Lefty Glenn Greenwald Slams ‘Undemocratic’ Associated Press Call

Left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald slammed the Associated Press as “undemocratic” for declaring Hillary Clinton the Democratic Party nominee on Monday on the basis of “superdelegates” — and refusing to name its sources or the names of those superdelegates.

In a post at his website, The Intercept, Greenwald wrote:

AP claims that superdelegates who had not previously announced their intentions privately told AP reporters that they intend to vote for Clinton, bringing her over the threshold. AP is concealing the identity of the decisive superdelegates who said this.

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This is the perfect symbolic ending to the Democratic Party primary: The nomination is consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identities the media organization — incredibly — conceals. The decisive edifice of superdelegates is itself anti-democratic and inherently corrupt: designed to prevent actual voters from making choices that the party establishment dislikes. But for a party run by insiders and funded by corporate interests, it’s only fitting that its nomination process ends with such an ignominious, awkward, and undemocratic sputter.

Journalists in California were similarly suspicious of the AP’s call. Aaron Kinney of the Bay Area News Group wrote Wednesday that one of the most pressing questions about the California primary — which Clinton won by far wider margins than expected after polls showed her neck-and-neck with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — was the degree to which the AP’s announcement affected turnout.

“To what extent did an Associated Press report Monday calling the nomination for Clinton dampen the enthusiasm of Sanders’ supporters, keeping them from the polls?” Kinney asked. He also noted that independent voters may have had difficulty voting for Sanders, since they were required to ask for a special ballot in order to do so.

At the Sanders “victory” rally in Santa Monica on Tuesday evening, Breitbart News witnessed Sanders fans taunting the media — a more common sight at Donald Trump’s rallies. Outside “Bernie’s Diner” in Los Angeles, Sanders fans were similarly upset with the AP.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new e-book, Leadership Secrets of the Kings and Prophets: What the Bible’s Struggles Teach Us About Today, is on sale through Amazon Kindle Direct. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.