Bernie Sanders draws large crowd to Portland arena

The independent Vermont senator, who is running for the 2016 Democratic nomination, has drawn fans across the country with his message focused on income inequality and taking on Wall Street.

“Now that you’ve covered yourself and your white supremacist liberalism, I will formerly welcome Bernie Sanders to Seattle”.

In a statement to CNN after the event, Seattle’s Black Lives Matter chapter said it protested the event because “the problem with Sanders, and with white Seattle progressives in general, is that they are utterly and totally useless (when not outright harmful) in terms of the fight for Black lives”.

The protesters would not let Sanders take the microphone, prompting rally organizer Robby Stern to officially end the event.

Meanwhile, as the crowd drew “Bernie” chants, the crowd became uneasy as the man they came to see and cheer for, was hijacked from his own rally.

African American church leaders say the Black Lives Matter movement has been successful in raising awareness of race issues.

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, the leading alternative to Hillary Clinton, attracted on Sunday in Portland, Oregon, the largest audience since being on the campaign trail, according to The Washington Post. He called the disruption by Black Lives Matter protesters “unfortunate”.

Sanders was active in the civil rights movement while in college in the 60s.

On Saturday, Marissa Johnson, one of the activists claiming to represent Black Lives Matter Seattle by interrupting Sanders, said that she wanted Sanders to “take responsibility for his actions” at the July Netroots Nation conference, where Sanders was interrupted by Black Lives Matter activists.

The protestors continued to talk about the issues on their list then asked for crowd for a period of silence to remember Michael Brown who had been shot and killed by a police officer.

“All across this country, people are sick and exhausted of establishment politics, establishment economics and they want real change”, Sanders said. But Sanders’ endorsement is noteworthy because about 90 percent of the NNU’s members are women, and it comes as the Democratic presidential field has been actively courting labor unions.

Organizers allowed the moment of silence, even though some in the crowd were upset by the interruption and booed, asking for the protesters to leave the stage.

On the newly instated platform, Sanders describes “four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic”. “I was especially disappointed because on criminal justice reform and the need to fight racism”.