If the Democratic party was hoping for a peaceful end to an acrimonious primary campaign, incidents Monday night may have shattered that illusion. Former Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a “raucous” rally in Detroit, Michigan, was repeatedly interrupted by “Bernie Bros” and environmental protesters, knocking a Biden aide to the ground and visibly angering the candidate.
Biden held the last minute rally at Renaissance High School in Detroit, hosting Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), both of whom endorsed Biden on Monday, and several of Michigan’s top Democrats, including Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. The 2,000 person rally was “raucous” at times, according to Politico, but not necessarily because of Detroit’s unbridled enthusiasm for Joe Biden.
“[A]t two points, shouts and demonstrations within the crowd interrupted Biden’s remarks,” the outlet reported. “After Biden took the stage, protesters unfurled banners, one that read: ‘NAFTA killed our jobs.'”
Initially Biden assumed the protesters were supporters of President Donald Trump, but it soon became clear the so-called “Bernie Bros” — aggressive supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), whose bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination could end Tuesday if he doesn’t pull out a win in Michigan — were hell-bent on disrupting Biden’s event.
“Are you a Donald Trump …?” Biden started, before reality dawned on him. “That’s OK, let him go. This is not a Trump rally. Let him go, let him go. The Bernie Bros are here. Let him go.”
“Minutes later, a larger group of pro-Green New Deal demonstrators began shouting over Biden’s remarks and waving signs,” Politico added. One Biden aide, Symone Sanders, was “hit in the head with an iPad and knocked to the ground.”
Photos show protesters holding signs demanding “green jobs,” as Sanders has proposed, even though the Vermont socialist isn’t clear on how he would “create” such jobs, or whether the currently unemployed would be qualified to hold them. The “Green New Deal” — a massive economic takeover and handout program disguised as an attempt to combat climate change — failed miserably on a vote in the Senate and has since faded as a legislative priority.
Biden took the incidents in stride.
“I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,” Biden he said, joining hands in solidarity with the other Democrats on stage. “There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”
A poll released Monday shows Democrats with only mild enthusiasm for Biden as the party’s nominee, though many — if not most — Democrats are considering voting for the former vice president in order to deny Trump a second term. Even the “Bernie Bros” seem to indicate they’ll fall in line; around 90% of Democrats say they’ll end up casting a ballot for the eventual nominee no matter who that is, even if they didn’t cast a ballot for the nominee in the primaries.
Monday night’s events, though, show that the road to peace may be bumpier than expected for Democrats, who’ve largely united behind the statistically weak Biden as the party’s “compromise” nominee. Sanders’ supporters, like their candidate, have been clear, over the past week, that they believe the Democratic party is deliberately derailing Sanders’ bid for the nomination.