Bernie Sanders' supporters are blaming their candidate for an at times raucous Democratic National Convention. | Getty Sanders delegates fault Bernie for DNC chaos Supporters say first-time delegates didn’t get enough information from the campaign about what to expect at the convention.

A handful of Bernie Sanders’ delegates are placing part of the blame for Monday night’s revolt on the Vermont senator, saying his campaign did not properly communicate with the legions of politically inexperienced delegates who went into the convention with unrealistic expectations.

The first night of the Democratic National Convention was a raucous scene in which boos overwhelmed speakers at seemingly every mention of Hillary Clinton’s name, creating the image of a party in chaos.


The discord was partially fueled by the leak of a trove of emails showing that the Democratic National Committee actively tried to undermine Sanders during the primary — evidence that vindicated seething Sanders supporters convinced the system was rigged against them.

But it was also the result of some dumbfounded delegates who went into the convention thinking Clinton didn’t have the nomination sewn up, and that there was still a path for Sanders.

The first day proved to be a rude reality check.

“The Sanders campaign was doing an excellent job on negotiating on the platform and the shape of the convention, but it could have been a lot better in preparing the delegates,” said Daraka Larimore-Hall, a Sanders delegate from California. “People had all kinds of misunderstandings of what to expect at the convention.”

The political movement that Sanders sparked drew in thousands of new voters and many praised the self-described democratic socialist and longtime independent for bringing new people to the Democratic Party. However, with the slew of new delegates and voters in the picture, veteran delegates said convention rules and expectations were not clearly communicated.

“I am very sympathetic and aware that many, many of the Bernie delegates, this is their first time ever being involved in a political movement and that has to be handled with care and gentleness and kindness, even though they may be having a difficult time processing this,” said Vermont state Rep. Diane Lanpher, a Sanders delegate. “There was an unrealistic expectation on some people’s parts that the math could be changed and that somehow some type of miracle was possible. This is new for them.”

Arshad Hasan, another Sanders delegate from Vermont, said he was surprised to encounter other delegates on the first day of the convention who believed neither candidate yet had the votes necessary to win the nomination.

He said delegates’ refusal to accept the fact Clinton captured the nomination also created problems during Vermont’s selection of at-large delegates to the convention. He said some delegates were creating a litmus test to select only delegates whom they could trust would vote for Sanders during every round of voting at the convention, even though Hasan knew there would only be one round of voting.

He added that because there was more interest in the party’s platform and rules, the Sanders campaign should have taken extra steps to have a dialogue about its expectations for delegates.

“We as delegates, particularly first-time delegates, could have benefited from understanding what the end game was for Bernie and that would include what our role was meant to be at the convention,” he said. “Lacking that clear direction, delegates sort of created their own goals.”

Hasan said the first directive from the campaign came Monday night when Sanders asked his delegates to respect Clinton and not boo speakers.

“I ask you as a personal courtesy to me to not engage in any kind of protest on the floor,” Sanders wrote in the text message. “It’s of utmost importance you explain this to your delegations.”

Besides the lack of direct communication, Sanders had also sown confusion publicly.

Even after he formally endorsed Clinton on July 12, his campaign said Sanders was still a candidate — providing further hope to his supporters that the dream of a Sanders presidency was still alive.

Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs on Friday pushed back against the idea that the campaign did not properly educate its delegates. Briggs said the campaign had a team devoted to delegate communication, held a meeting with all of the delegates on the first day of the convention, and sent emails and text messages to delegates throughout the four days.

He said although many delegates had not been to conventions before, he wasn’t aware of anyone who wasn’t clear that Clinton was going to be the nominee.

“They must not read POLITICO or other newspapers,” Briggs said about delegates who thought Sanders could still win the nomination. “Barring some landslide move by superdelegates on the day the roll call votes were cast, I didn’t know anyone who didn’t have a pretty good inkling of what was going to happen.”

But a number of delegates felt they went into the convention without a good idea of what they could accomplish.

Larimone-Hall said California delegates went into the convention with a lack of direction from the Sanders campaign on what their focus should be. So while some projects — such as getting signatures for a petition opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership — were successful, many delegates went thinking their job was to help Sanders win the nomination.

He said the Clinton campaign and the DNC, too, should have been more thoughtful about the convention planning, which could have reduced the chaos among delegates.

Still, he said some delegates were just looking to create conflict at the convention.

“To be honest, there were some Sanders supporters just spoiling for a fight,” he added.

Laurie Cestnick, founder of Occupy DNC Convention, a group with more than 33,000 Facebook likes that held dozens of protests during the convention, said her members refused to accept Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton.

“He was forced. Did you see his face last night when she was thanking Bernie supporters and asking them to come over?” she said, referring to Sanders’ visible grimace when mentioned by Clinton in her acceptance speech. “His face looked like someone who was beaten.”

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee who often takes pleasure in stirring up trouble, has long egged on Sanders’ die-hard supporters and continued doing so on Friday.

“The dishonest media didn’t mention that Bernie Sanders was very angry looking during Crooked [Hillary]'s speech. He wishes he didn’t make that deal,” he said in a tweet.

The delegates on the convention floor were further inflamed by the strong showing of protesters outside the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

Cestnick, herself a former Sanders campaign volunteer, hosted multiple “dem-exits” during the convention for party members to officially de-register as Democrats. In conference calls with delegates sympathetic to her cause, Cestnick helped plan possible protests inside the Wells Fargo Center as late as Thursday night. (An especially large one, set to occur during Clinton’s Thursday acceptance speech, was prevented when California delegates were blocked from walking out, she said).

With the leak of emails from top DNC officials validating the views of many protesters that the Democratic primary was rigged for Clinton, not even Sanders’ pleas to delegates throughout the week could assuage hard-line supporters to defect from their “Never Hillary” stance.

“Maybe he had to make the hard decision to do what he could for the people he’s fighting for,” said Bruce Carter, founder of Black Men for Bernie, another progressive group who held rallies with Occupy DNC Convention throughout the week and had worked to register voters throughout the primary to support Sanders. “Will I walk through a wall with him? Yes. But I won’t support his endorsement of Hillary Clinton.”