Sanders campaign claims highest turnout yet for Arizona speech

PHOENIX — Bernie Sanders’ campaign claimed its highest turnout yet for a speech the Vermont senator and 2016 presidential candidate gave here on Saturday night on the third day of the liberal Netroots Nation convention.

Sanders’ campaign, citing Phoenix Convention Center officials, said more than 11,000 people showed up for the wide-ranging speech. Some 10,000 people heard Sanders speak in Madison, Wisconsin, a little more than two weeks earlier.


Sanders hit his favorite notes on economic inequality and raising the minimum wage but also pushed for 12 weeks of paid family leave, the need to aggressively tackle climate change, and pass “a Medicare for all single-payer program.”

Sanders, unlike most other 2016 presidential candidates, did not weigh in on Donald Trump’s comments that Sen. John McCain is not a war hero as he was captured in Vietnam. He did, however, ding former Florida governor Jeb Bush for saying Americans need to work longer hours.

“We all heard a few weeks ago that Jeb Bush thinks the American people need to work a little bit harder,” Sanders said, provoking the crowd to boo. “Well he obviously didn’t hear the sad reality that the American people already work the longest hours of any major country on earth.”

The rest of the field wasn’t name-checked but Sanders contrasted his party with Republicans, who he said were divisive.

“Our job is not to divide, our job is to bring people together,” Sanders said to cheers from the crowd.

Earlier in the day, Sanders seemed flummoxed when Black Lives Matter protesters stormed the stage at a Netroots Nation candidate forum, demanding Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley address police brutality.

On Saturday night, Sanders said “when a police officer breaks the law, that officer must be held accountable.”

“Let us be clear, while we have overcome a lot of racism, we still have a long way to go,” he also said.