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Bernie Sanders Tag

Bernie Sanders isn't dropping out of the Democratic primary any time soon and that's starting to concern leaders in the Democratic Party. Unlike Donald Trump, Hillary isn't able to focus entirely on the general election, which has already begun. The Associated Press reports:
Democrats Fear Sanders is Undermining Efforts to Beat Trump Democratic Party leaders are upping the pressure on Bernie Sanders to drop his presidential campaign, alarmed that his continued presence is undermining efforts to beat the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, and again win the White House. "I don't think they think of the downside of this," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a supporter of front-runner Hillary Clinton and broker of the post-primary peace between Clinton and then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in 2008.

From Oregon Mike:
Trump should have thought of this bumper sticker . . . . . . spotted this afternoon in Eugene, Oregon. (My wife snapped the picture.)
  Bumper Sticker - Eugene OR - Bernie Because Fuck This Shit In another case of life imitating a bumper sticker, the Nevada Democratic Convention devolved into chaos after Bernie supporters accused Clinton supporters of rigging a procedural vote seeking a recount as to rejected pro-Bernie delegates. RCP reports:

In keeping with the lumbering awkwardness of Hillary Clinton's presidential primary campaign that has included herding reporters like cattle and adopting a phony Southern accent, Team Hillary has concocted a new means of countering widespread unflattering comments about Hillary online.  Unlike Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, Hillary does not enjoy an enthusiastic following even among those who support her, so she does not have the army of online people voluntarily engaged in defending her against attacks from both the left and the right. The solution? A vast network of highly paid online pro-Hillary trolls funded by a David Brock super PAC, "Correct the Record," that will be coordinating with the Hillary campaign.  The plan, apparently, was to hire a bunch of people to do what other candidates' supporters do for free . . .  and to make it look grassroots and organic. The LA Times reports:
When the Internet’s legions of Hillary hecklers steal away to chat rooms and Facebook pages to vent grievances about Clinton, express revulsion toward Clinton and launch attacks on Clinton, they now may find themselves in a surprising place – confronted by a multimillion dollar super PAC working with Clinton.

Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell is playing a high ranking role in the Democratic National Convention this summer and he has a message for Bernie Sanders supporters that they probably won't like. The Hill reports:
Dem convention host: Sanders supporters better 'behave themselves' when he loses The chairman of the Philadelphia 2016 Host Committee for this summer’s Democratic National Convention said supporters of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have to “behave themselves” when the Vermont senator loses the nomination.

FOX News lives rent free in the heads of liberals all over America. They just can't stand the fact that one news network dares to include conservative voices alongside liberal ones. Obama has been complaining about the network since taking office and now Bernie Sanders is singling out FOX and suggesting that liberals should have a similar network. Here's the best part - He made the comments to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. The Hill reports:
Sanders calls for Democratic version of Fox News Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called for a more liberal version of Fox News to help fix the problems he sees in corporate media.

The California primary is heating up hotter than the sauce Hillary Clinton carries. We described the riots and mayhem that surrounded Donald Trump's appearances in the Golden State last week, replete with Mexican flags and arrests. Now, Bernie Sanders' supporters targeted a Hillary Clinton event in Monterey Park in Los Angeles, forcing her to cut short her speech to a mere 14 minutes.

When the primary season started, there were 18 Republican candidates and 3 Democratic hopefuls. In a twist of irony of roller-coaster-sized proportions, the Republicans have their presumptive nominee while the Democrats are still engaging in an intense ballot battle. The fight for the nomination continues with Senator Bernie Sanders' upset win in Indiana.
Bernie Sanders triumphed over Hillary Clinton in Indiana’s open primary Tuesday, boosting the grassroots candidate’s argument that the party’s superdelegates should flip their support to him in July’s Democratic convention. Sanders spoke to thousands of supporters in Louisville, Ky., before Indiana’s results were in. He called for an end to closed primaries and criticized Clinton for her ties to Wall Street and paid speeches to Goldman Sachs — a sign the heated rhetoric on the Democratic side shows no signs of cooling down.
This win is critical, because Hillary cannot quite create the narrative that Donald Trump now can about being the likely nominee. That is, unless she relies on those superdelegates.

