PHILIDELPHIA — Angered by email leaks showing Democratic National Committee favoritism toward Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders delegates chanted “Lock her up!” at the California delegation’s breakfast on Monday.
The scheduled agenda of the delegation’s first breakfast of the week was overrun by hundreds of Sanders supporters, angered by their party’s bias towards Hilary Clinton, as proved by the recent e-mail leaks.
As California Secretary of State Alex Padilla spoke, the crowd chanted “You got served!” and “Count the votes!” until his speech was nearly inaudible. As House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi spoke, much of her speech was drowned out with chants of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” and “Lock her up!”
“Lock her up!” was a popular anti-Clinton chant at the Republican National Convention.
“I think we all like to see a effort towards unity but we need to figure out how to be welcomed into the Party. I have no idea how they’re going to work it out, they’re going to have to pull magic tricks,” California delegate Bruce Jones told the Washington Examiner. “This is like a shotgun wedding, the Clintons haven’t done enough to court the Sanders people. We haven’t even wanted to date.”
Many of the delegates were angered by the setup of the California primary, which they believed led to bias towards Clinton and a loss of votes. Voters in the California primary had to be registered Democrats in order to votein the June presidential primary.
“Those votes did not go into effect the day the primary results were released,” Amador City Mayor Tim Knox explained as delegates booed during Padilla’s speech. “The feeling is that the final vote on the day of the election was not the final vote, and that was never actually presented.”
The California delegation has the largest number of Sanders delegates of any state at the convention in Philadelphia. Although Sanders has endorsed Clinton, he still remains a candidate. Sanders delegates are gathering signatures to have the Vermont senator’s name placed in nomination. While many of the delegates hope to change the outcome of the nomination contest, some admitted that they knew their quest was futile.
“Nancy Pelosi is trying to scare us into voting for Hillary with chants of ‘Trump, Trump, Trump!’ She could change her Trump superdelegate vote and go Bernie, it would be the right thing to do … but if you want to beat Trump, you need Bernie,” said California delegate Margarita LaCabe. “Could we change things? It’s possible, but it’s not likely.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the city Tim Knox is mayor of. The Washington Examiner regrets the error.
