Bernie Sanders shot back at the House Democrats who booed him at a meeting

Bernie Sanders shot back at House Democrats who booed him at a private meeting by emphasizing his desire to "transform this country".

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 6 July 2016

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the reason that House Democrats booed him at a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning boils down to the fact that they simply "look at the world a little bit differently." Though Sanders said that reports of the incident were somewhat exaggerated, he did acknowledge "differences of opinion." "What I'm trying to do and the reason I ran for president is to help transform this country. To deal with income and wealth inequality, a declining middle class, the fact that so many of the young people are leaving school deeply in debt," Sanders told CNN's Wolf Blitzer later Wednesday.

House Democrats allegedly booed Sanders for his longstanding refusal to endorse Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race, despite the fact that she's won enough delegates to clinch the nomination. Democratic lawmakers reportedly shouted "Timeline! Timeline!" after they sat through Sanders' brief introductory speech about Wall Street reform, trade, and campaign finance. "He just went in there with his canned talking points from the stump," one source told the Los Angeles Times. "People just weren't having it."

Although Sanders said at the meeting that "the goal is not to win elections," but to "transform America," he clarified later Wednesday that he would fight for a Democrat to win the White House. "You bet your bottom dollar on that," Sanders said.