Sanders loyalists bash Clinton nomination, clash with police
A protester climbs over the fence near the AT&T Station in Philadelphia Tuesday during the second day of the Democratic National Convention.
Former President Bill Clinton speaks during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
PHILADELPHIA – Bernie Sanders loyalists protested inside and outside the Democratic National Convention site and clashed with police Tuesday after Hillary Clinton won the party’s presidential nomination.
Despite Sanders’ calls for them to support Clinton, thousands of activists took to the streets during the convention this week to voice support for the liberal Vermont U.S. senator and his progressive agenda.
Moments after Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party, a large group of Sanders delegates and supporters exited the Philadelphia convention site to hold a sit-in inside a media tent. Some had their mouths taped shut. A few spontaneously sang the chorus of the folk song “This Land is Your Land,” and a banner read “we the people.” They said they were holding a peaceful protest to complain about being shut out by the Democratic Party.
“This was not a convention. This was a four-day Hillary party. And we weren’t welcome,” said Liz Maratea, a New Jersey delegate at the media tent protest. “We were treated like lepers.”
In the streets outside, Sanders supporters who had spent the day protesting began facing off with police. Protesters began scaling 8-foot walls blocking off the secure zone around the arena parking lot, and several were detained. An officer sprayed one of the protesters.
The protests continued into the night with Sanders supporters and anti-police brutality protesters joining together. They marched in the street outside of the Wells Fargo Center. Later, someone set an Israeli flag on fire while people chanted “long live the intifada.”
Unmoved by Sanders’ plea for party unity, the Bernie or Bust protesters walked miles in the stifling heat again Tuesday to make their case for him. They held a midday rally at City Hall, then made their way down Broad Street to the convention site. By early evening, a large crowd formed outside the subway station closest to the arena.
“We all have this unrealistic dream that democracy is alive in America,” said Debra Dilks, of Boonville, Mo., who said she wasn’t sure she’ll vote in November. “Hillary didn’t get the nomination. The nomination was stolen.”
The crowd consisted of an assortment of protesters espousing a variety of causes, but mostly Sanders supporters and other Clinton foes on the left. College student Cory James said he expects the Democratic Party to split over the nomination.
“I suspect we are witnessing an event that will fundamentally change American politics,” said James, of Flint, Mich.
Earlier in the day, participants at the rally charged Sanders was cheated out of the nomination, and they said they weren’t swayed by his Monday plea to his supporters to fall in line behind Clinton for the good of the country.
“He persuaded no one to vote for Hillary,” said Greg Gregg, a retired nurse from Salem, Ore., who intends to cast his ballot in November for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
The longstanding bitterness between Sanders’ supporters and Clinton’s seemed to grow worse over the past few days after a trove of hacked emails showed officials at the Democratic National Committee played favorites during the primaries and worked to undermine Sanders’ campaign.
To cap the night, former President Bill Clinton spoke to the convention crowd. Clinton opened his address to the Democratic National Committee with a simple story: “I met a girl.”
He described how he met Hillary Clinton as a law student at Yale University in 1971.
Bill Clinton told the thousands of delegates at Wells Fargo Center about the first time they first time they met.
Hillary Clinton walked up to him and told him that if he was going to stare at her, she ought to know his name.
Clinton said he finally asked her to walk to an art museum.
He said, “We’ve been walking and talking and laughing together ever since.”