Sen. Bernie Sanders took the stage as the last speaker of the night Monday at the Democratic National Convention, capping a hard-fought primary and urging supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton, despite many being angry over the outcome.
“Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States,” Sanders told the crowd in Philadelphia.
His speech came after his supporters booed several of the first speakers of the evening, and he addressed that anger early in his speech.
This came as Democratic Party leaders scrambled on Monday night to rescue their convention from political bedlam as supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders erupted in boos, jeers and protests against Hillary Clinton after an email leak showed that party officials had sought to undermine Mr. Sanders in their race for the nomination.
Convention organizers shifted Mr. Sanders to a more prominent speaking slot in hopes that he would soothe his most ardent backers. Those supporters have become increasingly frustrated with the party’s embrace of Mrs. Clinton, whom they see as too accommodating to big business and Republicans.
Mr. Sanders himself sent a text message imploring his delegates, “as a personal courtesy to me, to not engage in any kind of protest on the floor.” The Clinton and Sanders operations also combined their teams on the convention floor to coordinate appeals to delegates who might be disruptive.
The tension reverberated from the floor of the hall to the stage. By 9:30 p.m., the outbursts had turned so loud and persistent that the comedian Sarah Silverman scolded the Sanders supporters who were shouting over her remarks.
“Can I just say to the Bernie-or-bust people,” she said, adopting their own nickname, “you are being ridiculous.”
Clinton campaign officials, in another bid to placate the party’s left wing, picked Senator Elizabeth Warren to deliver the keynote address on Monday night, hoping that her searing denunciations of Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, would unify the delegates in the hall. Mrs. Clinton had privately chosen Ms. Warren days ago, campaign officials said, but announced her on Monday morning to try to set a positive tone for the first day of the convention and start closing ranks for the fight against Mr. Trump.
Throughout the day, more than 1,000 supporters of Mr. Sanders took to the scalding streets of Philadelphia to vent their frustration. Some targeted Mrs. Clinton with a taunting chant from last week’s Republican convention: “Lock her up!” Other protesters gathered outside the downtown Ritz-Carlton, where many major donors to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign were staying, and attacked her use of a “super PAC” and her reliance on six-figure fund-raising events.
Continue reading the main story
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Even Mr. Sanders, who has vowed to do whatever it takes to stop Mr. Trump from winning in November, had little luck making the case to his followers that they should vote for Mrs. Clinton. In a rare display of rebellion at a lunchtime gathering of his delegates, he was drowned out by boos when he mentioned Mrs. Clinton, and seemed jarred by the response.
“We have got to defeat Donald Trump, and we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine,” Mr. Sanders said to a round of jeers.
Over chants of “We want Bernie,” he added: “This is a real world we live in. Trump is a bully and a demagogue.”
Several veterans of Democratic conventions said they had not seen anything at recent gatherings like Monday’s disruptions. From the moment the gavel fell to open the convention at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday afternoon, Mr. Sanders’s supporters let out boos and jeers at almost any mention of Mrs. Clinton’s name.
Some Democratic officials said the fury was an illustration of the work that still needed to be done to unify the party behind Mrs. Clinton, as well as a sign of the dedication Mr. Sanders engendered over the last year.
Sanders supporters directed their fury most intensely at Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the departing Democratic National Committee chairwoman, as she spoke to Florida delegates on Monday morning. Hopes that Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s decision on Sunday afternoon to resign would calm nerves were dashed as she publicly addressed her delegation at breakfast. Among those who believed for months that she was rigging the nominating fight, nothing would be forgiven so quickly.
They booed, loudly, and screamed “fair elections” as Ms. Wasserman Schultz took the lectern and said: “It is so wonderful to be able to be here with my home state. All right, everybody, now, settle down. Everybody settle down, please.”
They refused.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign and her allies were not caught completely unaware by the hostile reception. Even though Ms. Wasserman Schultz announced under pressure on Sunday that she would resign after the convention, she had hoped to still gavel the convention in on Monday. But, recognizing that she would be booed, she abandoned her plans to fulfill even that ceremonial role.
And the committee released a statement on Monday, signed by an array of party leaders but not Ms. Wasserman Schultz, offering “a deep and sincere apology to Senator Sanders, his supporters and the entire Democratic Party for the inexcusable remarks made over email.”
