Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) had a 10-minute conversation with presidential contender Bernie Sanders Tuesday to discuss the violent outbursts by his supporters at the state party convention in Nevada over the weekend.
Reid made sure that Sanders was aware of just how ugly things got — including incidents of chair throwing — and expects his colleague will condemn the violence soon.
{mosads}“He and I had a very long conversation,” Reid told reporters. “I laid out to him what happened in Las Vegas. I wanted to make sure he understands what went on there, the violence and all the other bad things that have happened there.
“He said that he condemns that. I’m confident he does. I’m confident he’ll be saying something about it soon,” added the Senate leader, who endorsed Hillary Clinton for president after she won the Nevada caucuses in February. “I’m hopeful and very confident that Sen. Sanders will do the right thing.”
Reid, anticipating problems at the Nevada Democratic convention, which took place over the weekend, had conversations with Sanders on Thursday and Friday before the meeting.
He and Sanders issued separate statements urging the assembled delegates and their supporters to act civilly, but it failed to quiet boiling tempers.
The proceedings spiraled out of control, erupting into angry shouting matches and flying chairs, an echo of some of the violent outbursts at rallies for Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, earlier this year.
Democratic senators on Tuesday said the violent antics have to stop, immediately.
“When it breaks down into shouting matches, demonstrations and violence, it’s unacceptable,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.). “It’s important for people to understand that we want to keep this in the context of reasonable discourse, reasonable debate, and shouting down speakers and throwing chairs in hotel gatherings — those things aren’t consistent with reasonable discourse,” he added.