weekend, with chairs being thrown, followed up by threats of violence and vulgar, sexist insults being hurled at Democratic leaders by ardent Sanders supporters, was a wake-up call for many in the Democratic Party.

California Sen. Barbara Boxer was at the mic for Hillary Clinton when the now infamous convention erupted. She’s a four term senator, who defeated former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in her last reelection, so she’s not Pollyannaish. Still, she says when she talked to Sanders on Tuesday she told him to never let his supporters do that again.

“I told him that what happened to me was very alarming, disturbing and that he needed to really get control of the situation,” Sen. Boxer told The Daily Beast. “He said he was distressed about it and expressed chagrin about it.”

Later, when Sanders sent out a press release on the affair, he doubled down, accusing the Nevada Democratic Party of being in the pro-Hillary camp. Democrats in the Senate didn’t like the sound of that, because they think it’s time for the party to heal, not throw more blows.

“I don’t think it strengthens democracy or it reflects well on the Democratic Party for us to stoop to the level of Mr. Trump who has made this presidential campaign in his party all about needlessly, personal attacks,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE).

Continue to Full Story at The Daily Beast

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