PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Bernie Sanders sent a text message to the leaders of his delegation pleading with them not to protest on the Democratic convention floor Monday night.
“I ask you as a personal courtesy to me to not engage in any kind of protest on the floor,” he wrote in the text message to his delegate whips. “It’s of utmost importance you explain this to your delegations.”
He signed the text, “Bernie.”
Many of his delegates did not heed his warning, as some Sanders supporters interrupted the convention’s opening prayer with chants of “Bernie!” DNC Chair Rep. Marcia Fudge reprimanded the delegates for interrupting her opening remarks when she said she was “excited” to help elect Hillary Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine. “Excuse me!” she pleaded, as Sanders delegates interrupted her with boos and chants of “Bernie.”
“We are all Democrats, and we need to act like it,” Fudge said.
Later, Sanders sent an email to his delegates saying that their movement’s credibility would be “damaged” by “booing, turning of backs, walking out or other similar displays.” Sanders said such demonstrations are “what the corporate media wants.”
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Sanders was loudly booed Monday afternoon by hundreds of his fans when he told his delegates to back Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, in a meeting at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Sanders is scheduled to speak at the end of the night, after Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and is expected to make a plea for party unity.
The Democratic National Convention has had a rocky start. Notably, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced Sunday that she would resign after the convention ended and also announced that she would not gavel in the convention as previously planned. The announcement came after a damaging leak of emails in which DNC officials were revealed to have been trying to undermine Sanders’ primary campaign. The DNC released a statement offering a “sincere apology” to Sanders and his supporters as the convention began.