Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders attracted record crowds at a rally held in Los Angeles on Saturday. This included musical performances by Joan Baez and Neil Young, encouraging the crowd to “reclaim America.”
Olihead of the Battle of Sanders: The tour of places that come from here attracts a large crowd. The team, backed by New York's progressive representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, set a record three weeks ago in Tempe, Arizona, for the state's largest political rally ever. More than 34,000 people appeared in Denver, Colorado. The 83-year-old Sanders' career-highest crowd. There was another record on Saturday in Los Angeles. At least 36,000 people packed the downtown park.
A number of musical acts have launched high-energy events, including indie rock bands The Red Pears, Maggie Rogers, Indigo de Souza and Legends Baez and Young.
On a perfect LA day with a gentle breeze and blue skies, Young wore an all-black look, playing for the crowd, and introduced Ocasio-Cortez, whom he encountered with wild applause, normally reserved for rock stars.
Ocasio-Cortez, 35, told the crowd at Gloria Morina Grand Park. “Power, greed and corruption have never taken over our country,” a space where Angeleno is often praised for paving the way for women and Latinos in Latinx politics. She was appointed a California lawmaker who supported recent Trump policies, including Bakersfield president David Valadao and Orange County Representative Young Kim.
The Rays Gospel Choir sang “The Power to the People” and Sanders took to the stage. “We live in the moment when the Republicans become a massive cult of individuals and follow all of Trump's wishes,” Sanders told the crowd, adding that the Trump administration is now “planning ways that can give the rich people 1.1 TN.”
Politician criticism of the administration, and the impact of large sums of money and billionaires in American politics, lasted more than 40 minutes. The message picked up a new resonance in the Second Trump administration, seeing Americans watch Elon Musk take chainsaws to the federal government and threaten popular safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
These are the issues that brought out Cindy and Victor Villanuevo. Cindy has fought multiple sclerosis for the past decade. “I'm here because I'm tired of what Trump is doing to science. It's a disgrace. When you cut funds, none of us has any hope,” said the mother of Buena Park.
Her sister, a retired teacher, Rose Matthews, is worried for the benefit of Social Security, people working in veteran issues, and veterans. “I know the people at Long Beach VA because my husband fought ALS for four years,” she said. “The work they do in the vet is incredibly necessary and very necessary. Now I'm worried that it will go away. I can't let this happen.”
Ali Wolf and Milo Lewis took the 94 bus from Lake Silver to attend. They said the bus was packed with Bernie supporters.
“It's scary what's going on,” Wolf said. “It's so comforting to be here with so many like-minded people.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie are “the closest to the American version you actually want to live in,” Lewis said.
Independent Sanders, who votes with Democrats, began to tour in late February, offering Democrat voters an outlet for their rage and sadness at a moment when most of Washington's leaders appear to be confused by the speed of Trump's second term's power. Vermont Senators have held events in big cities like Denver and Phoenix, targeting Republican-owned districts that voted for Joe Biden in 2020 as Democrats are thinking of returning to power in 2026.
Ocasio-Cortez joined Sanders on part of her tour last month, raising questions about her political aspirations and the future of the progressive movement that she has built up since before she was born. On the Los Angeles scene, Washington progressive lawmaker Pramila Jayapal and California's Locanna, as well as many union leaders representing teachers, nurses, longshoremen and healthcare workers, all spoke to the crowd. Eunissess Hernandez, who represents LA's first city council district, gave a particularly powerful speech, saying that the Trump administration is trying to split people and blame them on their problems rather than blaming people who “really benefit from our pain.”
Sanders' Western Tour continues with stops in Utah, Idaho and Montana. The tour returns to California on Tuesday and has one of the highest levels of state MEDI-CAL registrations for events at Republican bases Folsom and Bakersfield. The farm community in Kern County was also the site of the January immigration attack, claiming that the arrests of 78 people were the result of shocking and illegal racial profiling. Sanders opposed the attack, describing it as “destroying” by the US government.
