News / Politics

Sanders’s feud with Democratic leadership intensifies

Sunday, 22 May 2016 2:02 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 22 May 2016 2:07 PM ]

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders addresses a campaign rally in Salem, Oregon, May 10, 2016. (AFP photo)

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said that if elected president, he will not reappoint the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, intensifying his feud with the Democratic Party leadership.

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that is set to air on Sunday, Sanders said he was supporting Tim Canova, a law professor who has begun an insurgent campaign against US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her congressional seat in Florida.

Canova and Wasserman Schultz will compete in a primary race this summer. “Well, clearly, I favor her opponent,” Sanders told Tapper. “His views are much closer to mine.”

Canova, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has echoed Sanders’s messages about the need to reduce income inequality and reform campaign finance in the US.

Sanders has accused Democratic party officials, including Wasserman Schultz, of favoring Hillary Clinton, often calling her the “anointed candidate.”

The US senator from Vermont has criticized the party for a debate schedule that his campaign says favors Clinton; an arrangement under which Clinton raises money for the party; and the appointment of Clinton supporters as leaders of important convention committees.

Sanders and party officials have recently feuded over what happened at the Nevada Democratic convention a week ago.

At the convention, Sanders supporters disrupted the proceedings in a fight over delegates and the state party chairwoman was later threatened.

Unrest continued the next day when the Democratic Party's headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada, were vandalized by graffiti and Roberta Lange received death threats.

The incident has led Democratic officials to worry about unrest at the Democratic National Convention, which will take place in July in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Some Sanders supporters have already promised widespread protests there.

During an interview that will air on ABC’s "This Week" on Sunday, Sanders said that both Clinton and Donald Trump, the Democratic and Republican frontrunners, are “very strongly disliked” by the American people.

Sanders said one of the reasons he is staying in the race for the White House is because he does not want Americans to vote "for the lesser of two evils," in an apparent reference to Clinton.

“We need a campaign, an election, coming up which does not have two candidates who are really very, very strongly disliked. I don't want to see the American people voting for the lesser of two evils," the senator said.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk