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On 20 February 2016, the Nevada Democratic caucuses ended in a victory for Hillary Clinton. Not long after that, actress America Ferrera tweeted that that supporters of Bernie Sanders shouted English only! at longtime civil rights activist Dolores Huerta (who had apparently offered to translate from English to Spanish at an event at Harrah's casino on the Las Vegas strip), objecting to a translation of remarks from English to Spanish: Shortly thereafter, Huerta tweeted: Huerta initially didn't specify how she identified the chanters as Sanders supporters. We spoke to Erin Cruz, who was present at the rally with a nurses' union to support Sanders: Cruz told us she was accompanied by ten other nurses and actors Susan Sarandon and Gaby Hoffman. Cruz said she was unaware of any recording during the disputed chanting: A video of Huerta speaking surfaced not long afterward: Huerta has been extremely outspoken in her support for Hillary Clinton in recent weeks, and in fact was at the Nevada event to stump for her. Later on 20 February 2016, Huerta told ThinkProgress that she was able to identify Sanders' supporters as the room was divided with the Hillary people on one side and the Bernie people on the other. Huerta then nullified the English only claim entirely, herself stating that objections were raised not about translation but due to her affiliation with the Clinton campaign. Huerta further confirmed that the English only statement was made by the temporary precinct chair and not those objecting: A subsequent tweet from Susan Sarandon (who was present at that caucus) provided an account of the dispute in question along with a longer video clip: Also present was actor Gaby Hoffman, who tweeted: As Sarandon correctly stated, the segment in dispute started around the 53:30 mark, when parties called for a Spanish-language translator. As she indicated, at 55:18 the caucus moderator (not Sanders' supporters) simply stated that the inability to locate a neutral translator meant the caucus would continue in English only. At no point did any Sanders supporters appear to have refused a translator based on the fact that translation was objectionable to them; nor was English only used in a pejorative fashion. The term was invoked a single time, during the moderator's assertion that no suitable translator was located to provide Spanish-language translations: A number of readers pointed us toward a 20 February 2016 BuzzFeed item titled Sources: Bernie Supporters Did Chant English Only At Latina Labor Activist, which held: On 22 February 2016, we contacted BuzzFeed reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro to ask whether we could obtain more information on the two anonymous sources cited in the piece. McMorris-Santoro apologized and stated he was unwilling to discuss the claim, adding that his reporting speaks for itself in that respect. Significant edits to that item might be the reporting to which McMorris-Santoro referred. On 21 February 2016, the item was updated to include the following passage: We examined Nevada State Democratic Party caucus guidelines with respect to general procedure, and were unable to locate any specific procedural policy about translators. If such a provision was codified, it wasn't available in caucus-related instructional material. However, caucus policy documents published by the Nevada State Democratic Party in 2008 [PDF] and 2016 [PDF] appeared to favor the objections to Huerta's participation after the caucus was called to order, because of her clear identification as a campaign operative, advocate, volunteer, or surrogate. (Below, Huerta speaking outside the caucus on 20 February 2015, wearing a Clinton campaign t-shirt and hat): Guidelines from 2008 stated that campaign operatives were prohibited from communicating in any fashion with caucus participants once the caucus was called to order: Under the heading Campaigning and Other Activities in Nevada Democrats' 2016 At-Large Precinct Caucus Guidelines, that procedure was reiterated: We tried several times to contact Huerta on 20 February 2016, but have not yet received a reply. On 22 February 2016 we contacted Raymond Buckley, Chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and Temporary Precinct Chair (TPC) of the 20 February 2016 Harrah's Caucus. Presumably, Buckley was the individual referenced as TPC in media reports and made the call to proceed without translation under the circumstances: A representative for Chairman Buckley responded to our initial query, but we have not yet made direct contact with the Harrah's TPC, nor have we confirmed he was one of the two neutral parties with whom BuzzFeed purportedly discussed Huerta's claims.
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