“What we’re doing right now, creating these dynamics within the Democratic Party, we’ve got to be careful,” Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said, his voice rising as he addressed reporters in Long Beach, California, after speaking at the state’s Democratic convention. “Because whoever is the nominee, we have one shot to make Donald Trump a one-term president. And so I’m not interested in delineating left or right or criticizing other folks.”
“Let’s stop tearing each other down, let’s stop drawing artificial lines,” he added. “I’m tired in this election of hearing some people say, ‘Well if this person gets elected, I can’t support them,’ and then other people say, ‘If this person gets elected, I can’t support them.’ Are you kidding me?”
During a televised forum sponsored by Univision, Jorge Ramos, an anchor for the Spanish-language station, asked Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont if Obama was right in saying that “the average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system.”
Sanders chuckled briefly and responded, “Well, it depends on what you mean by tear down the system.”
“The agenda that we have is an agenda supported by the vast majority of working people,” he said. “When I talk about raising the minimum wage to a living wage, I’m not tearing down the system. We’re fighting for justice. When I talk about health care being a human right and ending the embarrassment of America being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care for every man, woman and child, that’s not tearing down the system. That’s doing what we should have done 30 years ago.”
Julián Castro, who served as the housing secretary under Obama and has embraced some of the most left-leaning policies during the primary, said that he “always takes what President Obama says very very seriously.”
