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 The tensions after a chaotic weekend convention in Nevada emerged
as Republicans begin to rally around their own outsider presidential
candidate, billionaire businessman Donald Trump, in the general
election.
Trump, who has all but secured his party's nomination, has turned
his focus to November, outlining to Reuters on Tuesday proposals
including scrapping financial regulation and the Paris climate
accords. On Wednesday, he released a list of potential Supreme Court
nominees.
More Democrats urged Sanders on Wednesday to take a stronger stand
against his supporters' uprising in Nevada over the delegate
selection process. They said he did not go far enough in condemning
the unrest, which included a thrown chair, yelling and threats to
convention leaders.
"That was the time to have sent a full-throated message to his
followers: that we don't do this kind of thing," U.S. Senator Dianne
Feinstein of California said on CNN.
Democrat Barbara Boxer, the other U.S. senator from California, was
at the Nevada convention and expressed her concern to Sanders in a
phone call on Tuesday night.
 "I feared for my safety and had a lot of security around me," she
said. "I've never had anything like this happen."
Sanders' campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, in a series of television
interviews, accused Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic
National Committee chairwoman, of bias against Sanders from the
beginning and "throwing shade" on his campaign.
"There's a tremendous amount of frustration out there and people
want to have a fair process," Weaver said on CNN.
Senior U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada and Wasserman Schultz on
Tuesdsay both also called on Sanders to do more to rein in his
supporters.
Sanders had said he condemned violence and harassment against
individuals but framed Nevada's incident as a warning to Democratic
leaders to treat his supporters with fairness.
The U.S. senator from Vermont is determined to fight on against
front-runner Clinton in what has become a longer-than-expected and
sometimes acrimonious battle. In contests on Tuesday, Clinton
narrowly edged out Sanders in Kentucky, a state where she had not
been expected to win. Sanders won Oregon, a state that played to his
strengths.
Democrats are faced with a delicate balancing act as long as Sanders
remains in the race, needing to pivot toward Trump without taking
Clinton's nomination for granted and alienating passionate backers
of Sanders.
Sparring between the Sanders camp and the Democratic Party leaders
over the Nevada events threatened party unity before the Democrats'
national convention in July in Philadelphia.
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"Unaddressed, the toxic relationship between DNC @ @SenSanders
campaign, so evident last night, could cast dark cloud over Philly
convention," David Axelrod, a former top strategist for President
Barack Obama, said on Twitter.
UPHILL BATTLE FACES CLINTON
Despite having an almost unassailable lead in the number of
delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, and with the
primary battle heading toward the final contests next month, Clinton
will need Sanders supporters on her side in the general election.
According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos survey, what played out in
Nevada is just a glimpse into the uphill battle Clinton faces in
courting them.
If Clinton wins the nomination, for every six Democrats who support
Sanders, one will switch their allegiance to Trump in the general
election and two say they would not support either candidate. Only
three of every six say they would support Clinton as the party’s
nominee.
Sanders' campaign has long accused party leaders of favoring
Clinton, a former U.S. senator and secretary of state, for the
presidential nomination in the face of his unexpectedly strong
primary challenge.
On Saturday, his supporters in Nevada became angry at the delegate
selection process, booing, yelling and hurling insults, and at least
one chair, toward the convention leaders.
Nevada Democratic Party chairwoman, Roberta Lange, said she and her
family, including a 5-year-old grandson, have received death threats
and numerous callers have disrupted her workplace.
On Wednesday, Lange said she wanted Sanders to acknowledge the
threats, and apologize.
"His statement was pretty weak," she said on CNN. "Until you say
you're sorry, until you say what happened in Nevada should not have
happened and it was wrong and it was fueled by your senior campaign
staff people, then that's an apology and then I think there's some
responsibility is taken."
(Additional reporting by Alana Wise, Susan Heavey, Megan Cassella in
Washington; Chris Kahn in New York; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing
by Frances Kerry and Jonathan Oatis)
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