Shouting match erupts among Texans at DNC breakfast
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Russell Lytle knows how to get attention. But the Denton County, Texas, Democrat drew maybe more than he expected when he addressed his home state delegation Tuesday morning.
"We are currently condemning our current presumptive nominee," he said to immediate boos and jeers from the predominantly pro-Clinton audience. Lytle is a Bernie Sanders supporter.
One man told supporters of the Vermont Senator to "Grow up."
Another shouted, "They lost. It's their ego."
As party chairman Gilberto Hinjosa told Lytle and his backers to leave the stage, some stood with their arms up in solidarity.
"We will not be taken to heel," one Sanders backer told Eyewitness News as she held her hand skyward in a fist.
"Never," echoed the woman standing next to her.
Lytle, who seemed shaken, when one man who'd been on stage, confronted him angrily. "You're a jerk," he said to Lytle. "You have no business getting up there and representing yourself as a leader of Bernie delegates. You are not."
As the scene slowly calmed as others took to the microphone to restore order and preach patience, Lytle spoke to reporters.
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"Democracy is not pretty," he said. "And sometimes when you take a stand you're going to upset some people. The Bernie delegation has felt chastised. The DNC has been colluding with the media and the emails show that. And so we want to have an open discussion with our fellow democratic party members. "
Still, party leaders think these are growing pains they'll move past in time for election day.
"The vast majority, even the young people who got on stage on behalf of Bernie said they want to be a part of unity, " said Wendy Davis, former State Senator and 2014 Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee.
That unity was tested Tuesday morning in a Philadelphia Marriott ballroom.
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