Thousands of Sanders supporters still gathered in the city of Clive to hear indie crooner Justin Vernon — the frontman of Bon Iver — and a cast of campaign surrogates make the case for the senator from Vermont. Sanders himself phoned in to the event, his disembodied voice urging audience members to help “create the highest voter turnout in the history of the Iowa caucuses.”
“On Monday night, the entire country and, in fact, the entire world will be looking at the great state of Iowa,” Sanders said. “And my humble request of you is to do everything that you can to make sure that our friends and our neighbors come out to vote.”
Though Sanders framed his campaign as one of unity, two key allies who spoke at the event — Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and filmmaker Michael Moore — derided his political foes, past and present.
Tlaib, part of the so-called “squad” of young women of color in Congress, joined fellow Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) for an onstage panel moderated by Des Moines school board member Dionna Langford. When Langford invoked the name of Hillary Clinton, Sanders’ 2016 foe, the crowd booed.
“We’re not gonna boo. We’re not gonna boo,” Langford said. “We’re classy here.”
“No, no. I’ll boo,” Tlaib said. “Boo!”
Jayapal, seated to Tlaib’s left, grabbed her arm, seemingly in an attempt to quiet her.
“You all know I can’t be quiet. No, we’re gonna boo,” Tlaib said. “That’s alright. The haters will shut up on Monday when we win.”
The DNC on Friday announced that it was lowering the threshold for participation in an upcoming debate in Las Vegas, likely benefiting former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Separately, Politico reported that, in order to keep Sanders from securing the Democratic nomination, some DNC members were agitating to restore the power so-called “superdelegates” play in the nominating process.
Speaking at Friday’s rally, Moore said that “corporate Democrats” were rigging the system to support “Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire, the Republican mayor of New York City” because they were afraid Sanders might win. “He can just buy his way onto the debate stage,” Moore said. “And I’ve gotta tell you, I’m so disgusted by this.”
Moore noted that some candidates of color had failed to meet the DNC’s previous qualifying criteria, and he referred to a recent forum in Iowa as “the all-white debate.”
“The fact that … the DNC will not allow Cory Booker on that stage, will not allow Julian Castro on that stage, but they’re gonna let Mike Bloomberg on that stage because he’s got a billion fucking dollars!” Moore said, drawing yet more boos from the crowd. “I’m sorry. Those days are over. Those days are over.”
An audience member shouted, “Fuck Bloomberg!” Others responded, “Yeah!”
“There are TV cameras here,” Moore cautioned. “They’re gonna have to start bleeping 5,000 people in here.”
Moore didn’t leave it at that. He then mocked a recent television advertisement by Joe Biden characterizing the former vice president as a safe choice. “I’m like, what? That’s how low the bar is right now? You just have to be safe? You don’t have to be on work release? You’re not on a list of offenders? You’re just safe?”
Then he really dug in the knife.
“I’m here to tell you, Joe Biden, here’s who’s not safe: those who voted to send us to invade the nation of Iraq. You did that, Joe Biden. You’re not safe,” Moore said. “Every time we have run a Democrat who voted for war — [John] Kerry, Hillary and now Biden — we’ve lost. We lose when we put these Democrats on the ballot in November. I’m tired of losing. Aren’t you tired of losing?”
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Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Michael Moore and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) are his surrogates and some people believe he can win the general? 5000 rabid supporters screaming FU and booing about Obama’s VP and the previous Dem nominee? I know that Bernie and his zealots want to dismantle America, but I am not sure they understand just how ugly and bloody that will be. It is one thing to vilify and belittle others on behalf of a self-righteous Messianic fantasist in a room full of fellow true believers. It is another to do so in the streets of the real world. Are we so enraged that it might just come down to a choice between two Messianic zealots who prize purity/loyalty above all else. Take your pick. We have authoritarianism on your right and authoritarianism on your left. Choose your side, pick a weapon and watch it all burn.
Reality B Free should change his cowardly moniker to Reality Free. What a loony tunes nut job.
“You all know I can’t be quiet. No, we’re gonna boo,” Tlaib said. “That’s alright. The haters will shut up on Monday when we win.” Wow, don’t want to know how the “haters” act or who they are… Does she even know what hypocrisy is?
Michael Moore is sick and tired of losing. Most losers, like him are just that.
The DNC, when not digging a deeper hole with impeachment, certainly have their hands full. None of the current nominees are who they want and none can beat Trump. There’s no secret magical plan B candidate standing by.
“This is going to be great!”
The DNC is as corrupt as the RNC, which is really saying something. They both feed at the Wall Street trough, they both would rather have war hawks ( chickenhawks, really) in office, and both don’t really want to do much towards doing anything truly significant about Climate Change because they don’t want to disrupt the “American Dream”, which is the lie of unending consumption and ever expanding economic prosperity for the 1%,
Either way hopefully trump will be a big loser!!
