The Coney Island boardwalk, like a quiet block in Midwood, doesn’t usually play host to presidential candidates.
But Bernie Sanders, a 74-year-old who calls himself a democratic socialist, is an atypical candidate in a year unlike any other. And it’s only fitting that New York City, for so long irrelevant in the presidential year circus, gets its moment in the spotlight, with its streets and parks and playgrounds serving as a backdrop for the struggle over the future of the United States. Mr. Sanders, standing this afternoon near the foot of the Thunderbolt roller coaster at Brooklyn’s iconic Coney Island, touched on his usual themes—Wall Street’s greed, Hillary Clinton’s Iraq War vote, the need to bring universal healthcare to America—but he did so in his native borough, where thousands lined up on Surf Avenue to reach the boardwalk where he would speak.
Michael Stipe, the former singer for the rock band R.E.M., introduced Mr. Sanders, and the Vermont senator’s nods to his birthplace were brief. He said he used to swim in the waters of Coney Island beach and took credit for eating “about half” the hot dogs Nathan’s produced. Onlookers who didn’t want to cram onto the boardwalk stood on the beach to watch.
After that, it was the usual Bernie, and his fans loved it as always. He took direct aim at Ms. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, taking her to task again for collecting six-figure speaking fees, backing free-trade and raising cash from the financial industry. He even wagged his finger at the major television networks for not covering the issues he believes are important.
“One of the points of this campaign is we as Americans, we have go to determine what the issues are. It’s not gonna be CNN, CBS or ABC,” Mr. Sanders said. “Because they will talk about anything except the most important issues facing the middle class of this country.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders thinks Hillary Clinton's campaign is done playing nice.
After one of the nastiest weeks in the Democratic race where the candidates sparred over who was qualified to be commander in chief, Sanders told ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" the Clinton campaign has shifted its tone towards his campaign since his recent wins.
"There was a change in tone on the part of the Clinton people," he said. "They said we're not going to be nice to Bernie Sanders anymore, we're getting beaten every week. We're going to start beating him up when we go to New York City."
Coming off of his win in Wyoming on Saturday, Sanders said he has the momentum to win the nomination.
"There's no question I think the momentum is with us," he said. "We have come a really, really long way and I think we can win this."
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"In the last three and a half weeks, we have reduced her margin by a third," Sanders said
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont continued his squabble with Hillary Clinton over her qualifications to be president on Sunday, saying “something is clearly lacking” in Mrs. Clinton’s judgment.
Mr. Sanders made the comments during a round of interviews on the Sunday talk shows on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN during which he was asked whether he thought Mrs. Clinton was qualified to be president. Earlier this week, Mr. Sanders said Mrs. Clinton was unqualified for the position because she voted for the war in Iraq, has a “super PAC” that has raised millions from Wall Street, and supported trade agreements that sent American jobs overseas. On Sunday, he continued to criticize Mrs. Clinton’s ties to special interest groups and her stances on foreign policy.
“She may have the experience to be president of the United States. No one can argue that,” Mr. Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But in terms of her judgment, something is clearly lacking.”
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that was filmed Friday in Brooklyn, Mr. Sanders echoed those sentiments. “I have my doubts about what kind of president she would make,” Mr. Sanders said.
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“When you have a ‘super PAC’ that is raising tens of millions of dollars from every special interest out there, including 15 million from Wall Street, the American people do not believe that that is the kind of president that we need to make the changes in America to protect the working families of this country,” Mr. Sanders said.
Tapper asked Sanders to address a comment Clinton made on "Meet the Press" last Sunday, when she was asked about her belief that the senator's campaign was "lying about my record" regarding donations from the fossil fuel industry.
"I feel sorry sometimes for the young people who, you know, believe this," Clinton told host Chuck Todd. "They don't do their own research. And I'm glad that we now can point to reliable, independent analysis to say, 'No, it's just not true.'"
Sanders, however, disagreed with Clinton's characterization.
"I think that's a little bit condescending," Sanders said. "I'll tell you my experience with young people. ... I see them every day because they're coming out to our rallies. These are young people who want to be involved in shaping the future of this country."
Sanders, who is polling better with millennial voters than Clinton, defended young people, saying they're concerned about politics.
"They're proud of this country. They want to make it a better country. I think they do a whole lot of research and I think that the Internet has opened up the opportunity for them to do a lot of research," he added. "And I'll tell you, one of the reasons I think we're doing so well is a lot of those people are going to the Internet and hearing what we have to say and what Bernie Sanders believes in."
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Bernie Sanders is hitting Hillary Clinton over her belief that young people who link her to the fossil fuel industry "haven't done their research," saying it's "condescending" to young voters.The Vermont senator's comments came during a wide-ranging interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" in which he also discussed Bill Clinton's recent comments about "subconscious" double standards in the campaign, Israel's response during the 2014 Gaza conflict and General Electric.
