WASHINGTON (AP) – After months when the story of the 2016 presidential campaign focused on divided Republicans, Democrats are now showcasing divisions in their ranks.
Simmering tensions between Bernie Sanders backers and other Democrats, including party leaders, burst into the open following an ugly fracas at the Nevada Democratic Party convention over the weekend instigated by Sanders’ supporters. When top Democratic Party leaders pressured Sanders to denounce the night of chair throwing and alleged death threats he responded with defiance, terming some complaints “nonsense” and reminding the party: “Millions of Americans are outraged at establishment politics.”
Sanders continued in that tone Tuesday night after he defeated front-runner Hillary Clinton in Oregon’s primary and fought her to a neck-and-neck outcome in Kentucky. Clinton declared victory in Kentucky, but the race was too close to call with a margin of just one-half of 1 percent separating the two Democrats.
“The Democratic Party is going to have to make a very, very profound and important decision,” he said during a rally in Carson, California. “It can do the right thing and open its doors and welcome into the party people who are prepared to fight for real economic and social change. … I say to the leadership of the Democratic Party, open the doors, let the people in.”
Sanders also warned of “a very sad and tragic option” for the party: “to choose to maintain its status quo structure, remain dependent on big-money campaign contributions and be a party with limited participation and limited energy. And a party which incredibly is allowing a right-wing extremist Republican Party to capture the votes of the majority of working people in this country.”