The California delegation breakfast at the Democratic National Convention on Monday morning featured loud shouts from Bernie Sanders supporters, attacking calls for unity behind Hillary Clinton.
As Roll Call reported, Sanders backers protested multiple party leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The crowd booed Representative Michael Honda, chanted “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie!” during Representative Barbara Lee’s remarks.
Pelosi tried to emphasize Democratic unity against Republicans, but the audience wouldn’t listen. One protester thrust a “Bernie” sign in her face, but she took it in stride, “I don’t consider it a discourtesy even if it is intended as one.”
Pelosi went out of her way to accommodate the Bernie bros. She said she always opposed superdelegates. She praised Sanders for staying in the race through the California primary, boosting Democratic turnout. Nevertheless, she walked off stage to more “Bernie” chants.
Pelosi downplayed her party’s divisions in remarks to reporters after the event.
“Well, you know, it’s the Democratic Party,” she said, according to Roll Call. “We’ve never been a monolith, and we’ve always tried to reach consensus. But unanimity has never — it’s just an impossibility for any party.”
Following the commotion at the Republican National Convention last week, her remarks seem to ring true. But not all conventions have been this fraught with division.
The unpopularity of both candidates at the top of the parties’ tickets has a great deal to do with the dissensions this year, and there’s no reason to expect they will suddenly disappear in November.
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