Bernie Sanders’ days of ignoring his rival — Hillary Clinton — are gone.
The candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, who stuck to policy while campaigning in the Iowa caucuses, jabbed Clinton numerous times Thursday during a raucous rally in Lincoln, where he enjoyed eardrum-rattling roars of approval.
Sanders chided Clinton for taking too long to oppose the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, calling the decision a “no-brainer.”
He then hammered her for not releasing the transcripts of three speeches that she gave for investment house Goldman Sachs. At $225,000 each, Sanders joked, they must have been “great speeches” and deserved to be in the public domain.
In short, Sanders may be trailing Clinton in national delegates after her commanding sweep of Southern states on Super Tuesday, but the self-described “democratic socialist” from Vermont is making it clear that he has no plans to give up — or tone down his fiery nature.
“Now, the main opposition to the Keystone pipeline was kind of a no-brainer,” Sanders told the crowd of 2,500 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. “If you believe in climate change, why in God’s earth would you think about supporting the excavation and the transportation of some of the dirtiest fossil fuel in the world?”
A capacity crowd of 2,500, including supporters seated in chairs on the stage, filled the Lied Center. Outside, more than a thousand people were unable to get into the performing arts center after waiting in a line that spread across the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus for more than six blocks.
Before delivering his 57-minute speech, Sanders grabbed a microphone and spoke to the overflow crowd outside, which he estimated at 1,500 people.
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Young people, mostly students, composed the largest segment of Sanders' enthusiastic Lincoln audience. But there was a smattering of ages, a gathering of opponents of the rejected Keystone XL pipeline and at least a dozen cowboy hats.
Jane Kleeb, who mounted the battle against the TransCanada pipeline and its pathway across Nebraska, introduced and endorsed Sanders at the event.
Sanders pledged to lead transformation of the nation's energy system away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy, arguing that the future of the planet is on the line as humans confront climate change.
"Let's listen to the scientists, not the politicians," he said.
As president, Sanders said, he would tell TransCanada and others in the fossil fuel industry: "Pack up; get out."
After hosting Thursday night's Republican presidential debate in Detroit, Fox News Channel will turn to the Democrats, holding a one-hour town hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday evening.
The event will be broadcast live beginning at 6 p.m. ET Monday from Detroit's Gem Theatre and will be hosted by Bret Baier. Sanders' rival in Michigan's Democratic primary the next day, former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was invited to participate by Fox but said she had a conflict in her schedule and would not attend.
Sanders has kept up a busy schedule in Michigan, including holding a rally in East Lansing on Thursday morning.
Baier announced the town hall with Sanders on the program he hosts, Special Report, which was broadcasting live from the Fox Theatre in Detroit, the site of Thursday's Republican debate
Nearly 4,300 people gathered Thursday night in Kansas to hear a self-described democratic socialist call for universal health care, free college tuition and an end to employment discrimination against gays and lesbians.
“You think I scared everybody in conservative Kansas?” Sen. Bernie Sanders jokingly asked as he navigated his way backstage to pose for photos with supporters after delivering a speech full of progressive policy dreams two days before the state’s caucuses.
Sanders began his speech at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds by highlighting that in 2004 he had voted against invading Iraq as a member of Congress. Clinton, in the U.S. Senate, voted for it.
“The cost of war is far, far greater than many people realize,” he said, referring to veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions upon coming home from war.
Working-class kids go to war, not “the sons and daughters of the billionaire class,” he said.
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After the rally Sanders met with five activists from Kansas People’s Action, a Wichita-based group that advocates on social justice issues that endorsed him earlier in the day.
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders continued his push to win over Michigan voters Thursday morning by condemning trade agreements that he argues have negatively impacted millions of Americans.
The Vermont senator criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was implemented under President Bill Clinton, and the new Trans-Pacific Partnership, which his opponent Hillary Clinton supported as U.S. Secretary of State and then opposed as her run for presidency began.
“These are policies which are resulting in the disappearance of the American middle class,” Sanders said Thursday during a press conference at a Hyatt hotel just outside the state’s capital. “These trade policies have been supported not just by Republicans but by too many Democrats.”
Sanders said trade policies supported by Clinton, who will host an event Friday regarding American job growth in Michigan, have been a “disaster.” Sanders said he agrees with Obama on several issues, but “strongly” disagrees with him on the TPP.
Michigan, Sanders said, has lost one-third of its manufacturing jobs in the last 15 years primarily due to “failed trade policies,” including 43,000 jobs lost because of NAFTA.
“From the first days I was in Congress ... I understood that NAFTA and other trade policies were being written by corporate America for one reason,” he said. “And that is that corporate America made the decision that they didn’t want to pay workers in this country a living wage ... What they wanted to so was shut down plants in America, go to Mexico, go to China ... and then bring their products back into America.”
An Ohio mom has reached viral status thanks to photos of her breastfeeding at a rally for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Elle Bradford of Barberton, Ohio attended a Cleveland rally for Sanders with her 6-month-old daughter Harper last week. While they were sitting in the second row, Harper showed signs of being hungry, so the mom nursed her, mere feet from the presidential candidate.
