Sanders Adviser: ‘No One Had The Right To Feel Threatened’ At NV Convention

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

The campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) shot down reports that the scene at the Nevada’s Democratic convention last weekend was violent and expressed doubt about the accounts from some of the party officials present that they felt threatened by the protests of Sanders’ supporters.

Jeff Weaver was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday whether those officials who said that they had feared for their lives were making it up.

“If people received phone calls that were inappropriate, we absolutely condemn that 100 percent. The Senator has condemned it. I’ve condemned it. The whole campaign condemns it,” Weaver said. The Nevada state party chair, Roberta Lange, reportedly received hundreds of threatening voice messages and texts from Sanders supporters outraged over how she handled the convention.

While he was not at Saturday’s convention, Weaver said that based on the account of Sanders surrogate Nina Turner, the reports of a violent atmosphere had been overblown.

“She said, no one went on the stage. No one had the right to feel threatened,” Weaver said. “What happens is when you rig the process, and you get an angry crowd, you know they’re not used to that.”

Earlier in the day, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) — a Hillary Clinton supporter who was booed off the stage Saturday while giving the state convention’s keynote address — told CNN she “feared for her safety,” even as she had a lot of security around.

But Weaver, in his CNN appearance Wednesday, accused the media of misrepresenting what happened Saturday.

“These claims of violence, I don’t see any violence that happened in that room,” Weaver said, adding that Turner told him, “no violence occurred when she was there.”

“There are widely spread news reports about chairs being thrown. There is absolutely no video evidence of that anywhere, which there would be,” Weaver said. “This is all good fodder for media coverage but a lot of it is divorced from reality.”

Weaver did say that the “booing and the cat-calling” — which were captured on multiple videos posted to social media — were “uncalled for.”

Latest Livewire
241
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. It’s comforting to know that under a Sanders Administration, they will instruct us on what we should or should not feel.

  2. “No one had the right to feel threatened,”

    WTF does that even mean?

    “I demand my right to feel threatened!”

    Why is this idiot given airtime?

  3. Tell me, Weaver, do I have a ‘right’ to feel like you are a moron?

  4. "She said, no one went on the stage. No one had the right to feel threatened," Weaver said. "What happens is when you rig the process, and you get an angry crowd, you know they’re not used to that."

    I’ve just about had it with this white male rights movement lecturing women about what they should be threatened by (and what “rigged processes” in America are like)

  5. No one had the right to feel threatened

    What kind of bullshit is that? They had no right to feel threatened?

    Well then, you have to right to complain or retaliate when I sneak up behind you and for no good reason plant my size 13 on your ass either :smirk_cat:

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

235 more replies

Participants

Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for lestatdelc Avatar for sandi Avatar for ajm Avatar for silvrfox Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for epirali Avatar for imkmu3 Avatar for leftflank Avatar for fargo116 Avatar for wiscojoe Avatar for ctvoter Avatar for rollinnolan Avatar for sandyh Avatar for mantan Avatar for arrendis Avatar for inmanroshi Avatar for breakingdeadmen Avatar for tena Avatar for beattycat Avatar for seedeevee Avatar for aesop Avatar for owlcroft Avatar for centralasiaexpat

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: