Top Sanders Adviser Praises Procedure For Drafting DNC Platform

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has repeatedly criticized the Democratic Party for running an unfair primary and called for the removal of its chair. But one of his top advisers this week described the party's process for drafting its platform as "pretty good."

While Sanders has begun acknowledging he is not going to be the Democratic nominee for president, he has called for a "fundamental transformation" of the party and vowed to remain in the race to influence its platform. The independent senator clearly influenced the final draft of the Democratic National Convention's platform, which includes a $15 minimum wage and language like a "rigged economy" -- a term Sanders has often used in speeches on the campaign trail.

"This document is not perfect. We hope to improve it. But we’re off to an excellent start, and we look forward to continuing to work with Secretary Clinton’s campaign to make this the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party," Warren Gunnels, the policy director on the Sanders' campaign, told The Washington Post. "The process itself has been very good.”

The DNC agreed to give Sanders an increased amount of influence and allowed him to select five members of the 15-person committee responsible for drafting the platform. The convention's chair typically selects all of the members. Democrats also added a degree of transparency to the platform when they livestreamed the debate to draft it in June.

Despite those concessions, Sanders still criticized the DNC and called for the removal of two committee chairs because he claimed they were biased against him.