In a Nutshell: Bernie Sanders

The Great Democracy Field Trip

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Casey Murray

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and his wife, Jane, address the crowd in a jam-packed office in Newton, Iowa. The rally was centered on turnout.

Casey Murray, News Editor

News Editor Casey Murray is on the ground in Iowa, covering the caucuses. His ongoing series “In a Nutshell” will report on the various candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. See his early stories on Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang.

NEWTON, IOWA — Senator Bernie Sanders was sparse on details in his penultimate event on Sunday. Most of his 10-minute speech centered on getting out the vote in the Iowa Caucuses on Monday.

“It does no good to complain” about the dysfunction in America, he said. “We already know that. Our job now is to… organize around those issues.”

Casey Murray
Sanders campaign national co-chair Nina Turner addresses the Senator’s supporters at an event in Newton, Iowa.

Sen. Sanders was introduced by the county organizer for Jasper County, of which Newton is the county seat. She spoke about the perceived surge in Sanders’ stature in the polls and the need to continue organizing a strong performance in the Caucuses before yielding to Sanders campaign national co-chair Nina Turner.

Ms Turner praised Sanders as a “crusader for justice” in a rousing speech that entered its crescendo when she told attendees to raise their hands above their heads.

“With these hands we will have Medicare for all,” she said after quoting the late poet Maya Angelou. “With these hands we will have college for all! With these hands we will cancel student debt! With these hands we will cancel medical debt! With these hands we will make a legal system more just — hello, somebody! With these hands we will give women their whole damn dollar! With these hands we will deal with climate chaos! With these we will have transcendance! And with these hands we will elect Senator Bernard Sanders the 46th President of the United States of America, come on with me!”

Shortly thereafter she introduced Jane Sanders, who spoke to the consistency of her husband’s beliefs over the forty years that she has known him.

“With Bernie, what you see is what you get,” she said.

Senator Sanders himself entered the stage at 3:15 pm and spoke for 10 minutes. He was fairly reserved and avoided a serious discussion of his positions, focusing instead on the need to get out the vote on Monday and in September.

“The only way we defeat Donald Trump,” he said, “is when we have the largest voter turnout that we have ever seen.”

And then he left, 20 minutes after the beginning of the rally, off to Des Moines to watch the Super Bowl and return to the nation’s capital to play his part in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.