"There is no, 'I’m feeding you in 10 minutes.' It’s, 'I’m feeding you right here, right now, or you’re screaming,'" Bradford told WEWS-TV, adding, "A hungry baby is a hungry baby."
Photographers at the rally captured the moment.
Bradford reported on Facebook that Sanders noticed her and Harper. "After the rally, Bernie and Jane O'Meara Sanders both thanked me for doing what mothers do and taking care of my daughter when she needed her mom, even if that meant nursing in public!" she said.
Photos of the breastfeeding mom have made the Internet rounds, gaining thousands of likes on Facebook. Bradford says the response has been mixed but generally positive. "I've gotten a lot of hate mail and a lot more love mail," she wrote.
he media and the political class have called it — Bernie Sanders has lost the Democratic Presidential nomination. They are flat wrong, and not for the first time.
Here’s the real story: the Sanders campaign is changing the laws of political physics — just like Trump did, only far more profoundly. The Bernie crowd is building the most extraordinary grassroots momentum I have ever seen. The movement is gathering strength by the day, and its chances to win are growing fast.
I write from first-hand experience: I am reporting from inside the Bernie campaign. Having observed dozens of campaigns around the world before, I have never seen anything quite like this. The media are telling their own stale and circular story of stalled momentum, defeat and superdelegate-powered inevitability. Meanwhile the Bernie movement is growing faster than Facebook did — and in much the same way.
Everyone knows the campaign is supported by a flood of small donations: this week it will hit the five-million mark. Bernie is raising more money than Hillary Clinton and still accelerating, while her campaign has already maxed-out much of its big donor base. Sanders has already raised more money — from many more small donors — than even Obama had at this point. The numbers are unprecedented.
But another momentum story has yet to be told. As Bernie says, the only thing more powerful than money is people. And people are flooding into this campaign in their multitudes.
Sen. Bernie Sanders talked with The Star before his campaign appearance Thursday in Lawrence. This is a transcript of that interview, edited for clarity and length.
The Star: It’s clear there is enthusiasm for your campaign. Do you ever worry that if you’re elected president you’ll disappoint the people who supported you?
Sanders: No. Because I will fight for them. I’m not guaranteeing that I can do everything. But what I have said over and over again, and what I’ll say here again tonight, is that no president alone can accomplish what has to be done. The powers that be, Wall Street, corporate America, the corporate media, large campaign donors are so powerful that the only way we transform America and make government work for all of us is when millions of people stand up and fight back.
Aren’t you worried that that gets lost? Particularly in presidential elections, there’s this cult that whoever we elect will do the things that he or she says they’re going to do.
That’s why this is a different type of campaign. I don’t say that. I say if I were elected president tomorrow, I can’t alone take on Wall Street, and corporate America, and large campaign donors. They’re too powerful. I think I’m being honest with the American people and saying, everything I am talking about is doable. It is mainstream, but we’re going to have to stand up and fight back against some very very powerful people who prefer an economy that works for the rich.
After the dust settled on the results of Super Tuesday, the bad news was everywhere. “Sanders Campaign Will Travel On, but Path to Victory Is All but Blocked,” The New York Times declared, offering a grim assessment of the odds facing the insurgent presidential candidate. “After Super Tuesday Losses, Bernie Sanders Is in a Whole Lot of Trouble,” Mother Jones lamented.
A sense of inevitability returned to Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in the wake of her victory in seven states across the country in Super Tuesday match-ups. Sanders won just four states. Clinton holds a commanding lead in the race for delegates, and her campaign suggests that lead may soon become insurmountable. The Vermont senator faces an increasingly steep climb in his effort to win the Democratic nomination, but he has nevertheless vowed to fight on. As he does, the campaign confronts the possibility of risk and reward. The challenge will be to show that Sanders can maintain a critical mass of momentum, while evading missteps that could hurt his standing and the Democratic Party.
There are certainly reasons for Sanders to fight for the nomination as long as possible. An unforeseen development could always re-shape the race, and increase his odds. Plus, the longer Sanders stays in the race, the more time the campaign has to introduce him to voters who might throw their support behind the candidate and his ideals. Sanders frequently talks about starting a political revolution powered by a groundswell of populist discontent. But while he has assembled a devoted following, Sanders still lacks Clinton’s national name recognition. Additional time in the race could expand his reach. That would help Sanders elevate his progressive agenda. If increased visibility translates into an uptick in popular support, Sanders will gain leverage that he could use to convince elected officials to follow his lead—leverage he could wield from the campaign trail or from Capitol Hill.
Acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson claims that if Jesus was a registered voter in the United States, He would likely vote for Bernie Sanders for president.
In a tweet sent out on Super Tuesday, the host of the rebooted television special "Cosmos" suggested that Sanders is who Jesus would support among the Democrat and Republican candidates.
"Who would Jesus vote for? To Him walls, wealth, and torture are non-starters, so probably the Jewish New Yorker from Vermont,"
reasoned Tyson.
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Posted to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, Tyson's comment on Sanders and Jesus has gotten over 31,000 retweets and more than 44,000 likes.
It has also gotten a good deal of comments, with some expressing their support for the apparent Sanders endorsement while others critiquing the astrophysicist's claim.