Take America Back: Record-Breaking Numbers Attend Sanders' Anti-Trump Rally in Los Angeles

The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders drew a record-breaking crowd at his rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, which included musical performances by Joan Baez and Neil Young, who encouraged the crowd to "take America back".

- Victoria Clayton

Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy tour has been drawing enormous crowds. With the addition of the progressive New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the team set the record in Tempe, Arizona, for biggest-ever political rally in that state three weeks ago. In Denver, Colorado, more than 34,000 people showed up – a career-high crowd for the 83-year-old Sanders. Saturday in Los Angeles saw another record when at least 36,000 people packed a downtown park.

A host of musical acts kicked off the high-energy event, including the indie rock band The Red Pears, Maggie Rogers, Indigo de Souza, and the legends Baez and Young.

On a perfect LA day with a gentle breeze and blue sky, Young, wearing all black, performed for the crowd before introducing Ocasio-Cortez, who was met with the wild applause usually reserved for a rock star.

Ocasio-Cortez, 35, told the crowd at Gloria Molina Grand Park – a space named after the trailblazing Angeleno often credited for paving the way for women and Latin American people in LA politics – that "power, greed and corruption are taking over our country like never before".

She named some California lawmakers who have supported recent Trump policies, including Bakersfield representative David Valadao and representative Young Kim of Orange county.