Thousands rally for Bernie Sanders at Rutgers

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders thrilled thousands of his "A Future to Believe in" believers - ethnically and racially diverse, many of them young students - who jammed Rutgers University's Louis Brown Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J., on Sunday night.

It was standing room only in the 8,000-seat arena.

"Are you guys ready to stand up, fight back, and make a political revolution?" he shouted, and smiled when he heard shouts of "Yes!"

"Well, that's good, because you came to the right place!" Sanders said.

He said he'd heard his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination defined as a "fringe" effort.

"We have made the financial establishment, the political establishment, and the media establishment quite nervous," he said. "That is a good thing. They need to get nervous, because real change is coming to America."

Sanders promised that, as president, he would fight for a guaranteed $15 minimum hourly wage and "create millions of decent-paying jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure."

Additionally, "we need to end the so-called war on drugs," he said, including giving police records for marijuana use. "Addiction and substance abuse should be seen as a health issue, not as a criminal issue."

He got a roar of approval for proposing tuition-free public college education, paid for by "a tax on Wall Street speculation."

Sanders said that, as of Sunday, he'd won 18 state primaries and caucuses, more than 45 percent of pledged delegates. In general-election polls, he said, he's consistently beaten Donald Trump by double digits.

"Donald Trump must not become president of the United States," Sanders said, calling the presumptive Republican nominee "a man who insults Mexicans and Latinos, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults veterans, who insults African Americans."

Sanders received thunderous "Bernie!" chants when he said, "And I am happy to tell you that Donald Trump will not become president of the United States."

Sanders sounded his familiar populist campaign themes, railing against "a corrupt campaign-finance system that is undermining democracy. . . . When billionaires buy elections, they are buying candidates that will support the wealthy and the powerful."

He asked his loudly cheering listeners to "think of a democracy where you can run for office without begging billionaires for campaign contributions."

Sanders said that while his 7.3 million campaign contributors donated an average of $27 each, rival Hillary Clinton made $250,000 for a Wall Street speech. He said it "must be an insightful speech, and you'd probably want to share that speech with the whole world."

He then announced "a dramatic moment in American political history. I am prepared to release the transcripts of all of the speeches I gave on Wall Street."

Sanders mimed throwing nonexistent speeches to the crowd. "Are you ready? All right! Here they are!"

Above the laughter, he said: "Not for $225,000. Not for $2. However, I got my cellphone and I'm waiting for that call. . . . I want the opportunity to tell Wall Street to their face what they have done to this country. Through their greed and through their illegal behavior, they have cost millions of Americans their jobs, their homes."

Bennett Weiss, of Newburgh, N.Y., was doing a brisk business in buttons. His biggest seller: Sanders getting arrested in 1963 during a fair-housing protest.

"I was arrested in 1974 for a less noble cause," Weiss said, "but nobody wants a button of that. I had half an ounce. I'm still ticked off about that."

Weiss told his customers to wear their Bernie buttons beyond the rally.

"Wear it to the supermarket. Wear it in the shower. You got a crazy Uncle Lou supporting Trump? Wear it to his home."

Rob Bayait of Somerville, N.J., held a handmade safety-yellow poster that read, "The establishment never moves unless they are pushed by the people!"

"That's a Pete Seeger quote," Bayait said, smiling at the memory of the iconic folk-singing social activist. "If Pete were alive today, I know he'd be here."

Bayait said he came to the Sanders rally with his wife, Claudia, and daughter Sara, a Rutgers freshman. "Campaign-finance reform, getting the big money out of politics, is a big Bernie issue," he said. "Until that's done, nothing else gets done. I don't think anyone except Bernie is taking that seriously."

Bayait also said Sanders is "the only candidate talking about students saddled with college debt beyond belief."

Sara Bayait added, "Bernie's the only one to address college kids as a demographic."

She looked around at the thousands of college students at the rally, many of whom had waited in line for three hours or more in stiff winds while an army of Sanders volunteers registered students to vote. "He's smart to treat us as a separate demographic."

Tasneem Khan, of Piscataway, who was attending the rally with wife Samina, said he's for Sanders because "he's a straightforward person. He's not lying about anything. When you ask Hillary a question, she goes around and around, and sometimes you get lost in her story and you can't find the answer. Sometimes, I think she's lying."

Marvin Bronstein, of South Plainfield, N.J., seated close to the podium with his wife, Nina, said: "Of all the candidates . . . Sen. Sanders is the most consistent, and I like the fact that he is not supported by big money. You can't create change if you are supported by big money people who don't want change.

"You can't have a vibrant economy if 90 percent of the people have substandard incomes because they are not able to buy goods and services."

Rutgers students Stephanie Sikander, of Camden County, and Samantha Choudhury, of Somerset County, were sitting in the front row. "I think he really cares about youth," Sikander said. ". . . I like his slogan: 'A Future to Believe In.' He lets us look forward to making things better. . . . And he's been working for this country from before I was born."

Sikander said she's OK with Clinton not being the first woman president. "One day we'll have a woman in the Oval Office," she said. "It doesn't have to be Hillary. We shouldn't vote for her just because she's a woman. Bernie Sanders will represent women well."

geringd@phillynews.com

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