Donald Trump spoke recently about a rigged system that is causing his campaign to struggle. The presidential hopeful also stated how the system is harming Bernie Sanders’s chance of winning the nomination.
The Clinton campaign fired back stating, “When you talk about rigging the system, that’s what Sanders is trying to do.”
Clinton’s campaign alleges that Sanders is trying to court superdelegates his way, and this is a certainty. The numbers shown on media outlets are misleading in terms of delegate counts. Sanders, the winner of 7 out of the last 8 primaries, is just 250 delegates behind Clinton. Pledged delegates are 1,287 for Clinton and 1,037 for Sanders.
When accounting for Superdelegates, Clinton has 469 to Sanders 31, inflating her numbers to a lopsided 1,756 delegates to Sanders’s 1,068 total delegates.
Clinton’s press secretary Brian Fallon asserts, “If anybody’s trying to rig the system, it’s Senator Sanders.” The issue with the argument of trying to “rig the system” is that it is permitted under the voting rules. Candidates are allowed to seek out superdelegates during the race.
Sanders has reached out to superdelegates to request their support, and the response has been mixed. Bert Marley, the Idaho Democratic Party Chairman, was approached by Sanders and was impressed with his tactics. Sanders didn’t try to strong-arm Marley. When Marley stated, “I am going to wait until after Idaho Democrats have cast their vote,” Sanders didn’t push the issue. Ultimately, Marley pledged support for Sanders.
Sanders’s campaign is said to be approaching superdelegates to let them know he is a serious contender and to ask for support, which has swayed some unpledged delegates his way.
