On Tuesday night, Bernie Sanders gave a speech that was simultaneously defiant and conciliatory: The Vermont senator refused to concede defeat while subtly reframing his campaign as a crusade for the Democratic platform, rather than the party's nomination. After meeting with President Obama on Thursday, that reframing became less subtle.
Sanders began his post-meeting remarks by thanking President Obama for maintaining neutrality throughout the Democratic primary. This was a significant gesture, ostensibly aimed at quieting Sandersnistas' concerns that the president planned to coerce their candidate to drop out. The senator then reiterated his movement's commitment to opposing "the drift towards an oligarchic form of society where a handful of billionaires exercise enormous power over our political, economic, and media life," and reviewed the policies that would spare us from this second Gilded Age.
"These are the issues that we will take to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia at the end of July," Sanders declared.
The issues they will take — not the candidacy. Sanders continued to recast his campaign as a crusade for causes rather than a nomination when explaining his decision to contest next week's Washington, D.C., primary.
"The major point that I will be making to the citizens of the District of Colombia is that I am strongly in favor of D.C. statehood," Sanders said. "The state of Vermont, which I represent, has about the same number of residents that Washington, D.C., has, except we have two United States senators and one Congressman with full rights, while D.C. does not."
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"I will do everything in my power and I will work as hard as I can to make sure Donald Trump does not become president of the United States," Sanders said. He then concluded his remarks by saying of his party's presumptive nominee, "I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government that works for all of us and not just the one percent."
Bernie Sanders thundered through his stump speech at a campaign rally on Thursday, never once mentioning to the thousands who gathered to see him that his campaign is likely winding down.
Speaking to about 2,000 supporters outside of RFK stadium on a cool evening on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., Sanders did not once mention rival Hillary Clinton or fighting her for the support of superdelegates at a contested Democratic convention.
Instead, Sanders hewed closely to his stump speech, ticking through the litany of progressive issues that have long been the cornerstone of his surprising insurgent campaign.
“This is the United States of America, where in the last 25 years we’ve seen the middle class shrink and shrink and shrink while almost all new wealth goes to the people on top,” Sanders said. “That’s not what this country is about, and together we are going to change that.”
The singular focus on the issues was a shift for Sanders, who as recently as Tuesday was vowing to fight to the bitter end for the Democratic nomination.
The rally – which might be his last as a presidential candidate — closed out a busy day for Sanders that could presage his exit from the Democratic presidential race.
While top Democratic officials on Thursday flocked to endorse presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton, supporters of Bernie Sanders flocked to the lot outside RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., to see their candidate speak for what could be one of the last times before his underdog run comes to an end.
The city’s Democrats vote Tuesday, in the final contest of the primary season.
“I’m here because I want to see the man in person,” said Alexander Hinman, a 27-year-old Sanders supporter from D.C. “The movement itself lasts beyond the actual rally today. This is me having a more personal interaction with the political process.”
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“I think Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person to ever run for president in history,” said D.C. resident Julie Sweetland, who was dressed head to toe in Sanders apparel. “But I really want to see a more progressive direction.”
Chants of “Thank you, Bernie” erupted from the crowd when the Vermont senator took the stage. Mr. Sanders gave his standard stump speech that touched heavily on issues of income inequality and criminal justice reform, but didn’t address the day’s events or Mrs. Clinton’s impending nomination.
The candidate did acknowledge how far his campaign had come, saying, “Here we are in mid-June and we’re still slamming.”
For progressives feeling Berned out by the 2016 campaign, there’s a new site to help them get back on their feet.
Revolution Messaging, the digital firm of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, has launched a website connecting out-of-work progressives with job opportunities.
“Progressive.Work gives us a way to more efficiently and effectively play matchmaker between progressive professionals and progressive campaigns and organizations that would benefit from their experience,” said Gabe Hammersmith, who leads Revolution Messaging’s tech team. “While inspired by our desire to help our friends coming off the Sanders campaign, Progressive.Work is built to be a permanent solution that we hope will help progressives well beyond 2016.”
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Sanders planned to lay off at least half his campaign staff in the coming days. Hillary Clinton now has enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination, but Sanders has vowed to stay in the race and plans to be in Washington, D.C. for a rally and a meeting with President Barack Obama Thursday.
The site is an effort to ensure the momentum from the Sanders campaign lives on in the progressive movement beyond this one cycle. Hammersmith emphasized that the site was a labor of love and not commissioned by any client.
