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Bernie Sanders Introduces Run The Jewels at Coachella As Supporters Get Ready For ‘Berniechella’

By Patricia Grannum
Published on: 21:56 PST, Apr 16, 2016

Bernie Sanders is pretty hip for a guy in his seventies. The Vermont senator made a cameo at the Coachella Music Festival, introducing rap duo Run The Jewels via a video message, Pitchfork.com reports.

“Hi everybody, this is Senator Bernie Sanders. One of the highlights of running for president during the course of this last year has been getting to know Killer Mike,” Sanders said. “His depth of passion, his knowledge, his commitment to community has been an inspiration to me and I value his friendship immensely.”

Anyone who has been following the Bernie Sanders campaign won’t be surprised at him introducing the rap group at the music festival.

Killer Mike, one half of the Run The Jewels unit, has been on the campaign trail with Bernie Sanders and has introduced him at rallies before.

As the Consequence of Sound website notes, the rapper spoke at a Bernie Sanders rally at Claflin University in South Carolina in February. At the rally, Killer Mike made an impassioned endorsement of the senator from Vermont.

“If I could find a picture of you from 51 years ago chained to a black woman, protesting segregation, and I know 51 years later you’re willing to fold your arms, hold you head, and listen to two black girls yell and scream rightfully so as opposed to someone who will tell you to ‘shut up’ after they read your own words, as opposed to someone who will tell you ‘later’ when it comes to your children dying in the streets, I know that the only person that I have the conscience to vote for is Bernard Sanders. I know that the only person my logical beautiful black mind will allow me to vote for is Senator Bernie Sanders.”

The Coachella Music Festival is about to feel the bern even more. CNN reports that Bernie Sanders supporters are planning a music festival of their own on April 22 and 23, before Coachella’s second weekend. The event is being dubbed “Berniechella,” and is going to be free.

“It’s a party of people who are in support of a particular candidate,” event organizer Tizoc DeAztlan told The Desert Sun.

Alex Ebert, lead singer of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, DJ Shepard Fairey and the band Ozomatli, are scheduled to perform, among others.

This isn’t the only Bernie Sanders themed music festival that’s being organized.

CNN reports that there’s another one being planned in Chicago. The one-day music event is being called “Bernie Fest” and will take place in August. Another music festival in honor of Sanders, “Bernanza” is scheduled to take place in Omaha, Nebraska, from June 30 to July 2, based on details shared on the festival’s website.

Sanders recently met with the Pope, a meeting that some saw as controversial.

Pope Francis on the other hand has said it was anything but. Reuters reports that the head of the Catholic Church answered a question about his meeting with Sanders while on the way to visit a refugee camp. Pope Francis and Bernie Sanders met briefly last Saturday when Sanders spent the night at the Vatican guest house after he addressed a conference hosted by The Vatican on social justice.

“If anyone thinks that greeting someone is getting involved in politics, I recommend that he look for a psychiatrist,” he said, with a laugh.

Sanders waxed poetic about his meeting with Pope Francis, lauding him for his stance on many global issues.

“I just conveyed to him my admiration for the extraordinary work he is doing raising some of the most important issues facing our planet and the billions of people on the planet and injecting the need for morality in the global economy,” Sanders told ABC.

There’s no word yet on whether Sanders will be at Berniechella but we fully expect a Bernie Sanders mix-tape to drop before the presidential election
[Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images]
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