Bernie Sanders Protesters Rush Stage At Oakland Rally, Secret Service Called In To Help [Video]


Protesters rushed the stage at a Bernie Sanders rally in California Monday, causing the Democratic candidate’s Secret Service detail to hurriedly pull the 74-year-old away from the microphone as the situation was dealt with.

As ABC News reports, Sanders was speaking in Oakland on Monday when animal rights activists from Direct Action Everywhere rushed the stage. In video of the protest, which you can see below, a member of Sanders’ Secret Service Detail pulled the candidate away from the microphone and shielded him as other agents jumped into the fray.

At least one protester appears to have been hit by a Secret Service agent’s baton, and another appears to have been carried away by his arms and legs.

It is not clear, as of this writing, how many (if any) of the five protesters who rushed the stage were arrested.

Sanders, for his part, took the incident in stride, returning to the podium moments later to continue with his speech.

“We don’t get intimidated easily.”

Similarly, Sanders campaign spokesperson Michael Briggs said he thought the incident was handled “professionally.”

Sanders has had a Secret Service detail since February, and this is the first time his security has been called to protect the candidate from protesters.

This is not, however, the first time this election season that a candidate’s Secret Service detail has had to protect a candidate. In March, according to the Daily Caller, a group of protesters tried to take the stage at a Donald Trump rally in Dayton, Ohio.

So what beef does Direct Action Everywhere have with Bernie Sanders?

In a statement, spokesperson Zach Groff said that Sanders is not “progressive” enough when it comes to animal rights issues.

“[Sanders’] campaign has promoted itself based on this idea of progressivism and rejecting discrimination and inequality, but when it comes to the animals in the United States and around the world, discrimination and violence is the name of the game every single day. He claims to be a progressive, but you cannot be a progressive if you oppose animal rights.”

Specifically, the group opposes Sanders’ so-called soft stance on “factory farms” – that is, farms in which animals are kept in small cages and treated to other inhumane conditions.

The group claims that Sanders has said, in the past, that he opposes such farms, but the reality is that the overwhelming majority of the meat produced in the U.S. comes from “factory farms,” according to the group.

Direct Action Everywhere’s protest took place as Sanders is touring around California while trying to win over voters ahead of the Golden State’s June 7 primary. California and its 546 delegates would be a huge prize for either Sanders or his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. As of this writing, Hillary Clinton is leading in California by just under 10 points, according to the New York Times.

Bernie Sanders continues to gamely campaign on even though by just about every analysis his odds of winning the Democratic nomination are slim to nil. Still, in a May 26 Huffington Post report, Rose Ann DeMoro lays out a case for why the Democrats should nominate Sanders over Hillary (namely, that Sanders has a significantly better chance at beating Trump in November) and claims that he can still pull it off if the so-called superdelegates all throw their support behind Sanders.

“The 719 unpledged super delegates will end up deciding the nomination – as occurred in 2008 when neither Barack Obama nor Clinton had enough pledged delegates alone to win.”

Do you think the Bernie Sanders protesters who rushed the stage at his Oakland rally were in the wrong?

[Photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP Images]

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