Sanders: ‘We lost some very important fights’ in Democratic platform

Bernie Sanders said Sunday that while the Democrats’ platform draft includes some major victories for his presidential campaign, there is still work to be done.

{mosads}”We won some very important victories in our effort to try to make it clear to the American people that the Democratic Party stands with the working class,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

“But we lost some very important fights. We’re going to take that fight to Orlando, where the entire committee meets in two weeks, and if we don’t succeed there, we’re certainly going to take it to the floor of the Democratic convention.” 

The platform draft includes some major victories for the Sanders camp but diverges from his policies enough to give him ammo going into the Democratic National Convention in late July.

The platform draft committee took a first step toward giving Sanders a major concession, voting to adopt language in support of a $15 minimum wage.  

The 15-person committee, chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), finalized its draft of the guiding document Saturday in St. Louis after lengthy negotiations. 

The panel also aligned itself with progressive ideas such as abolishing the death penalty and expanding Social Security, The Associated Press reported. The minimum wage language adopted echoes a common refrain from Sanders, calling the current federal minimum of $7.25 a “starvation wage.”

The platform also tackled financial reform by calling for “an updated and modernized version of Glass-Steagall.” 

But the panel did block several proposals favored by Sanders and his supporters. It refused to adopt a proposed amendment by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) that would have opposed President Obama on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — both Sanders and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have spoken against the trade deal. Instead, the panel backed a measure that acknowledged “a diversity of views in the party” on the TPP.

It also rejected amendments putting a national freeze on fracking, imposing a carbon tax and promoting a single-payer healthcare system.