Yesterday afternoon, in an old vaudeville music hall in downtown Kingston, New York, Bernie Sanders’ campaign held a rally “for clean energy and safe climate” to build support for the presidential candidate and mobilize the Hudson Valley, Catskills and Southern Tier to fight climate change in advance of New York’s Democratic primary election on April 19.
Sanders himself was not on hand—nor was he part of the billing. Nevertheless, more than 1,000 people packed the damp, chilly hall to standing room only capacity to hear from anti-fracking leaders, as well as organizers from the campaign itself, who instructed the audience members in the art of door-to-door canvassing, signed them up for tours of duty, and, when the rally ended, sent them out into the community to knock on doors, phone bank and turn out the vote.
Serving as master of ceremonies, environmental justice organizer Anthony Rogers-Wright set a tone of urgency.
“We must abolish the system of oppression known as climate change … We are out of time. We have to get radical … We are talking about keeping our planet alive. Our children are our landlords; we are renting from them.”
Wright pointed out that fracking disproportionately harms people of color, especially in California where 90 percent of fracking wells are located within one mile of communities of color. A come-from-behind win for Bernie in New York, observed Wright, would serve as wind in the sails of Bernie’s later primary race in California, as well as bolster anti-fracking efforts there.
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The recurring themes of the day—the generational and racial inequities of climate change; the lateness of the hour that makes incremental solutions and half-measures ineffectual; the need for bold political leadership; the multiple perils that fracking poses for climate, water and public health—were made by several speakers, including tribal rights attorney and Honor the Earth campaigns director Tara Houska, 350.org founder Bill McKibben (participating via Skype) and anti-fracking activist and filmmaker Josh Fox.
A new rift in the Democratic race has opened up, with Bernie Sanders making the case that Bill Clinton’s two-term presidency was harmful to the African-American voters who are among the most loyal groups in the Clinton family’s political base.
The Vermont senator is vying to win over African-American voters in advance of the April 19 New York primary, and is seizing on a dust-up last week between the husband of his rival, Hillary Clinton, and a pair of protesters over crime and social-welfare policies dating back to the 1990s.
Mr. Sanders’s campaign also released a new TV ad produced by movie director Spike Lee that will air soon in New York. The ad features entertainer Harry Belafonte and civil-rights activists vouching for Mr. Sanders as someone who is sensitive to the struggles of racial and religious minorities.
Targeting Mr. Clinton carries certain perils. Polls show the 42nd president is popular among Democrats, and he enjoyed a particular bond with African-Americans during his time in office. And Mrs. Clinton has, in the primaries so far, carried overwhelming majorities of the African-American vote, with Mr. Sanders heavily dependent on white voters.
But racial politics are shifting, breaking along similar generational lines that have left Mrs. Clinton garnering more support from older women voters than younger ones.
Both of the Clintons have been on the defensive over tough-on-crime policies enacted when he was president. Hoping to expand his coalition, Mr. Sanders is advancing the argument that the Clinton presidential years imposed certain hardships on African-Americans.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders -- the first Jewish candidate to win a presidential nominating contest -- believes Israel's response in the 2014 Gaza war was "disproportionate."
"Was Israel's response disproportionate? I think it was," he told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on "State of the Union."
"Israel has a 100% -- and no one will fight for that principle more strongly than I will -- has the right to live in freedom, independently and in security without having to be subjected to terrorist attacks," he said. "But I think that we will not succeed to ever bring peace into that region unless we also treat the Palestinians with dignity and respect, and that is my view."
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Later in the interview, Sanders, a secular Jew, said he hopes to provide a "balanced" view on issues related to Israel and Palestine than most U.S. politicians.
"It is interesting ... that the first Jew in American history to win a delegate, much less a primary, is taking this position with Israel," Tapper told Sanders. "Usually in American politics, everyone just supports Israel whatever Israel wants to do, but you are taking a more critical position."
"I'm taking a more balanced position," Sanders replied.
He added: "Whether you're Jewish or not Jewish, I would hope that every person in this country wants to see the misery of never-ending war and conflict ended in the Middle East. It's a difficult issue and good people have tried to deal with it for years."
Sanders, despite hailing from Brooklyn, is effectively a newcomer to Empire State politics. He only opened his first campaign office here a few weeks ago, and he has been away from New York City for so long that he thought you could still use tokens in the subway. But, despite all of the disadvantages Sanders faces, his supporters and allies are still hopeful that he can defy the polls and score an upset, as he did in Michigan.
Ten days ago, Sanders held an outdoor rally at a park in the hardscrabble Mott Haven section of the South Bronx. About eighteen thousand people showed up. The crowd was so large that it couldn’t entirely fit into the allotted space. Now Sanders is campaigning full-time in New York, seeking to eat into Clinton’s lead, and drawing on a small army of volunteers.
“Normally when you run a campaign, you have a lot of people working for you—you have to drag them places, and you have to pay people to do things,” Bill Lipton, the New York director of the progressive Working Families Party, which is supporting Sanders, told me. “This is a different type of campaign. There is a movement out there for Bernie Sanders. He has the type of energy we’ve rarely seen in New York politics, where thousands of people come out for a rally in response to an e-mail. Many of them leave with sheets of paper telling them how to get involved, and the next day they are knocking on doors.”
