IRVINE, California — Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) addressed thousands of his supporters on Sunday, urging them to turn out and vote during the June 7 California primary, and railing against a “rigged” system that he said only his “revolutionaries” could amend.
“I very much appreciate the ‘Bernie,'” Sanders told the cheering, chanting crowd at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater before, touting an MSNBC poll that shows him beating Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump by 15 points, far larger than Hillary Clinton’s projected three-point margin of victory. “But let me tell you, It ain’t gonna be Bernie alone who does it….. No president can do it alone. We need a political revolution. You are the revolutionaries.”
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has also called his own party’s nominating system “rigged.”
Sanders, his skin visibly red from spending hours campaigning in the blazing California sun, predicted victory in the state’s primary, reminded his supporters: “[Y]ou’ve gotta vote, and you’ve gotta vote, and you’ve gotta vote.”
The Vermont “democratic socialist” reminded his audience that he had won several recent contests. “And by the way, we won most of them by landslide victories.”
Sanders also took a swipe at the GOP. “And we know what Republican family values are. Republican family values are telling every woman here and every women in America that she does not have the right to control her own body. I disagree.” He added, “Republican family values are telling our gay brothers and sisters they do not have a right to get married. We disagree.”
He also pledged his support for guaranteed three months’ paid family leave for all employees. “A great nation is not judged by how many billionaires it has or by how many nuclear weapons it has. A great nations is judged by how it treats the most weak and vulnerable among us.”
At one point, someone from the crowd shouted “¡Si se puede!” — the Spanish version of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan, “Yes, we can!” Sanders asked how many “Dreamers” — illegal aliens brought to the country as children — there were in the crowd, and then said “if Congress does not do its job in fixing a broken immigration system, I will use the executive power of the presidency to do all of that…. We must also end all of our policies on deportation. Our job is to unite families, not to break them up.”
Sanders closed out the event by reminding his fans, “If there is a large voter turnout, we will win a strong majority” in California.
On Monday and Tuesday, Sanders is scheduled to hold rallies in East Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Anaheim.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.