Bernie Sanders may propose Hillary Clinton’s nomination Tuesday evening, as part of a last-minute deal being hammered out by the two camps as they seek party unity amid a chaotic convention in Philadelphia.
The Sanders campaign is asking the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to allow Vermont to formally call for her nomination — a symbolic gesture that would allow the majority of Sanders’ delegates to be tallied in the convention while also showing that Sanders is behind Clinton.
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said Tuesday that all sides have agreed to let Vermont offer up Clinton’s nomination by unanimous consent but he would not say whether Sanders would be the superdelegate to propose her nomination.
The negotiations come as Sanders has attempted to tamp down his rowdy supporters, at times getting booed by his own backers as he called for Democratic unity. The news follows Sanders speech to the Democratic National Convention on Monday, where he empathized with the disappointment of his supporters but said they must support Hillary Clinton in the fall.
Vice President Joe Biden, who was doing a walkthrough of the Wells Fargo Arena Tuesday morning, said that Democrats need to “show a little class” to Sanders supporters who are still stinging from his loss.
“We have to show a little class and let them be frustrated for a while,” Biden told CNN. “It’s OK.”
Some of his supporters have struggled with that message, interrupting some convention speakers and delegate breakfasts. Sanders, who was booed during a California delegation breakfast Tuesday, is encouraging his backers to think of what a Trump presidency would look like.
“It is easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face if we are living under a Trump presidency,” Sanders responded.
But Sanders’ own delegates were as angry as ever Tuesday morning, just hours after he implored them to support Clinton in his prime-time speech. Sanders delegates in California booed down speakers, including Clinton supporter Rep. Xavier Becerra. At one point in Becerra’s brief talk, some delegates hopped on tables with Sanders signs, while other delegates pounded loudly on the tables in unison.
As of early Tuesday morning, it did not look like even Sanders would be able to sway his supporters.
“Believe it or not we are not all blind followers of Bernie. We love Bernie and everything he represents, but all because he tells us to do something doesn’t mean we will,” said Kari Garcia, a 25-year-old Sanders supporter who went to the convention with the California delegation.
Garcia and others at her table, including Sanders delegate Brian Carolus, were loudly booing and chanting “Bernie!” throughout the California breakfast.
Carolus, a 27-year-old delegate from California, said calls for them to get behind Clinton or face a Trump presidency amounted to “victim-blaming.”
“I don’t like that characterization, because it’s blaming the victim. It’s victim-blaming. We are the victims of their fraud and their corruption and their cheating,” said Carolus, who cited the leaked DNC emails as part of his mistrust of the Democratic Party.
Others Sanders supporters, meanwhile, announced Tuesday they were canning their effort to nominate an alternative to Tim Kaine.
Norman Solomon, co-founder of the Bernie Delegates Network, told reporters that he had found a VP candidate who would run against Kaine, but would not reveal the candidate’s name because the Democratic Party hid the filing paperwork from them.