The mobilization isn’t restricted to New York City, Lipton said. He cited support for Sanders among environmental activists in the Hudson Valley, and said that an organizational meeting in Buffalo—where Sanders is scheduled to speak on Monday—that was called at short notice still attracted hundreds of volunteers. State officials have reported an unprecedented surge in last-minute registrations by new voters, which may also owe to the Sanders effect. “I think turnout will be high,” Kenneth Sherrill, an emeritus professor of political science at the City College of New York, whose memories of state politics go back to the nineteen-sixties, told me. “A lot of people who haven’t voted in primaries before are going to be voting, and that introduces a random factor.”
The Sanders campaign is also hoping to build on some recent precedents that are encouraging for insurgent candidates. In the September, 2013, Democratic mayoral primary, de Blasio, who started his campaign as a rank outsider, defeated Christine Quinn, the City Council Speaker, who was heavily favored. A year later, in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham Law School professor, who was virtually unknown to the general public prior to her campaign, bloodied Governor Cuomo’s nose, getting more than a third of the vote. In some counties upstate, Teachout, who had only a minimal campaign operation, beat the Governor.
Given this history, and Sanders’s success in other states, some experienced observers of New York politics are reluctant to write him off. “Could anything happen in New York? The answer is yes,” Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant who has worked for numerous Democrats over the years, including Bill Clinton, told me. “If the left turns out, Bernie Sanders can do better than expected.” Sherill, for his part, said, “I think any outcome is plausible.”
While quizzing the queue of supporters as to their thoughts on Mr Sanders, The Independent also asked – if it truly were Amatuer Night – what song they would like Mr Sanders to sing, and why.
Honesty Guess, a 36-year-old actor, said he supported Mr Sanders as he shared his opinions on many of the issues most important to him. As for a song for the former Burlington mayor, he would have lived to hear him sing Can You Feel the Love Tonight, by Elton John and Tim Rice, and taken from the 1994 animated film The Lion King.
Joe Grimy said he was from Boston and yet he had come to hear the senator speak. He said he could he could not see himself voting for anyone else – “Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump”. As for a song for Mr Sanders, he suggested a change of pace, with LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out.
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Among those attending the rally in their ninth decade was Cal Jones, an historian retired government employee. He had been born in Harlem, moved to Brookyln for work, and then returned to the city as fortunes changed again.
At the age of 86, he said he believed that every day Mr Sanders’ campaign persisted represented “a victory”. He said no other candidate was raising the issues the Vermont senator had.
Mr Jones chuckled when asked to suggest a song. For a moment he considered something by Ray Charles. Then he changed his mind and opted for a song by Josh White, a black singer and activist who was close to President Franklin Roosevelt.
The song he suggested was What Is America To Me, which was later made famous by Frank Sinatra.
U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan says he plans to support presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention in July.
In a statement, Nolan said he has considered a number of factors, including “the will” of Minnesota caucus attendees and particularly those in the state’s 8th congressional district.
Nolan says Sanders’ message and his authenticity appeals to him and to voters in Minnesota. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has also pledged his support for Sanders.
The congressman is a so-called superdelegate for the Democratic Party. Superdelgates are not bound by primary elections or caucuses and are free to vote as they wish at the national convention.
We are living in unprecedented times; the fallacies of America are now being told by those who have been most affected. As someone who will be a first time voter in this election, I, along with many other people throughout this country, am fed up with “politicians” and not interested in engaging in a political process that is rigged. Just this week we saw how the Clintons continue to to demonstrate that they are unwilling to listen to the concerns of young Black voters, when former President Bill Clinton shouted over protestors at a campaign rally.
Black people in this country are not looking for a savior, we are looking for people that will stand with us, fight with us and shackle themselves to us in the midst of it all. A person’s actions speak highly about one’s character. For more than 40 years, Senator Bernie Sanders has been on the frontlines of direct action against the very institution he as a white man could have benefitted from.
A few weeks ago, I penned an article expressing why I wasn’t inspired to vote for Senator Sanders at that time. I felt that during his visit here to Baltimore, there was a missed opportunity to engage many of us who traditionally have not been a part of the process. Senator Sanders could have taken the route of ignoring this call for accountability, instead he and his team have worked to establish a relationship with young people here on the ground in Baltimore. From weekly phone calls to consistent efforts to fill the void between us and our representatives and those of us who have previously been un-engaged, it’s actions like these which prove that Senator Sanders is still willing to stand with those of us who have never had a voice in politics.
I believe Bernie Sanders is the only candidate that truly believes a better tomorrow exists for the millions of unengaged young people fighting to create a prosperous future. We cannot afford to go backwards. Not only is Senator Sanders fighting the for the issues that matter most to the least among us but he did so yesterday, and I believe he’ll wake up tomorrow with his mind set on carrying this fight forward. I honestly can’t say that about any other candidate for president.