Sanders wins Maine with record turnout, slams Wall Street bailouts in debate

March 6, 2016
Issue 
Bernie Sanders addresses supporters in Warren, Michigan.

"Senator Bernie Sanders is the projected winner of the Maine caucuses, meaning the Vermont senator has won three out of four states in the last two days," US Uncut said on March 6. "With 76 percent of precincts reporting, Sanders won Maine by a 64-35 margin, according to The New York Times' election results."

The socialist candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination also easily won the Kansas and Nebraska Democratic caucuses the day before, while his opponent Hillary Clinton had a big win in Louisiana.

In a debate with Clinton on night of March 6 in Flint, Michigan, Sanders repeated his strong condemnation of Wall Street greed and control of politics, TeleSUR English said.

The economically devastated city of Flint is also badly suffering from the poisoning of its water supply as a direct result of austerity measyres. Adressing the crisis, Sanders said: “As a president I would rebuild our water infrastructures all over this country.

“I know that our democracy has failed in many aspects, the Environmental Protection Agency failed in Flint, but I trust that a democracy built by its own people for its own people will solve better their issues rather than corporations or Wall Street,” he said adding that he would fire any official knew about Flint's crisis, but failed to act. EPA that knew about the Flint issue and failed to act on it.

Sanders repeated his criticisms of Clinton for receiving huge donations from Wall Street, stating: "One of us have raised $15 million dollars from Wall Street super pac and one of us has given speeches on wall street for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"I'll be damned if it is the working people of this country that have to bail out Wall Street."

TeleSUR English said social media was flooded on with images of the protesters at the Democrat debate carrying signs against Flint's officials for their role in causing the water crisis, which affects the population's mostly poor and Black population.

US Uncut said Sanders win in Maine was likely the result of record-high caucus turnout. In Portland, some queued for three hours to vote.

It said: "According to Townhall.com, some caucus locations had such overwhelming turnout that the precinct captains skipped the 'caucus' part of the caucus and went straight to paper ballots so that voters could vote more efficiently."

US Uncut said Sanders was "expected to take home a wide majority of the state's 25 delegates, which are awarded proportionally. With the exception of Massachusetts, where Sanders lost by a margin of just 1.4%, Sen. Sanders has swept New England, winning by double-digit leads in New Hampshire and winning by such a crushing margin in Vermont that he was awarded every pledged delegate.

"Maine is the fifth caucus state Sanders has won, having previously won the Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, and Nebraska caucuses as well."

On the Republican side, TeleSUR English said Florida senator Marco Rubio had a "badly needed" lead in the caucuses in the US colony of Puerto Rico over the Republican lead candidate Donald Trump.

"With around a quarter of the votes counted, Rubio secured more than 75 percent of the vote, according to Reuters. The early results lead media outlets including NBC, CNN, and the Guardian to project him as the winner of the Spanish-speaking U.S. territory, meaning he would take all 23 delegates that were up for grabs.

"This is the Republican candidate's second win in the GOP race for the presidential nomination. He also won Minnesota. While it's still unclear how many delegates have been awarded to him, Puerto Rico's three super-delegates have been committed to Rubio."

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