HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii delegate is defending her decision to make an obscene gesture during the Hawaii roll call vote at the Democratic National Convention.
Delegate Chelsea Lyons Kent was seen on national television sticking up her middle finger when the votes for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton were announced on Tuesday. Kent is a supporter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who competed against Clinton in the party’s presidential primaries before endorsing her.
“My intention 100 percent was to flip the bird to the DNC,” Kent told Hawaii News Now (http://bit.ly/2axqSXj). “When the opportunity came and it was not planned and there was no one else involved, I flipped the finger to the DNC because the DNC had flipped the finger to us since day one and it was about time that somebody flipped it back.”
Gov. David Ige, who described Clinton’s nomination for president as historic, said Kent’s actions outraged both Clinton and Sanders supporters.
“It truly was unfortunate that the gesture is not representative of all the work that has been done by the Hawai’i delegation here at this convention,” Ige said.
Officials with the Democratic Party of Hawaii revoked Kent’s credentials for the convention. Party Chairman Tim Vandeever said Kent was given the opportunity to apologize in exchange for being allowed back to the convention, but she refused.
Kent stands by her actions and says she is not the only Sanders supporter whose credentials for the convention have been revoked.
“Bernie Sanders was the only candidate who was not the lesser of two evils,” she said, “so you cannot tell us to sit down quietly while you give us these two options.”
Kent said she won’t vote for Clinton or Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.