Sanders threatens floor fight in Philly

LOS ANGELES - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Friday threatened a floor fight over rules and platform planks at the party's summer convention in Philadelphia, warning the Democratic National Committee not to stack the convention's standing committees with supporters of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

The prospect of a procedural wrench thrown into the party's flagship event is likely to cause headaches for Democratic leaders trying to forge a united front against businessman and reality-TV star Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Sanders has amassed about nine million votes during the nation's primaries and caucuses, and has said even if he fails at getting the final nomination he wants to shape the party's agenda on issues such as wealth disparity, financial reform, and the role of big money in politics. The Vermont senator, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, says the standing committees that consider the party's platform and rules should reflect the number of votes he's received in the 2016 primaries and caucuses.

"I will not allow them to be silenced at the Democratic National Convention," Sanders wrote of his supporters in a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The platform committee considers the party's stance on a wide range of policy issues while the rules committee sets the guidelines governing the convention. Sanders' letter came after the candidate spoke with DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz by phone earlier this week.

"If the process is set up to produce an unfair, one-sided result, we are prepared to mobilize our delegates to force as many votes as necessary to amend the platform and rules on the floor of the convention," Sanders wrote in a letter to Schultz.

Luis Miranda, a DNC spokesman, said "[we are]committed to an open, inclusive and representative process. Both of our campaigns will be represented."

Clinton holds a sizable lead of more than 300 pledged delegates and has received about 3 million more votes than Sanders during the primaries. Including superdelegates - the elected party leaders and officials who can choose the candidate of their choice - Clinton is more than 90 percent of the way to clinching the nomination.

In the letter, Sanders notes that Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy will be in charge of the convention's platform committee and former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank will run the rules committee. He calls both "aggressive attack surrogates on the campaign trail" for Clinton.