Sanders Delegation Plotting to Shake Up Democratic Convention
V.P. protests, amendment fights, interrupting Hillary.
Different camps inside Bernie Sanders’ 1,900-member delegation to the Democratic National Convention next week are anticipating varying degrees of protests—some telegraphing their intentions now, others planning in secret—if Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party does not make additional major concessions. These protests go beyond high-profile public announcements in recent days, such as scholar and activist Cornell West, who was appointed to the Platform Committee at Sanders’ request, announcing that he would be supporting Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee in November. On Saturday, a group called the Bernie Delegates Network announced that more than 250 Sanders delegates had responded to its poll about the acceptability of six possible centrist vice presidential picks: Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA; HUD Secretary Julian Castro; Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA; Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ; Admiral James Stavridis and Admiral Mike Mullen. All were overwhelming rejected, with a majority of respondents saying they would “seriously consider” publicly denouncing a centrist v.p. pick and/or “nonviolently and emphatically protesting in the convention hall during Clinton’s acceptance speech.”
