Newsrooms reported over the weekend that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ supporters engaged in racist behavior during a Nevada Democratic caucus event, even though there was no proof, and the charge came exclusively from Hillary Clinton’s surrogates.
American labor leader Dolores Huerta alleged this weekend that Sanders fans at a Democratic caucus event in Clark County, Nev., shouted her down with chants of “English only” after she was volunteered to provide a Spanish translation for non-bilingual voters.
“I offered to translate & Bernie supporters chanted English only! We fought too long & hard to be silenced,” the Clinton surrogate said on social media. “Si Se Puede!”
Fellow Clinton surrogate and actress America Ferrera backed the claim, and said on Twitter that the Vermont lawmaker’s fans had steamrolled Huerta.
“Bernie supporters chant ‘English-only’ to stop civil rights leader [Dolores Huerta] from providing Spanish translation,” she wrote.
During the caucus event Saturday, party officials asked if someone in the audience could provide a Spanish translation for Clinton and Sanders voters. When someone volunteered Huerta for the job, a separate contingent in the crowd appeared to object on grounds the labor leader is also a Clinton surrogate.
From there, Huerta and others claimed that she was greeted with shouts of “English only” from the Vermont lawmaker’s fans.
The allegation quickly bounced around on social media until it found a home at major newsrooms, including the Washington Post, the Hill and CNN, and several left-leaning websites, including ThinkProgress, Huffington Post, Raw Story and Vox.
However, two Sanders surrogates, actresses Gabby Hoffman and Susan Sarandon, emerged almost immediately to dispute the charge of racism.
“I was there,” said Sarandon. “Nobody [from] Bernie’s side said ‘English only.’ Moderator did when no neutral translator was found.”
Hoffman added, “I was there & NO ONE from Bernie camp shouted this – moderator did when neutral translator wasn’t found!”
Soon after that, Mic’s Stefan Becket uploaded a video of the incident to YouTube. The video shows the moderator at the caucus event asking for a Spanish-speaking volunteer. The tape also shows the moderator responding to protestation from Sanders supporters.
The video does not, however, show anyone chanting “English only.” In fact, the moderator is the only person who says this, and it’s only after he fails to find an impartial audience member to provide a Spanish translation to the Democratic caucus-goers.
Though the video is not definitive proof of everything that was said during the incident, and despite one reporter on the scene who claims he has confirmation the chant happened, there simply is nothing as solid as Becket’s tape to back Huerta’s and Ferrara’s version of events.
“At no point did any Sanders supporters appear to have refused a translator based on the fact that translation was objectionable to them; nor was ‘English only’ used in a pejorative fashion,” Snopes.com noted after reviewing the evidence.
Clinton defeated Sanders in the Nevada Democratic caucus Saturday, capturing six counties and tying two. Sanders won eight counties, but Clinton leaves the state with more delegates.
(h/t Mediaite)
