PHILADELPHIA – Democrats tried to turn
their attention Monday night from an email scandal that claimed their
party chairwoman and sent Bernie Sanders supporters into near rebellion
with a scorching attack on Donald Trump that ranged from unnamed
references by Michelle Obama to in-your-face attacks by Elizabeth Warren
and Sanders himself.
The Vermont senator blasted Trump as a candidate who "insults" minorities and "divides us up."
“Based on her ideas and her leadership, Hillary
Clinton must become the next president of the United States,” the
Vermont senator told the rowdy and emotional convention crowd, with many
of his supporters visibly crying during his remarks and chanting his
name.
Sanders appealed to supporters Monday night to get
behind Clinton, as he tried to restore order at the Democratic
convention after a chaotic opening day marked by intense street protests
and near-constant disruptions inside the arena from delegates and
others loyal to him.
Sanders suddenly found himself in the role of helping
the Democratic Party whose establishment had shunned him for much of
the primary race. But he now is virtually their only hope for easing the
tensions at the Philadelphia convention, where delegates are poised to
crown Clinton as the party’s presidential nominee on Tuesday.
“I understand that many people here in this
convention hall and around the country are disappointed about the final
results of the nominating process. I think it’s fair to say that no one
is more disappointed than I am,” he told delegates. “But to all of our
supporters – here and around the country – I hope you take enormous
pride in the historical accomplishments we have achieved.”
Sanders argued that, despite his differences with
Clinton during the primary campaign, her views are far more in line with
his than are Republican nominee Trump’s – on issues ranging from the
minimum wage to climate change to college tuition costs.
“It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree
on a number of issues,” he said. But Sanders said they have come
together on some of them, and his side was able to win major changes to
the party platform.
“Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president
and I am proud to stand with her tonight,” Sanders said, though some in
the audience still booed at Clinton’s name.
Trump, tweeting from the sidelines, fired back:
Sanders was joined by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth
Warren in appealing to the left wing of the party to unite behind
Clinton. First lady Michelle Obama, too, worked to ease the tensions in
the convention hall in an earlier speech that at times seemed to rally
the divided crowd.
“America faces a choice,” Warren said. “We’re here today because our choice is Hillary Clinton. I’m with Hillary.”
She called Trump a "man who inherited a fortune from his father” and cares only for himself.
"Donald Trump has no real plans for jobs, for
college kids, for seniors. No plans to make anything great for anyone
except rich guys like Donald Trump."
The liberal icon, who spoke right before Sanders,
still faced small pockets of unrest as she delivered a full-throated
Clinton endorsement, with some people chanting “we trusted you” over her
remarks. But Warren called Clinton “a woman who fights for all of us.”
Together, the two speakers had an opportunity to tamp
down the unrest among liberal activists, many of whom not only backed
Sanders during the turbulent primary battle but wanted to either see
Warren step into the ring or be tapped for running mate. Whether their
words can now help calm the storm inside and outside the convention hall
remains to be seen.
Sanders’ speech could help. “It was a very unifying
message, the essence of unity,” Kit Andrews, a Vermont alternate
delegate and Sanders supporter, told FoxNews.com. “It’s a long process
to bring people together. He has always said that.”
Sanders and Warren, along with Michelle Obama and
Clinton booster New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, addressed the convention at
the close of a noisy and boisterous Monday session. From the very
start, Sanders supporters booed and jeered convention officials as they
tried to gavel in.
Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, who was presiding, scolded the protesters as they interrupted at the very mention of Clinton.
“We are all Democrats, and we need to act like it,” she said.
Michelle Obama, speaking hours and countless
disruptions later, seemed to draw a more positive response, eliciting
applause during her lines on Clinton.
“I’m with her,” Obama declared, asking Democrats to
do for the former secretary of state what they did for her husband – and
turn out to the polls.
“Between now and November, we need to do what we did
eight years ago and four years ago. … We need to get out every vote!”
she said. “Let’s get to work.”
The audience remained visibly divided during her
remarks, however, with one man being shushed for saying, “We love you,
Michelle.”
Obama didn't leave the stage without taking a veiled
shot at Trump. She warned that the White House couldn't be in the hands
of someone with a "thin skin or tendency to lash out or someone who
tells voters the country could be great again.
Booker, who had been considered for running mate
before the job went to Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, earlier blasted
Republican nominee Donald Trump while touting Clinton’s support for a
“fair wage” and “debt-free college” – and trying to connect her ideals
to Sanders’.
“It represents the best of our values, the best of
our history and the best of our party -- all of our shared ideas and
values together,” Booker said.
Several celebrities including comedian Sarah
Silverman and actress Eva Longoria also rallied to Clinton’s defense –
with Silverman even taking on the Sanders crowd, saying, “Bernie or bust
people, you’re being ridiculous.”
Even before the disruptions in the arena, the
convention had kicked off Monday under a cloud of controversy -- after
the leak of emails indicating an anti-Bernie Sanders bias inside the DNC
forced the resignation of Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
She had been expected to open the convention anyway,
but after facing continued backlash from Sanders supporters Monday
morning was replaced in that role by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie
Rawlings-Blake.
Anti-Clinton sentiment, however, continued to run
high inside and outside the convention site, as pro-Sanders and other
demonstrators marched from Camden to downtown Philadelphia and
ultimately toward the arena – all while the convention was gaveling in.
Inside the hall, Sanders supporters jeered Democratic officials trying
to move the proceedings along.
The developments added up to a far more chaotic start
than at the Republicans’ convention a week ago in Cleveland. Trump,
from the sidelines, stoked the unrest inside the Democratic ranks by
tweeting about how Bernie Sanders had been mistreated by the party.
He tweeted before the convention start: “The
Democrats are in a total meltdown but the biased media will say how
great they are doing! E-mails say the rigged system is alive &
well!”
