“There’s so much to say,” Bernie Sanders began Wednesday morning.
The Vermont senator had arrived shortly before 9 a.m. at the Wyndham Hotel conference center outside Philadelphia where the delegates from Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine have been meeting for breakfast daily since they arrived Sunday for the Democratic National Convention.
VPR streamed Sen. Bernie Sanders' remarks at the Vermont delegation's breakfast event this morning through Facebook Live.
Sen. Sanders' remarks:
On the morning after his presidential candidacy came to an official end – he asked convention delegates Tuesday night to unanimously accept Hillary Clinton as the nominee – Sanders said he owes a special debt of gratitude to Vermont,
“It brings tears to my eyes, it really does, the kind of support that we have received,” Sanders said. “Of all of the victories that we’ve won – I know we’re a small state, I know we don’t have a lot of delegates here – but that fact that we won 86 percent of the vote in our own state is something that I will never, ever forget.”
Sanders quickly pivoted to the main reason for his Wednesday morning tours to pro-Sanders delegates scattered in hotels around Philadelphia: uniting behind Clinton to defeat Donald Trump.
“He is a demagogue. He is a demagogue who does not believe in the constitution of America,” Sanders said.
“The cornerstone of his campaign is bigotry … It goes without saying that in the next several months, all of us have got to do everything that we can to defeat Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton the president of the United States.”
That’s not all his supporters have to do, Sanders said. The goal now, he said, “is to transform America, and make sure we have a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and Democratic president who will do that.”
Sanders, who mentioned that he’s working on a book that will focus on his presidential run, took a slow walk out of the conference room after finishing his 15-minute address, pausing for handshakes, hugs, and pictures with delegates.
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Update 1 p.m. This post has been updated to include additional reporting.