History repeats itself. It used to be every few centuries, then every few decades. Now, it’s down to four years. Biden and Bloomberg repeating Hilary’s claim that they are the only ones that can beat Trump. The DNC sabotaging Bernie to benefit Uber-rich political power brokers. Start praying folks-the end is near.
Why does anyone believe the Democrats are going to willingly turn their party, organization, and funding over to a candidate who is not a Democrat?
The left is splitting into two right before our eyes.
Sanders and his supporters have destroyed the party and the inevitable result will be another 4 years of Trump. It wasn’t enough that Sanders and the Progs have taken over the Vermont Democratic Party, but they’ve taken aim at the national party as well. It leaves traditional Democrats out in the cold with nowhere to turn. I would never vote for a Prog or a D/P and I sure as heck would never vote for a Republican, so my options are limited. If it comes to a choice between voting for Trump or voting for Sanders, I’ll be staying home in November and I’ll bet many other moderates will do the same.
Even the Halal Hogs of A-O-Che’s Jihad Squad can’t say anything about Hillary without an apology as Tlaib has been forced to backpedal and apologize for her comments today in the name of ‘party unity’ as she promises ‘to do better’ protecting her #NotMeUs movement. It’s the same reason no one in the Media dared ask Queen Cankles last election why she didn’t refuse to take the debate questions that DNC Chair, Donna Brazile, snuck out of CNN’s studios in her granny panties so Hillary could cheat on her answers beforehand against The Bernshevik.
At what point will the Socialists realize they aren’t getting a fair deal from the DNC and have to run as Independents?
Bernie’s militants lecturing the Democratic Party on corruption? “The DNC sabotaging Bernie” you say? If Bernie or his many cowardly followers, looking directly at you TSR, had a drop of integrity, he would run as a Democratic Socialist, Independent, Liberty Unionist, or Progressive. But no, he disingenuously runs as a Democrat and then his minnions seek to “cleanse” the Democratic Party of non-believers. Where have we seen that before in world history? Where has this kind of rigid dogma and demagoguery led to before?
I admire Bernie for his consistency, energy, and near-miracle ability to bring his beliefs and movement to where it is today. He simply is not a Democrat and the democratic party does not need to be “cleansed” by his self-righteous “warriors” who crave an American purge.
Bernie and his surrogate gang of intolerant thugs openly hating on Democrats and the Democratic Party yet demanding its nomination. Shameful.
thanks, in part, to Elmer Gantry (aka Sanders)
we got Trump in 2016
and we’ll get him again in 2020.
Slimy article that doesn’t mentioned the rhetoric Hillary has been spewing which is the very reason Tlaib said what she said. But, then, maybe Heintz isn’t a reader and didn’t know. It’s the weekend after all. Maybe by Tuesday he’ll be caught up. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
So ya think Bernie so weakened Hillary the cyborg that she lost to MAGA ? Please . She is and was a cold machine who somehow believed she deserved the presidency because her hubby was a hound-dog . America disagreed . Sanders campaign exposed her weaknesses as a candidate . His campaign should have tempered her . Instead of learning anything her crowd served up America to the Donald . It’s fine if she is so delusional that she believes Sanders deprived her of her crown . Nobody else should believe this drivel .
I’m waiting for the pay off of old socialist bernie like he was in 2016..you know darn well he was paid off.. He must have been high on pot, to have those (whatever they are) 3 fools to be at the rally but the biggest mistake was having Moore. Now that’s really being hard up..
Trump 2020 …..
Look at the leading photo for this article, and see how that reflects the disastrous reality of where the Democratic party is today and where it is headed.
Has Trump destroyed the Democratic party, or did he get help from Hillary in 2016 when she corrupted the DNC’s nomination process? Everything Hillary becomes involved with becomes corrupted, from her husband on down to the political party that has enabled her dishonesty and criminality.
Do you think Hillary and the mainstream Democrats thought they would be this irrelevant only four years after she was running for President in 2016? It is amazing how far the Democratic party has fallen in a few short years, and let that be a lesson to anyone who thinks they are entitled to something.
Who do the Progs think they are fooling? The more Bernie’s surrogates talk like this, the more those in the 3 states that matter the most in the presidential election (Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania) will realize that they have no place to turn other than Trump or not vote at all. The only way to win these states is the vote for Biden or Bloomberg in the primary, or perhaps Klobuchar, who after all has won consistently in a state that went for Trump in 2016.
Bernie Sanders was NOT VIABLE in Clive, Iowa where this event took place and received NO DELEGATES.