Bernie Sanders Campaign: Democrats ‘Courting Disaster’ With Clinton Nomination

The Bernie Sanders campaign says there will be a contested convention come July, and the Democratic party will be “rolling the dice and courting disaster” if they nominate Clinton for the general election. They say Sanders is the surest bet against Trump’s political momentum, and the polls agree. The campaign insists it’s continuing until the end, but it seems unlikely that the establishment will respond by handing the reins over to Sanders — no matter the consequences.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, polls show that a potential Clinton vs. Trump election looks like it will be very tight for both candidates, especially in swing states like Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

For Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, the polls look much better, indicating that he would have an easier time beating the real estate mogul.

According to AOL, Jim Weaver, Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager, sent out an email explaining that they will be at the convention, and the party will have one last chance to pick the stronger candidate.

“Then we’re going to have a contested convention where the Democratic Party must decide if they want the candidate with the momentum who is best positioned to beat Trump, or if they are willing to roll the dice and court disaster simply to protect the status quo for the political and financial establishment of this country.”

He also said, “because we must do everything we can to defeat Trump in November, our mission is to win as many pledged delegates as we can between now and June 14.”

The more delegates Bernie Sanders can pick up, the stronger his voice will be in the convention.

Hillary Clinton is also courting a disaster — the GOP establishment.

Disenchanted GOP stalwarts are now pouring money into the Clinton candidacy, including Ted Cruz’s big-money donor Renaissance Technologies, a hedge-fund created by James Simons. The Observer reports that the fund has not given up on politics after losing over $13 million in the Ted Cruz campaign. Instead, they’re doubling down by putting $2 million, so far, into Clinton’s bid.

Politico is also reporting that Clinton’s supporters — on their own volition and without coordinating with the official campaign, according to a spokesman — are making calls to big GOP donors, like Woody Johnson, Jeb Bush’s former finance chair and New York Jets owner.

A person close to the Clinton campaign said that the supporters were drawing up lists of Wall Street donors who gave to GOP candidates, saying “when you think about it there is no downside to making these calls, including for Hillary herself to make them.”

For Democrats, and even Bernie Sanders, there is a big downside.

This election cycle has shown that big-money donors can easily become a political liability. Suspicion of a corrupt establishment has pushed a former reality show host and real estate mogul with no experience as an elected official to the top of the GOP ticket, and will soon take a 74-year-old, little-known Vermont Senator into a contested convention against one of the most well-known politicians in modern times.

For Clinton to tap into scrutinizing Bernie Sanders movement, nothing short of completely betraying big-money special interests will do.

That seems increasingly unlikely.

Likewise, the backing of the GOP establishment will likely to erode the former Secretary of State’s demographic advantages with women in the general election. ThinkProgress declared Ted Cruz’s platform the “most anti-women agenda yet.” The man who funded that platform appears to believe Clinton is a good enough second to spend millions on.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign is right, the DNC is courting a disaster with a Clinton nomination. The polls are evidence, but they don’t capture the entire problem (there’s also the FBI investigation, the defense of the racially-charged term “super-predator,” and campaign financing schemes that are depriving down-ticket democrats of money – to name a few other Clinton weaknesses).

Bernie Sanders is no longer running a campaign to usurp the Democratic party; he’s running to save it from itself.

[Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images]