“For those whose work on progressive primary campaigns has come to an end, we wanted to let them know we have your back and the political revolution still needs you. We need to connect these talented campaigners with other progressive causes to keep the forward momentum,” said Keegan Goudiss, partner at Revolution Messaging and digital advertising director for the Sanders campaign.
What does he want?
In a word, influence. Mr. Sanders sees himself as not only a candidate but the leader of a political movement. To advance that movement, he wants to see his views reflected in the party’s official platform and at the convention. That could mean stronger platform language on the regulation of big banks, or a plank demanding free public college. Mr. Sanders is also seeking changes to the Democratic primary rules, including the abolition of superdelegates — though in the short term he wants their support — and the expansion of “open” primaries in which non-Democrats can vote for Democratic candidates. And he wants to boot two Clinton supporters, the former congressman Barney Frank and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut, from their convention committee chairmanships over past criticisms of him.
Like past runners-up, Mr. Sanders will want a prime-time speaking slot at the convention itself, as well as prominent speaking opportunities for some of his supporters. He may wish to have some of his aides installed on Mrs. Clinton’s campaign or on the Democratic National Committee. It is likely that he would want to be consulted on Mrs. Clinton’s choice for a running mate. (Chances are low that she would pick Mr. Sanders himself, but that is what negotiations are for.)
He may even seek a full roll-call vote, in which his hundreds of delegates would seek to nominate him from the floor in Mrs. Clinton’s place.
But he lost. Why would Democrats give him anything?
Because of what he can give them: a vast list of potential supporters whom Mrs. Clinton and other Democrats could mine for votes and money. Young Democrats, in particular, have been drawn to Mr. Sanders this election cycle. His supporters are particularly important to Mrs. Clinton. Recent surveys suggest that anywhere from half to almost three-quarters of those in favor of Mr. Sanders are willing to vote for Mrs. Clinton. She does not need all of them to win the White House. But the more Sanders supporters she can persuade to come to her side, the better her chances will be against Donald J. Trump.
One day after defiantly telling thousands of supporters in Santa Monica that “the struggle continues,” Bernie Sanders flew with his family and several staffers to his hometown of Burlington, Vermont. There Sanders held meetings with several top advisors and “came to some decisions,” according to Tad Devine, one of the senior advisors Sanders met with Wednesday.
“He wants the Democratic party to embrace many of the issues that he has talked about, because he has seen the impact of many of those issues on voters and believes the best way for Democrats to win up and down the ballot is to talk about those issues and to take positions on them the way he did,” Devine said.
At the time of his interview with Bloomberg Thursday afternoon, Devine hadn't spoken to Sanders since his meetings with President Obama, New York Senator Charles Schumer, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in Washingon. While Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton in a videotaped message released after his meeting with Sanders Thursday, liberal ally Elizabeth Warren planned to roll out her endorsement of Sanders' rival later in the day.
“We had an opportunity to talk about the state of the campaign, about the path forward,” Devine said of Wednesday's meeting with Sanders. “I guess we’ll wait and see how everything goes today because he’s in the midst of a lot of very important meetings today.” Devine said he expects Sanders will reconvene with his advisors after Thursday's meetings and reassess their options.
What Sanders is less interested in, Devine said, is what his specific title will be, despite speculation that Sanders wants to be considered as vice president or potentially become the chair of the Budget committee if Democrats retake the Senate.
“That kind of discussion about positions and things of that nature, I don’t really see that at all,” Devine said.
Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and wife of Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, said Bernie Sanders called Brown Wednesday to deny a Politico story that suggested Sanders felt betrayed by Brown and other progressive senators.
On Facebook, Schultz added: "Bernie always gives the best hugs." She said she didn't fault Politico for the story, and said she didn't doubt that some "embittered staffer" made those comments. "I just don't believe he or she speaks for Bernie," she wrote.
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"Aides say Sanders thinks that progressives who picked Clinton are cynical, power-chasing chickens — like Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of his most consistent allies in the Senate before endorsing Clinton and campaigning hard for her ahead of the Ohio primary," the Politico story notes. "Sanders is so bitter about it that he’d be ready to nix Brown as an acceptable VP choice, if Clinton ever asked his advice on who’d be a good progressive champion."
Brown shrugged off the "power-chasing chicken" slight as normal bitter residue left at the end of a brutal campaign.
"People are always angry at the end of campaigns when they don’t win," Brown told Ohio reporters on Wednesday. "And I assume that staff people are saying things that Bernie probably didn’t say or didn’t necessarily agree with, so I don’t really put much stock in it
Brown said he and Sanders have a good relationship, and it hasn't been frayed by the presidential primary. "I’ve spoken with him from time to time during this presidential race," Brown said, "always in a positive way--just checked in 'How you doing? It’s amazing what’s happened with you and this race.' And we kind of laugh about that."
