PHILADELPHIA — Delegates supporting Bernie Sanders were asked to stand at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Democratic delegation, after which the party chair for the state pleaded with them to support Hillary Clinton.
“If you’re a Bernie Sanders supporter or if you’re a Bernie Sanders delegate, would you please rise?” Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Marcel Groen asked the 189 delegates moments after taking the podium.
“We want you. We need you. We want you to be part of us,” Groen said.
The state party leader, who endorsed Hillary Clinton in January, implored Sanders delegates to do their part to help unify the Democratic Party over these next four days.
“We will hug you. We need your thoughts. We need your ideas. We need your passion and we need your ability to come together so we can speak with one voice,” Groen pleaded.
He continued, “I’m not good about baloney. That means we need you to help us create compromises [because] for those of you who are in politics for the first time, that is the single most difficult and important thing that we can accomplish.”
Groen’s message to Sanders supporters comes as Democrats seek to avoid chaos at their convention after thousands of leaked emails revealed Democratic National Committee officials had actively worked against the Vermont senator during the primary process.
But not every Sanders supporter in the Pennsylvania delegation was swayed by Groen’s appeal.
“There are well-deserved hard feelings over how the primary process went and the email leak certainly confirmed what a lot of people felt, that the DNC wasn’t necessarily an independent arbiter of this process,” Jim Savage, a Sanders delegate who arrived at the breakfast sporting a “Feel the Bern” t-shirt, told the Washington Examiner.
“That’s unfortunate and I’m not happy about it,” he added.
