Bernie Sanders Supporters Demonstrate Outside George Clooney-Hosted Hillary Clinton Fundraiser
— -- Approximately 100 Bernie Sanders supporters demonstrated outside of a George and Amal Clooney-hosted Hillary Clinton fundraiser Friday night in San Francisco's upscale Nob Hill neighborhood.
Clinton and her aides arrived at the home of venture capitalist and Democratic donor Shervin Pishevar around 6:30 p.m. for the fundraiser, which kicked off at 7 p.m. Tickets to the event cost roughly $30,000 per person or $350,000 per table. (This is the first of two Clooney-hosted fundraisers this weekend. On Saturday night, the Clooneys are hosting another fundraiser, at his home in Los Angeles.)
The San Francisco street where the home is located was blocked off by police, but the protesters gathered at the top of the hill and then marched around the block.
Holding signs that read “Hillary: You can’t sit with us unless you have money” and “$353,000 for Dinner? And you thought SF home prices are high,” while banging pots and pans, protesters were vocal about Clinton’s ties to big money.
“Hey, hey, ho ho, Hillary Clinton has got to go!” the crowd, many of whom appeared to be in their twenties and thirties yelled out. “Bernie or Bust!”
While walking around the block, the protesters repeatedly chanted "We are the 99 percent!” and "This is what Democracy looks like!” At one point, a leader of the protest mentioned the 1994 crime bill and got the crowd to yell out in unison: “The Clintons are the architect of mass incarceration.” They also called on Clinton to release the transcripts of her paid speeches to Wall Street.
The protest at the fundraiser, which raised money for both Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was organized on Facebook and roughly 3,000 had confirmed they would attend.
The police, who were stationed on all sides of the street, remained calm and were respectful of the protesters, who were outside for roughly an hour.
The protest comes as Democrats face a growing concern about whether they’ll be able to unite the party during the general election. Many of the Sanders supporters here today couldn’t say whether they would vote for Clinton if Sanders does not win the nomination.
Protester Christopher Ray, 30, who has a “Feel the Bern” logo tattooed on his left wrist, equated Clinton with Donald Trump.
“They’ve been in bed together for almost 30 years,” Ray claimed to ABC News when asked if he would support her over the Republican front-runner. "I guess you could say they’re similar. They just market themselves differently.”
Sharon Snyder, 32, a phone banker for Bernie Sanders, said she can’t get behind Clinton because of how she approaches feminism.
“Getting a prominent feminist say that if you’re not with Hillary then you’re not a feminist I think is really psychotic,” Snyder said, referring to former Secretary of State Madeline Albright’s remark during a Clinton event that “there’s a special place in hell” for women who don’t support other women.
Snyder added, sarcastically, "What about Carly Fiorina? Would you just throw any...woman in? What about Sarah Palin?”
