On May 1, at the National Press Club, Bernie confirmed he will be "rejecting the will of the voters," if he loses the elected delegate race (as he knows he almost surely will).
You can see him say that right now on YouTube just below (linked to exact time). But first, here’s a short but accurate transcript of the Q&A (it leaves out his excuses).
- Mary Alice Williams: “If you do not secure the majority of pledged delegates, do you still believe that superdelegates should switch [Bernie nods yes] and back you [yeah] as in rejecting the will of the voters?
- Bernie: Yeah, well you know it’s a funny thing. … I hope that we will win the pledged delegates, but at the end of the day … if those superdelegates conclude that Bernie Sanders is the best candidate, … yes I would very much welcome their support.”
This goes against what he’s said for months and against half a million signatures of his supporters saying “Let the voters decide.” Also in this clip he says:
“the responsibility the superdelegates have is to decide what is best for this country.”
Well you can’t have it both ways — “the voters decide” and “the supers decide.” And, of course, the only reason he flipped was because he could see the voters were going to decide “wrong.” So on the night he lost NY, after outspending Clinton, his campaign manager announced on MSNBC that even if they lost the popular vote and the pledge delegate vote, they would keep fighting till the convention to get the supers to reject the will of the voters.
So I’ve made a MoveOn petition. Yes, I know, that’s Bernie-land. Exactly the point. I’m a longstanding member. So why not? If it flies, it’s a Man Bites Dog story and the press will love it. But I really, really need help with this. We are coming up to June 7. So, if you can sign, share or whatever, Thank you, Thank You. And Hillary will thank you too. Here are the links:
MoveOn petition: pac.petitions.moveon.org/…
All the extra background info you could want: zfacts.com/…
This is really important. I think exposing this self-serving flip-flop and pointing out that there is zero chance he can flip 250 supers to him after losing the voters is the best way to pressure him to do what his only Senate endorser already calls for — concede on June 7. If he doesn’t he will just keep damaging Hillary, keep her from fighting Trump, and not fighting Trump himself. This would be disastrous. And he’s now said many times, that’s what he will do.
(If you look lower-left on the petition, you can find the embed code for easily putting the petition in a web page.) (I’m not usually active on DailyKos, and need some help circulating this.)