Sanders revolt

Democrats sweat Sanders revolt

Bernie's defiant pose heightens party fears.

By Daniel Strauss and Nolan D. McCaskill

Hours after voters registered a split decision — a razor-thin victory for Hillary Clinton in Kentucky and a more comfortable win for Bernie Sanders in Oregon — top Democrats took to insisting that the seeming rift between Sanders supporters and the party establishment was no cause for alarm and no threat to an orderly national convention in July.

But with other Democrats alluding to the chaos of the 1968 Democratic convention, the Sanders campaign continuing to strike a defiant pose and even Donald Trump fanning the flames of Democratic discontent, the prospect of a hot landing in Philadelphia seemed more real than ever Wednesday.

Nevada Democratic Chairwoman Roberta Lange, the target of numerous threats of violence in recent days in the wake of her state’s unruly party convention last weekend, called for an apology from Sanders and warned that the intensifying fallout from her state’s convention is threatening the party’s ability to unite in time for the November general election.

“They should not be calling everything that happened here nonsense, they should realize how dangerous it was, that this isn’t a laughing matter. There should be some sort of apology to myself, to my family, to people who feel unsafe,” said the swing state party leader, four days after her convention was shut down amid widespread protests from Sanders backers who insisted the affair was marred by unfair rules changes and procedural maneuvers that benefited Clinton.

Responding to Sanders’ statement Tuesday on Nevada — which urged changes to the party’s policies while insisting “it goes without saying” that he condemns violence and harassment — California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein conceded to CNN that “it worries me a great deal.”

“You know, I don't want to go back to the ’68 convention because I worry about what it does to the electorate as a whole and he should too,” said Feinstein.

The White House sought to dial the tension down a notch, publicly counseling Sanders to avoid inflaming the situation.

“What Bernie's going to have to do if that happens again,” Vice President Joe Biden told reporters, “he's going to have to be more aggressive in speaking out about it.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest also attempted to put the furor in perspective.

“The point is that we've seen a lot of this before, and that's not to diminish anybody’s candidacy. It’s not to diminish the passion and commitment of supporters for either candidate,” Earnest said during Wednesday’s news briefing, referring to 2008 Democratic tensions that faded by the time the party convention was gaveled to order. “But it is an indication that the Democratic Party, in a general election, will be focused on a different question.”

Yet the fact that the White House and prominent voices across the party felt the need to weigh in at all revealed that the prospect of deep divisions between Sanders supporters and the Democratic establishment had a firm hold on the party’s attention.

The Sanders campaign placed the blame squarely on Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s leadership, accusing her of “throwing shade” on the Vermont senator from the beginning.

After the chairwoman panned the senator’s response to reports of violence and threats in Nevada as “anything but acceptable,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, pointedly accused her of undermining the Sanders campaign from the get-go — citing a limited debate schedule that featured weekend debates, the campaign’s revoked access to its voter data and a joint fundraising agreement with Clinton’s campaign that Weaver said takes money away from state parties and gives it to the DNC.

“Look, I gotta say it’s not the DNC,” Weaver said on CNN. “You know, by and large, people at the DNC have been very good to us. Debbie Wasserman Schultz really is the exception.”
Sanders camp slams Debbie Wasserman Schultz for 'throwing shade'

Nevada’s Lange, however, brushed aside Sanders’ suggestions that the onus is on the party to open itself to more people, or that the problem was rooted in her handling of the state party convention. Pointing to a prep meeting held by Sanders supporters two days before the convention, she said the activists had been “ginned up about the convention, saying they’re going to take over the party,” but that their in-convention maneuvering had left them behind Clinton.

In the days since then, national and state party leaders have watched warily — and with increasing alarm. Their concern is that Sanders supporters, so accustomed to hearing about the “broken" political system, will refuse to coalesce around Clinton, the likely nominee, and that similar breakdowns could affect down-ballot races.

That wariness surged Tuesday night when Sanders paused during his televised speech in California while supporters chanted “Bernie or bust.”

The unrest captured the eye of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, who seized the opportunity to make mischief on Wednesday. Using his preferred megaphone, Trump fired off several tweets — one echoing the complaints of the Sanders camp that the process is rigged against the Vermont senator, and another raising questions about Kentucky’s secretary of state, a Clinton supporter, who declared Clinton the winner in a contest that The Associated Press had deemed too close too call.

South Carolina Democratic Chairman Jaime Harrison acknowledged that the growing conflict would be front and center at a meeting of state Democratic party chairs scheduled for Friday in Philadelphia.

“I know what happened in Nevada will be one of the prime topics for discussion. Because I know a number of states still have their conventions to come,” said Harrison. “There's a lot of concern with folks.”

Connecticut Democratic Chairman Nick Balletto didn’t have a lot of sympathy for Sanders’ position.

“I think there's no choice but to at some point face reality. No matter where you stand, if you look at this on a realistic basis there is no mathematical way to get to the nomination at this point for Sen. Sanders. So I don’t understand the continuation of the direction it’s headed in. It just doesn’t make any sense to me because there’s just no mathematical way to figure out to get there,” said Balletto. “If you want to run again and go to the end, that’s fine, that’s your right. And you can certainly go to the end and go to the convention but to take a turn like has happened in Nevada just doesn't make sense for the campaign or the activists.”