Burning from leaked emails, these Sanders supporters won’t back Hillary

Senator Bernie Sanders leaving the stage after addressing the Democratic National Convention. (Photo from Reuters / Scott Audette)
Senator Bernie Sanders leaving the stage after addressing the Democratic National Convention. (Photo from Reuters / Scott Audette)

The revelations from hacked emails between Democratic party insiders and Hillary Clinton’s campaign have left former Bernie Sanders supporters in Washington feeling burned.

On Oct. 7 Wikileaks began dropping thousands of documents hacked from the email of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. On Wednesday Wikileaks dropped its twelfth round of emails.

Taken together with the documents provided by hacker Guccifer 2.0 to The Intercept they suggest collusion between notable mainstream journalists like Ken Vogel from Politico, and Maria Cardona and Jake Tapper from CNN and the Clinton campaign.

“Need to know asap if we want to offer Jake Tapper questions to ask us,” said one email between DNC officials, suggesting the journalist was willing to ask softball questions furnished by the campaign.

Leaked emails also confirm suspicions of Bernie Sanders supporters of contempt by the Clinton campaign and DNC during the primaries.

In an email dated March 20, 2016 forwarded to Clinton campaign officials from Mark Alan Siegel, a former DNC official and drafter of the super-delegate system, Bernie supporters’ concerns about super-delegates are described as “bitching.”

With 72 percent of Washington state caucusing for Sanders, and plenty of “bitching” by Washington delegates at the convention, it comes to no surprise that the revelations concerning Clinton leaves local Sanders loyalists with a bittersweet sense of vindication.

“Theres always talk about Hillary Clinton being a corrupt politician and not caring about the public as much as her donors, but that is just talk,” said Yulia Issa, who attended the Democratic National Convention as a Sanders delegate. “But Wikileaks shows evidence of that, it’s not speculation anymore.”

Like many Bernie supporters, this was Issa’s first year being involved in politics. She even hurried to get her citizenship in order to participate and vote for Sen. Sanders.

“Voters can’t blind themselves saying that Clinton is going to do better for us. [The emails] just show she’s not. She has other plans,” Issa said.

Excerpts from Clinton’s paid speeches that were leaked in the Podesta emails suggest that she believes it is necessary to have a public and private position on some policies.

In a speech delivered to Wall Street, Clinton is quoted saying “as senator, ‘I represented and worked with so many on Wall Street and ‘did all I could to make sure they continued to prosper.’

“When you become beholden to big business this is what happens,” said Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, reflecting on the leaks.

Sawant, a self-described socialist, said she will not be voting Clinton, but emphasizes that does not mean she’s voting for Trump. She urges former Sanders supporters to vote for the Green Party nominee Jill Stein.

“A defining feature of this years campaign has been how we have this political comedy/tragedy with the least popular presidential candidate in the last ten presidential elections… Donald Trump, running against the second least popular candidate,” said Sawant.

According to Real Clear Politics, both Trump and Clinton have an average unfavorability rating above 50 percent.

Dinea Evans, a single black mother from Burien, also served as a national delegate for Bernie Sanders during the convention. This election was her first year participating in politics.

“In this specific election, it makes things very difficult to get behind Hillary Clinton, because its not just heresay to us anymore,” said Evans.

Sander’s supporters were known to criticize the untrustworthiness of Clinton by pointing out her close ties to corporate America and unwillingness to release the full transcripts of her Wall Street speeches.

But in an 80-page transcript posted online from Clinton’s paid speeches, she suggests Wal-Mart cares about community and social welfare, despite the company being widely criticized for its treatment of employees.

We’re up against big money in politics, we’re losing, we lost, we’re going to lose every time and I feel betrayed as a citizen because this is supposed to be a democracy,” said Evans, “It doesn’t matter, its all about money.”

Disclosure: The author phone banked for the Sanders campaign and volunteered at a campaign event in Seattle.

7 Comments

  1. Voting for Hillary is tantamount to an endorsement of cheating of the worst kind. Both major parties are a pox on America. Vote Stein.

  2. Vote for Trump, everybody in establishment hates him and that tells me that while he may be a maverick, he also cant be bought.

    This isn’t a parliamentary system where 3rd parties have a say, voting for a 3rd party is basically helping Clinton to get elected. If she gets into the oval office, you can kiss the constitution goodbye, you can kiss ethics goodbye and say hello to endless wars of aggression, hey you might even luck out and get ww3.

    You thought Bush and Obama were bad neo-cons, lol you haven’t seen nothing yet.

    1. That’s funny…..most people say if you vote Third Party, you’re helping Trump. signed, a senior citizen Just FINE with STEIN

  3. Sanders national delegates didn’t need WikiLeaks to confirm corruption in the DNC and Democratic Party, we experienced it first hand. Delegates decredentialed for bogus reasons, delegates dragged out without explanation by security, seat fillers paid to displace Sanders people, intimidation calls from “police” to a delegate’s family members back in WA, and on the last night seven armed Secret Service and FBI agents physically surrounded me (one even followed me into the women’s restroom) to limit my activity, and there’s more… Not only will many of us not back Clinton, we’ve left the Democrats altogether and are working to build a new, inclusive progressive party for the 99%.

  4. Ironic to complain about superdelegates being undemocratic when the caucuses are undemocratic. In Washington State HC actually won the primary, but Bernie got more delegates because of the caucus. But no one complains about how undemocratic that was!

  5. The way Bernie Sanders was marginalized and criticized by Clinton and DNC Officials, make me wonder why one should vote for Hillary. She is a polished politician, with no ethics and morality. Your one vote in WA – a real Blue State – for Hillary will not make any difference. May be she will not able to term it as a mandate from WA State. btw, I am no Trumper!

Comments are closed.

7 Comments

  1. Voting for Hillary is tantamount to an endorsement of cheating of the worst kind. Both major parties are a pox on America. Vote Stein.

  2. Vote for Trump, everybody in establishment hates him and that tells me that while he may be a maverick, he also cant be bought.

    This isn’t a parliamentary system where 3rd parties have a say, voting for a 3rd party is basically helping Clinton to get elected. If she gets into the oval office, you can kiss the constitution goodbye, you can kiss ethics goodbye and say hello to endless wars of aggression, hey you might even luck out and get ww3.

    You thought Bush and Obama were bad neo-cons, lol you haven’t seen nothing yet.

    1. That’s funny…..most people say if you vote Third Party, you’re helping Trump. signed, a senior citizen Just FINE with STEIN

  3. Sanders national delegates didn’t need WikiLeaks to confirm corruption in the DNC and Democratic Party, we experienced it first hand. Delegates decredentialed for bogus reasons, delegates dragged out without explanation by security, seat fillers paid to displace Sanders people, intimidation calls from “police” to a delegate’s family members back in WA, and on the last night seven armed Secret Service and FBI agents physically surrounded me (one even followed me into the women’s restroom) to limit my activity, and there’s more… Not only will many of us not back Clinton, we’ve left the Democrats altogether and are working to build a new, inclusive progressive party for the 99%.

  4. Ironic to complain about superdelegates being undemocratic when the caucuses are undemocratic. In Washington State HC actually won the primary, but Bernie got more delegates because of the caucus. But no one complains about how undemocratic that was!

  5. The way Bernie Sanders was marginalized and criticized by Clinton and DNC Officials, make me wonder why one should vote for Hillary. She is a polished politician, with no ethics and morality. Your one vote in WA – a real Blue State – for Hillary will not make any difference. May be she will not able to term it as a mandate from WA State. btw, I am no Trumper!

Comments are closed.