PHILADELPHIA — After Bernie Sanders moved to nominate Hillary Clinton by acclimation, a contingent of his delegates marched out of the arena, and staged a sit-in in the adjacent press pavilion.
At one point, a couple of members of the Philadelphia Police, Civil Affairs Unit, commandeered Buzzfeed’s workspace inside the pavilion, to “negotiate the end of this,” while Buzzfeed reporters stood befuddled and locked out.
Protest organizer Shyla Nelson, a Sanders delegate, in Buzzfeed’s workspace, which police had commandeered for negotiations. (Jim Swift/The Weekly Standers)
Secret Service, Pennsylvania state police and Philadephia police were all on hand to keep the Sanders protesters at bay.
Shyla Nelson, one of the protest organizers, said the demonstration had been referred to in the planning stages as “No Voice, No Unity.”
“The conversation was very peaceful, very cooperative,” she said of negotiations with law enforcement to end the standoff, describing the heavy police presence as “an anticipatory gesture.”
“This is what democracy looks like,” they chanted as dissident Sanders backers from many delegates progressively joined forces in the corridors of the Wells Fargo arena, as part of a pre-planned demonstration. Once outside the arena, the delegates marched into the press pavilion around 7 pm, and sat in silent protest amid a swarm of reporters. Some delegates put tape over their mouth.
One protestor pulled tape off his mouth to explain to the Examiner that this protest was planned Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours before the roll call.
Law enforcement bring an armored car to the media pavilion. (Daniel Chaitin/Washington Examiner)
Jeffrey Eide, an Oregon delegate who described himself as an organizer of the demonstration, said his delegation had been planning such a demonstration for months. He said other demonstrators coordinated by “phones,” presumably text and email messages, and that “delegates from all 57 states and territories are in this room.”
The loose-knit coalition had a spokeswoman who was locked outside the pavilion as of 7:40 pm, and so Eide declined to give further comment.
But there was widespread outrage among the Sanders supporters, who vehemently denied claims of party unity.
“I just heard about this 40 second ago, I don’t know, right after the vote,” said perplexed California Sanders delegate Manuel Zapata. “I legitimately just found out.”
“We are disappointed,” said California Sanders delegate Jamar Jefferson “Because why are we here if he just gave all of the delegates away? We should have never of even came if that was your intention.”
“Bernie is just a member of the revolution,” Jefferson added. “He’s just saying to regular everyday American that we want to be heard we want to be included, we want access to the American dream.”
“We are not united,” insisted Arizona Sanders delegate Kelly Thornton. “We are absolutely not united.”
“The DNC has been operating on behalf of the Clinton campaign,” Thornton maintained. “They did not remain unbiased as is their job and they didn’t hear our voices. Hillary Clinton cannot beat Donald Trump. We are angry. We want to defeat Donald Trump and she is not the candidate to do it.”
“I absolutely do not believe that we are unified. Absolutely not,” concurred New Jersey delegate Michelle McFadden-DiNicola, whose was covered in anti-TPP stickers. “Sarah Silverman got on the stage yesterday – we were booing so loud we could barely hear her – but when I got home I thought her saying the Bernie or Bust people are being ridiculous split the party more than anyone else did. ”
“I’m not planning on what I will do in November, but I am planning to not vote for Donald Trump,” she continued. “I think there’s evidence that the Democratic national party rigged the election. … I don’t know the inner workings of the party enough to say but I am glad that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is not the head of the party. I’m not impressed that she was immediately hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign.”
“The first campaign that I worked on was John Kerry and I’ve been Dem all the way down the line,” said Mary Findley of Ohio. “Over the last few years, especially with following the Black Lives Matter movement I’ve seen the moral bankruptcy of the liberals, I guess.”
“At this point, I don’t think the party can be saved. Bernie Sanders to me reflected maybe the last hope of that incremental change and they’ve done everything in their power to obstruct us from nominating Bernie Sanders so this is my DemExit,” Findley continued. “Green Party and Socialists alternatives is where I plan to go.”
Some were even angry at Sanders himself.
“When Bernie endorsed Clinton, that was like a slap in the face,” said Rusty Pearce, a New Mexico delegate for Sanders. “When Debbie Wasserman Schultz went to the Clinton campaign, that made it even worse.”
“Donald Trump is beating Hillary Clinton, in some cases by one point in some cases by more than one point,” Pearce added. “With Hillary Clinton as our nominee, Donald Trump will be our president.”
“I was defeated and angry, but determined to continue this political revolution. We’re going to have to vote our conscience, but we’re all motivated to continue the revolution,” said Sanders supporter Alfonzo Statham. “There is no unity. We need solidarity. As long as the DNC is the DNC, none of us can support it.”
“Today we were all denied access to democracy,” Statham continued. “Being in a wheelchair, I am used to being denied access to all sorts of things. But everybody here was denied access to democracy, denied access to the party.”
“It was a rigged election, and he wasn’t given the votes that he was supposed to get,” complained Bill Sifford, an Idaho delegate. “We don’t allow that in other countries, we inspect it in other countries. They should have inspected it here. The FEC did nothing. Arizona was stolen. New York was stolen. Massachusetts was stolen.”
The unexpected demonstration spurred a law enforcement response blocking the entrance to the press pavilion. Reporters and demonstrators were blocked from entering the pavilion around 7:15. A large black armored police vehicle parked outside the pavilion.
The unexpected demonstration spurred a law enforcement response blocking the entrance to the press pavilion. (Daniel Chaitin/Washington Examiner)
Ariel Cohen, Sarah Westwood, Gabby Morrongiello, Ryan Lovelace and Al Weaver all contributed to this report.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
