As Sanders Endorses Clinton, How Far Left Has He Pushed the Democratic Party Platform?

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today at a joint rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The rally comes less than two weeks before the start of the Democratic National Convention. Clinton assumed the mantle of the party’s presumptive nominee after winning the California primary in June, but Sanders refused to concede the nomination in part to give his campaign greater power to push the party to adopt a more progressive platform. On Sunday Sanders sent out a release praising the adoption of what he called the "most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party." "Democracy Now!" speaks to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN). He was one of the five people picked by Bernie Sanders to serve on the Democratic National Convention’s Platform Committee.

"It takes a position in favor of $15 and a union for a federal minimum wage. It takes a position on a whole range of things, including the environment, that are progressive steps forward," Ellison said. "What do we not achieve? Compete opposition to fracking; we don’t have that. What is else not achieved? There’s some things on foreign policy fronts that, I think, would and could be better; some saber rattling with regard to Iran that I don’t think is helpful."