DNC crowd cheers as Bernie Sanders demands end to ‘horrific’ Gaza war

The Democratic National Convention crowd cheered after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) demanded an immediate end to the war in Gaza.

In a speech on the second night of the DNC, Sanders defended Vice President Kamala Harris and denounced former President Donald Trump. At one point, Sanders suddenly shifted to insisting on justice abroad.

“We must summon the courage to stand up to wealth and power and deliver justice for people at home and abroad,” he said with an emphasis on the latter.

“Abroad!” Sanders repeated with greater stress.

“We must end this horrific war in Gaza, bring home the hostages, and demand an immediate ceasefire,” he said to cheers from the crowd.

Several people in the crowd were seen with their heads bowed, not cheering.

Sanders’s speech was the most straightforward denunciation of the war at the convention so far. He also took the opportunity to indirectly denounce the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

“And my friends, at the very top of that to-do list is the need to get big money out of our political process,” he said to cheers. “Billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections, including primary elections.”

Sanders previously said that the war in Gaza was President Joe Biden’s Vietnam, drawing parallels dreaded by Democrats fearing a repeat of the 1968 DNC in Chicago.

Protests have rocked the DNC, with thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters descending on Chicago. Before proceedings began on Monday, a protester stormed the stage to chant “Free Palestine.”

Sanders has been one of the most vocal opponents of the war in Gaza, leveling harsh criticism against the Biden-Harris administration over the United States’s stance.