San Francisco - US Senator Bernie
Sanders on Sunday called on California Democrats to unite
against Donald Trump, kicking the 2020 presidential campaign
into high gear with jabs against the Republican president and a
veiled swipe at Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Sanders called Trump "a racist, a sexist, a homophobe and a
religious bigot" in a speech capping off a state Democratic
convention that drew fourteen of the 24 candidates to make their
case before 5,000 delegates, guests and press in the most
populous - and most heavily Democratic - U.S. state.
"Together we are going to defeat a president who has the
most corrupt administration in history," Sanders said, "and a
president who knows nothing about real American values."
The San Francisco convention became a window into the forces
at work in the Democratic Party as it seeks to recover from
Trump's populist-fueled victory in 2016.
The party's left-leaning delegates greeted Sanders and
liberal U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren like rock stars.
Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper drew boos when he
said socialist policies would not propel the party to victory,
and other moderates were booed for rejecting the idea of a
universal public health care system, or Medicare for All.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads Sanders in polls
for the Democratic nomination in California and nationwide, did
not attend the convention, drawing barely veiled criticism from
Sanders.
Sanders noted that the fourteen candidates who addressed the
convention, as well as some who had "chosen for whatever reason
not to be in this room," offer a variety of ways to approach a
campaign against Trump. But Sanders rejected the centrist
approach favored by Biden and some other candidates.
On issues like health care, pharmaceutical prices and
climate change wracking the country, "there is no middle
ground," Sanders said.
Addressing concerns among some Democrats that a moderate
would be more electable than a fiery progressive, Sanders said
such an approach would not generate the enthusiasm needed to
defeat Trump.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the 2019 California Democratic Party State Organizing Convention in San Francisco. Picture: Jeff Chiu/AP
"We will not defeat Donald Trump unless we bring excitement
and energy into the campaign and unless we give millions of
working people and young people a reason to vote and a reason to
believe that politics is relevant to their lives," Sanders said.
California, which will send nearly 500 delegates to the
party's nominating convention next year, took on new heft for
the 2020 campaign after moving its nominating election to March
from June. Democrats hold all elective offices in the state, and
dominate both houses of the legislature.
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, a native daughter who has been
eclipsed in early polling in California by Biden and Sanders,
made clear she was not taking her home state for granted.
On Saturday, supporters with signs bearing her name and
shouting "Kamala! Kamala!" formed a gauntlet that Sanders was
forced to walk through on his way into a labor union breakfast.
"I am here to earn everyone’s support, and I’m going to
fight to earn it," Harris said at a breakfast held by the
party's women's caucus.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein and Tim Reid; editing by Bill
Berkrot)