Bernie Sanders’ vow to “fight on” to the Democratic National Convention next month in Philadelphia despite his apparent loss of the presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton is not “unprecedented,” a word we in the media use too much.
Nearly 30 years ago, Jesse Jackson campaigned all the way to the 1988 Democratic Convention in Atlanta even though he had mathematically lost the nomination fight to then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis more than a month earlier. Jackson called his marathon crusade the “endless campaign” and used it to squeeze concessions from Dukakis that gave the civil rights leader, his issues and his followers a larger role in the Democratic nominee’s fall campaign.
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Jackson, recalling those days, had high praise for Sanders last month in a Huffington Post podcast, “Candidate Confessional.”
“In many ways, Bernie is running the Jackson campaign,” Jackson said, “with much more money and today’s technology and much more coverage in so many ways. As we sought to broaden the base, many whites would support us but were afraid to face other whites — these cultural walls and fears. Bernie supported us in ’84 and ’88.”
And now Sanders is apparently stealing a page from the Jackson playbook to gain more leverage for his issues. Just as Jackson pushed Dukakis to embrace his priorities in 1988, Sanders is seeking support from Clinton for higher taxes on the wealthy, reductions in defense spending, a clamp-down on Wall Street, campaign funding limits, expansion of safety-net programs such as Social Security, and free college education.
The California race also compelled Sanders to seek a different coalition of voters. Across the country, Sanders convincingly won the whitest states (Idaho, West Virginia, Vermont) and generally lost the more diverse ones. But when he spoke in California, before the primary, it was often hard to find a white face on the risers behind him. His stump speech evolved, too, so that his account of a billionaire class that oppressed everyone was complicated by acknowledgments of the specific oppressions endured by minorities, not all of them at the hands of the rich. Sanders now quickly moved from his riff on the corruption of the campaign-finance system to an account of the racial discrimination built into the criminal-justice system.
That was part of a broader adjustment, in which the senator spoke less about the structure of Washington and more about the experience of Americans. Sanders found some resonance in describing the persecutions of Native Americans (“lied to,” “cheated,” “the treaties that they signed were abrogated”) and in crediting them, and not just the mostly white modern environmental movement, with the “profound understanding” that we are “part of nature.” The Washington Post’s David Weigel saw Sanders give a moving account, at a forum, in Palo Alto, for Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, of a scene he’d witnessed in Friendship Park, in San Diego and Tijuana. A high fence, running into the Pacific Ocean, marks the border and separates the two sides of the park. “Because of the nature of the screen—which is very, very tight—the only physical contact that husbands and wives and children can have is literally putting their pinkies through their fence,” Sanders said. Weigel wrote, “Gone are the days when, in sync with some labor leaders, he said that only people such as David and Charles Koch wanted ‘open borders.’ ” The striking thing is how recently those days were—just a few months ago. The experience of the national campaign made Sanders’s democratic socialism more fully American.
A little more than a year ago, Bhaskar Sunkara, the young editor of the left-wing Jacobin magazine, wrote an essay trying to make sense of Sanders’s socialism, and to understand where it broke with liberalism. The senator’s preferred policy solutions, Sunkara noticed, are “not too far out of step” with those of his most liberal Senate colleagues, like Elizabeth Warren, among others. “For Sanders,” Sunkara wrote, “the socialist mantle is more than anything a nod to America’s rich history of radicals and reformers, those largely erased from the story of national progress by forces of conservatism at home and the Cold War abroad.” More than a set of policy positions, it was a callback to a specific cultural tradition.
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The stories that are already being told about the Sanders campaign are about young people for whom socialism is now a source of inspiration rather than fear, and about the Democratic Party, which Sanders has raged against for decades, now coming to the left to meet him.
But another project seemed to emerge in Sanders’s California tour, one that will also outlast his campaign: the marriage of democratic socialism with the American experience. He stopped talking so much about the Nordic ideal; he became more finely attuned to what was exceptional, for good and bad, about this place. Sanders’s own evolution made you wonder what might have happened if the campaign had reached California earlier. The most obvious casualties of the Presidential-primary calendar, with its early emphasis on very white states (Iowa, New Hampshire), are candidates whose appeal is strongest among minority voters. But it is also not hard to see how those places limited Sanders at the same time that they propelled him, and to wonder what exactly his campaign might have looked like if he had not spent its formative days in icy, ethnically homogeneous small cities, conjuring dreams of Copenhagen.