Bernie Sanders’ California delegates and the open bar: A Slate investigation.
PHILADELPHIA—Bernie Sanders’ California delegates quickly built a reputation Monday night as the rowdiest pro-Sanders section in the Wells Fargo Center. But why? Could it be that they just really like Bernie Sanders, and want to make the most out of their costly cross-country trip to support their man? Or was the raucous environment the work of some nefarious chemical, such as alcohol?
“Here’s what’s going on,” a former Clinton administration aide, David Goodfriend, told theHill. “Bernie-ites get hammered at the open bar, they come in here, and even when Elizabeth Warren is talking, they’re chanting over her. So here’s my offer … California Bernie delegates: Stay sober during proceedings, and I’ll buy you a round of shots after.”
AdvertisementGoodfriend told theHillthat there’s an open bar behind the California delegation. We rate this statement mostly true. The California delegation sits in section 105, and by section 106-107 rests P.J. Whelihan’s Pub, which promises “a fun and friendly atmosphere, award-winning food, and various pub beer selections.” But the general public, including reporters for online periodicals, cannot imbibe any of P.J.’s various pub beers this week, because the California delegation has rented the restaurant for itself and rebranded it “California Café.”
So how do Sanders’ California delegates respond to these accusations of public intoxication leveled by the misleadingly named Goodfriend?
“He’s not telling the truth,” said California Sanders delegate Robert M. Nelson, a retired NASA scientist. “I was in that bar. I drank with many Clinton delegates last night, and we talked about a lot of important things.” Nelson had first wanted to use a four-letter word to describe the drunkenness allegations, then figured that would play into the smearers’ hands. “Their goal is to make us look stupid. We’re very educated.”
Advertisement“I think unless we were drinking hot tea with our fingers out, [former Clinton administration aides like Goodfriend] would have something to say about us,” said Karen Bernal, co-representative of the California Sanders delegates. Bernal knew of one person who “may have had a bit too much to drink, but absolutely everyone else was well behaved.” She added that she saw “plenty of Clinton people that were drinking too.
Indeed, by Bernal’s estimation, California Café and its array of pub delicacies has been a site of rapprochement between California’s Clinton and Sanders delegates. “This is where we have found a lot of—can I say?—collegiality in that bar between Clinton and Sanders.”
“We’ve had wonderful interactions,” Nelson added.
Sanders supporters in California may be making their voices heard, even at times when others are trying to speak. The evidence that booze is the impetus for such vocal displays, however, is sparse.
Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.
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