PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton couldn’t deliver her big speech Thursday accepting the Democratic nomination without some encountering resistance from her own party, as she was taunted by signs held up by delegates that challenging her integrity and her policy positions.
As she spoke from the podium in Wells Fargo Center, she had to look out at a bright red placard hoisted high on a pole that read: “Keep your promises.” Another sign raised high on a pole said: “Walk the walk.”
The demonstration during her acceptance speech capped a raucous and contentious four-day convention, where party officials labored to quiet Bernard Sanders supporters and present an image of unity heading into the general election race against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
On previous days, Sanders delegates booed and jeered when speakers mention of Mrs. Clinton’s name.
The crowd in the stands Thursday also was dotted with signs that blared opposition to trade deals, and to hydraulic fracturing or fracking, issues that are crucial to liberal activists and about which Mrs. Clinton’s positions have been murky.
Other signs screamed out: “Thank you bernie,” backing her far-left primary rival whose run Democratic National Committee officials plotted to sabotage in order to benefit Mrs. Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton also was confronted with a smattering of signs proclaiming support for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, whom many of the Sanders supporters switched to after the Vermont senator lost.
A sign on a pole carried the slogan “Jill not Hill.”
Several times during the speech, when Sanders delegates tried to chant his name, a greater number of delegates would yell over them “Hill-a-ry.” The results could be heard competing with Mrs. Clinton’s words on the television feed.
The opposition from within her own party did not dissuade Mrs. Clinton from making an appeal for support to Americans from all stripes.
“I will be a President for Democrats, Republicans, and independents who are supporting our campaign,” Mrs. Clinton said. “For the struggling, the striving and the successful. For those who vote for me and those who don’t. For all Americans together.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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