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Bernie Sanders’s Campaign Accuses Head of D.N.C. of Favoritism Bernie Sanders’s Defiance Strains Ties With Top Democrats
(about 3 hours later)
Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign assailed the head of the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday, accusing her of blatantly favoring his rival, Hillary Clinton, during the party’s increasingly tense nominating battle. WASHINGTON — Senator Bernie Sanders’s relationship with the leadership of the Democratic Party and his colleagues on Capitol Hill was strained further on Wednesday as he and his campaign remained defiant over the way they say his success is being belittled and undermined by people in the party who are loyal to Hillary Clinton.
The criticism comes amid growing fears about the prospects for party unity, as supporters of Mr. Sanders have been enraged by how they were treated at a state convention in Nevada last weekend and directed violent threats at the Democratic chairwoman there. Whatever tolerance Democrats have for Mr. Sanders’s continuing his increasingly long-shot presidential bid was quickly evaporating, with some accusing him of not being straightforward with his legions of followers about the nominating process he has assailed as unfair.
National party leaders, such as the D.N.C.’s chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, have criticized how Mr. Sanders has handled the unrest, adding to the frustration within his campaign. “He understood the rules,” Representative Xavier Becerra of California said in an interview Wednesdayon MSNBC. “If you don’t like the rules, go to the referee. The referee makes a call, you’re done.”
“The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, it is clear almost from the get-go she has been working against Bernie Sanders — there’s no doubt about it, for personal reasons,” Jeff Weaver, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, said of Ms. Wasserman Schultz on MSNBC. The dispute centered around the Democratic state convention in Nevada over the weekend in which Mr. Sanders was denied the delegates he thought he had earned, a development that infuriated his supporters there and led some to throw chairs and later threaten the state party chairwoman.
Mr. Weaver cited the primary debate schedule and the D.N.C.’s fund-raising agreement with Mrs. Clinton as specific slights. In regards to Ms. Wasserman Schultz, he added, “She has been the divider and not really provided leadership that the Democratic Party needs.” The Democratic Party of Nevada pushed back against the Sanders campaign’s criticism that the process wrongly deprived him of delegates, saying that “simple math” dictated the outcome and that Mr. Sanders was simply outnumbered. “Bernie Sanders’s campaign was not organized,” the party said in a statement, noting that nearly 500 of his seats at the convention were vacant because his supporters had failed to show up.
Mr. Sanders has condemned violence and harassment by his supporters and has vowed that he will do whatever it takes to prevent Donald J. Trump from becoming president, even if he is not the Democratic nominee. But it is unclear if Mr. Sanders’s passionate fans will follow suit. National party leaders, such as the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, have also criticized how Mr. Sanders has handled the unrest in Nevada, adding to the frustration within his campaign.
Several of the supporters of Mr. Sanders who left messages for Roberta Lange, the Nevada Democratic Party’s chairwoman, said that they would be voting for Mr. Trump over Mrs. Clinton because of how they were treated by the state party. Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager took to cable news on Wednesday to assail the party and Ms. Schultz.
A WBUR poll of New Hampshire voters that was released on Wednesday also showed some ominous signs for Mrs. Clinton, who was deadlocked with Mr. Trump in a hypothetical general-election matchup in the state. Nearly a quarter of those who support Mr. Sanders had no plans to vote for Mrs. Clinton if she is nominated, and 10 percent said they would vote for Mr. Trump if she were the Democratic nominee. “The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, it is clear almost from the get-go she has been working against Bernie Sanders — there’s no doubt about it, for personal reasons,” Jeff Weaver, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, said of Ms. Wasserman Schultz on MSNBC. “She has been the divider and not really provided leadership that the Democratic Party needs,” Mr. Weaver added.
Exit polls last week during the West Virginia Democratic primary showed a similar dynamic, with 44 percent of voters who supported Mr. Sanders saying that they would back Mr. Trump in a general election. Nowhere has the strain in the Democratic Party been more evident lately than in Mr. Sanders’s relationship with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader. Few members of the Senate are closer to Mr. Sanders than Mr. Reid, who had tried to head off any confrontation by speaking personally with Mr. Sanders on Friday to stress the importance of not letting the state convention devolve into a messy fight over a handful of delegates.
“There is healing in the Democratic Party that will need to take place,” said Steve Koczela, who conducted the WBUR poll. “The primary is definitively not over in the minds of Sanders supporters and a lot of it has left them pretty cold to the idea of voting for Hillary Clinton.” “If you want the two damn delegates, you can have them,” Mr. Reid told Mr. Sanders, according to someone with firsthand knowledge of the discussions between the two senators. Though Mr. Reid has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, he has said that he believes Mr. Sanders has earned a right to remain in the race.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has been relishing the discord on the Democratic side and coaxing disaffected backers of Mr. Sanders to join him. After the convention went awry, Mr. Reid and Mr. Sanders spoke again on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Reid expressed dismay that Mr. Sanders’s supporters had acted so belligerently. A member of his own staff was at the convention and feared for her own safety, Mr. Reid said. He also said that the way Sanders supporters had been harassing Roberta Lange, the state party chairwoman — filling her voice mail with threatening, obscene messages and showing up at her Las Vegas restaurant in protest — was over the line.
“Bernie Sanders is being treated very badly by the Democrats,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “The system is rigged against him.” Mr. Sanders said he agreed and believed that the violence should be condemned. But when he released his statement on Tuesday night, which made only a passing reference to the violence at the convention, a perplexed Mr. Reid told his staff that he thought the gesture was “silly” and beneath Mr. Sanders, according to the person who spoke with Mr. Reid.
The two senators have not spoken since.