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The insurgent Democratic presidential candidate from Vermont drew an estimated 28,000 people to his Portland event. The 19,000 supporters that managed to get into the Moda Center drank Widmer beer, chanted his name, and cheered a stump speech that pledged to dismantle the power of the "€œbillionaire class."
The Portland event averted the controversy of Sanders' Saturday visit to Seattle, where Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted one of the candidate's speeches to demand he make justice for African-Americans a focus of his platform.
Sanders' debuted a racial justice platform Sunday. Campaign spokeswoman Symone Sanders, promoted to the job Saturday, asked the Moda crowd to memorize a chant in case of interruption: "We stand together."
It wasn't necessary. A handful of protesters chanted "Black lives matter" throughout Sanders' speech, but they were too few in number and too far from the podium to be widely heard.
Not even the Moda Center's seating capacity could dampen the enthusiasm. The Sanders campaign turned away as many as 9,000 additional people at the door of the arena. Many of them stayed outside, listening over speakers.
If you were among the thousands who missed the party, here are the 13 lines that most electrified the crowd. (At least as measured by our ears.)
13. "If a bank is too big to fail, I think it's too big to exist."
12. "We must end the embarrassment of this country being the only country on earth that does not guarantee workers paid medical and family leave."
11. "We see kids getting criminal records for having marijuana, but the CEOs of these large institutions get away with theft."
10. On the Koch brothers: "When you have one family spending more than either political party, that is not democracy, that is oligarchy, and that has got to end."
9. On Republicans: "What they mean by family values is that our gay brothers and sisters should not be able to marry and enjoy all the benefits of citizenship. I disagree."
8. "Men, stand with the women and demand pay equity. There is no defensible reason why women are making 78 cents on the dollar. That has got to change."
7. On attendance: "Portland, you have done it better than anyone else."
6. "A minimum wage of $7 an hour is a starvation wage. I applaud those cities—Seattle, Los Angeles and others—that have raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour. And that is exactly what we will do at the federal level."
5. On the very rich: "They have unlimited sums of money. But we have something they do not have. We have a united people."
4. "Every public college and university in America will be tuition-free."
3. "The cost of war is real, and it is terrible. I believe that war should be the last resort, not the first resort."
2. On his Supreme Court nominees: "They will have to tell the American people that their first order of business will be to overturn Citizens United."
1. "This campaign is sending a message to the billionaire class: Yes, we have the guts to take you on."
UPDATE, 11:40 am Monday, Aug. 10: Here's video of Sanders' full, 58-minute Portland speech.
Willamette Week