Stop calling to 'lock up' Clinton, Sanders campaign manager tells Bernie's supporters
Bernie Sanders' campaign manager says Democrats should stop calling for Hillary Clinton to be jailed. The Vermont senator's supporters have gone ballistic over leaked DNC emails which show an anti-Sanders bias and pro-Clinton collusion among officials.
"I know emotions are running high right now, but I think people really have to consider the implications of what a [Donald] Trump presidency would mean for those of us who support the kind of agenda that Bernie Sanders has laid out for the country," Jeff Weaver, who served as Sanders' campaign manager, told The Hill ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Monday.
Sanders, 74, was booed by some supporters after trying to convince them that Clinton must be elected in order to stop Trump.
Crowd boos as Sanders tells delegates, "we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine." https://t.co/yaL9sczVPw
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) 25 июля 2016 г.
“We have got to defeat Donald Trump and we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine,” Sanders told a packed room of delegates before the opening of the convention in Philadelphia on Monday.
“Brothers and sisters, this is the real world that we leave in...Trump is a bully and a demagogue,” he added.
Sanders supporters at Philly protest run over and cheer a "Hillary for prison" van sponsored by InfoWars. pic.twitter.com/o5nA939ngL
— Kayla Epstein (@KaylaEpstein) July 25, 2016
Supporters of the Vermont senator marched through the streets of Philadelphia on Sunday, chanting "Lock her up!" The phrase is Donald Trump’s favorite attack rhetoric against the Democratic nominee. Demonstrators also carried anti-Clinton banners and held “Hillary for Prison” signs.
Many said they felt deceived following a WikiLeaks dump of nearly 20,000 DNC emails which indicated that the committee – supposedly the neutral governing organization of the Democratic Party – secretly strategized with the Clinton campaign and plotted against Sanders.
Hillary for Prison truck shows up at Bernie rally in Philly and is cheered pic.twitter.com/LWcqVUblnK
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) 25 июля 2016 г.
“I feel like I’ve been cheated, I feel like my brothers and sisters have been cheated, and I feel like it’s all her fault,” Trevor Minter, one of the protesters calling for Clinton to be jailed, told the Guardian. He said he was furious over “all the classified emails she’s let out using her own servers and using her own personal email and then you have the WikiLeaks, all the going behind people’s backs.”
This is a movement all Americans should get behind! #HillaryForPrison#LockHerUp#DemsInPhilly#DemConvention#tcotpic.twitter.com/VKEcdc8eZT
— Young Conservative™ (@steve0423) 25 июля 2016 г.
Another protestor, Matt Schmidheiser, carried a homemade poster highlighting Clinton’s alleged crimes.
“I think it’s accurate and I think she needs to be in prison for the rest of her life,” he told the paper.
More "Hillary for Prison" signs. pic.twitter.com/hTtcMegD99
— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) 25 июля 2016 г.
In early July, the FBI lifted a looming legal threat to Clinton's presidential campaign, deciding against pressing criminal charges for her handling of classified material in a private email account while serving as secretary of state. The FBI investigation has damaged the Democratic candidate’s approval ratings, however, according to a recent poll. The New York Times/CBS survey released earlier this month found that a majority of voters believe Clinton cannot be trusted, with 67 percent saying she is not honest or trustworthy – up from 62 percent last month. That figure represents the highest percentage in this election cycle.