Indiana votes today. The finally tallies could make or break Senator Cruz's 2016 White House aspirations. Prior to Hoosiers heading to the ballot box, Trump was ahead in the polls.

The Republican delegate situation:

Immediately after winning the primary, Trump tweeted:

Bernie Sanders has raised a ton of cash in the 2016 primary season. Progressive grassroots activists making small donations have even put Sanders ahead of Clinton in recent months but the pace is slowing. The New York Times reports:
Bernie Sanders’s Fund-Raising Plunges Amid Campaign Woes Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont raised just $25.8 million for his campaign in April, down by more than 40 percent from the previous month, as he faces an increasingly narrow path in the race for the Democratic nomination for president.

Ralph Nader is best known for his work as a consumer advocate and for being a spoiler candidate in the 2000 presidential election. Now he's urging Bernie Sanders to stay in the 2016 race, which is kind of hilarious. Telesur News reports:
Ralph Nader Says Bernie Sanders Shouldn't Drop Out of the Race Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and former Green Party presidential candidate, encouraged Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders to stay in the race, in spite of several major losses over the past weeks.

Bernie Sanders campaign is trimming the fat. Just one day after the Democratic Socialist lost four out of five primary contests to Hillary Clinton, his campaign announced they'd be scaling back considerably. More than 200 staffers were let go Wednesday morning, a move the campaign calls "right-sizing."

Earlier this week, the New York Daily News reported David Brock, Hillary fanboi and head of pro-Hillary Correct The Record Super PAC, has dropped around $1 million to pay trolls to attack Clinton naysayers. These so-called "Barrier Breakers" attack anyone who expresses unfavorable criticism of Hillary -- all online of course.
As head of the Correct The Record Super PAC for Hillary Clinton, David Brock has launched something called Barrier Breakers — an online mob of paid trolls designed to attack any and every person who says one cross word about Hillary Clinton on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, or elsewhere.

Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvanie, Rhode Island, and Maryland vote today. All polls close at 8:00 PM EST. UPDATES (by WAJ): Issue is not whether Trump wins the 5 states, issue is whether he picks up more delegates than expected, which he will have to do to get on trajectory for first ballot win. https://twitter.com/ABC/status/725112239469006848

Hillary Clinton is trying to convince her party, and possibly herself, that Bernie Sanders supporters will ultimately embrace her as the Democratic nominee. Nick Gass reports at Politico:
Clinton: Sanders' young supporters will unite behind me Just as her supporters coalesced behind Barack Obama after she exited the race in 2008, Hillary Clinton expressed optimism Thursday that backers of Bernie Sanders would do the same this year if the choice is between her and either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.

Updates (by WAJ). No surprise, the second the polls closed Trump was projected the winner. What remains to be seen is how many delegates he gets. (added) As of 11:30 p.m., Trump has approximately 60% of the vote and is credited with 89 delegates, but that likely will go up a couple more as more final results come in. Kasich has 3, and Cruz none. So Trump did what he needed to do. But he's still on a trajectory to fall short of 1237 on the first ballot. A number of commenters on TV and Twitter also are pointing out the obvious -- the Republican electorate in NY State is small relative to Democrats, so there remains no reason to believe Trump could carry the state in a general election. Hillary v. Bernie currently not called, but "leaning" Hillary. Networks call it for Hillary. https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/722600349379522561

If you want to know why Democrat leaders and party officials are scared to deathski about Bernie Sanders at the top of the ticket in November, take a look at the Featured Image, the graphic on a T-Shirt sold by Liberty Maniacs. Bernie is doing well in head-to-head polling against Republicans because Republicans, including yours truly, have laid low in going after Bernie. Hillary, meanwhile, is too afraid of the progressive base of the Democrat Party to lower the hammer-and-sickle on Bernie's head through negative advertising. Buzzfeed reports that Team Bernie is not happy with the T-Shirt and related merchandise:

The Hillary Clinton campaign might want to reel in Bill Clinton for a little while, as he's starting to do more damage than good. In an obviously unscripted appearance this week, President Clinton suggested that Bernie Sanders supporters might want to shoot people on Wall Street. The Hill reports:
Bill Clinton: Sanders fans would ‘shoot every third person on Wall Street’ Former President Bill Clinton on Friday joked that Bernie Sanders’s supporters would open fire on Wall Street.