Bernie Sanders kicks fight against Donald Trump into high gear

Published Jun 2, 2019

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San Francisco - US Senator Bernie

Sanders on Sunday called on California Democrats to unite

against Donald Trump, kicking the 2020 presidential campaign

into high gear with jabs against the Republican president and a

veiled swipe at Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Sanders called Trump "a racist, a sexist, a homophobe and a

religious bigot" in a speech capping off a state Democratic

convention that drew fourteen of the 24 candidates to make their

case before 5,000 delegates, guests and press in the most

populous - and most heavily Democratic - U.S. state.

"Together we are going to defeat a president who has the

most corrupt administration in history," Sanders said, "and a

president who knows nothing about real American values."

The San Francisco convention became a window into the forces

at work in the Democratic Party as it seeks to recover from

Trump's populist-fueled victory in 2016.

The party's left-leaning delegates greeted Sanders and

liberal U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren like rock stars.

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper drew boos when he

said socialist policies would not propel the party to victory,

and other moderates were booed for rejecting the idea of a

universal public health care system, or Medicare for All.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads Sanders in polls

for the Democratic nomination in California and nationwide, did

not attend the convention, drawing barely veiled criticism from

Sanders.

Sanders noted that the fourteen candidates who addressed the

convention, as well as some who had "chosen for whatever reason

not to be in this room," offer a variety of ways to approach a

campaign against Trump. But Sanders rejected the centrist

approach favored by Biden and some other candidates.

On issues like health care, pharmaceutical prices and

climate change wracking the country, "there is no middle

ground," Sanders said.

Addressing concerns among some Democrats that a moderate

would be more electable than a fiery progressive, Sanders said

such an approach would not generate the enthusiasm needed to

defeat Trump.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the 2019 California Democratic Party State Organizing Convention in San Francisco. Picture: Jeff Chiu/AP

"We will not defeat Donald Trump unless we bring excitement

and energy into the campaign and unless we give millions of

working people and young people a reason to vote and a reason to

believe that politics is relevant to their lives," Sanders said.

California, which will send nearly 500 delegates to the

party's nominating convention next year, took on new heft for

the 2020 campaign after moving its nominating election to March

from June. Democrats hold all elective offices in the state, and

dominate both houses of the legislature.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, a native daughter who has been

eclipsed in early polling in California by Biden and Sanders,

made clear she was not taking her home state for granted.

On Saturday, supporters with signs bearing her name and

shouting "Kamala! Kamala!" formed a gauntlet that Sanders was

forced to walk through on his way into a labor union breakfast.

"I am here to earn everyone’s support, and I’m going to

fight to earn it," Harris said at a breakfast held by the

party's women's caucus.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein and Tim Reid; editing by Bill

Berkrot)

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