Hillary Clinton responded Tuesday to a report in the New York Times Friday that she declined to fire her faith adviser, Burns Strider, during her 2008 campaign after her campaign manager informed her of a sexual harassment complaint against him.
“I very much understand the question I’m being asked as to why I let an employee on my 2008 campaign keep his job despite his inappropriate workplace behavior,” she wrote in a lengthy post on her Facebook page. “The short answer is this: If I had it to do again, I wouldn’t.”
Clinton confirmed the Times’ reporting that, presented with her staff’s determination that Strider had “engaged in inappropriate behavior,” she “asked for steps that could be taken short of termination.”
“In the end, I decided to demote him, docking his pay; separate him from the woman; assign her to work directly for my then-deputy-campaign manager; put in place technical barriers to his emailing her; and require that he seek counseling,” she wrote. “He would also be warned that any subsequent harassment of any kind toward anyone would result in immediate termination.”
Clinton continued, explaining her decision: “I did this because I didn’t think firing him was the best solution to the problem. He needed to be punished, change his behavior, and understand why his actions were wrong. The young woman needed to be able to thrive and feel safe. I thought both could happen without him losing his job. I believed the punishment was severe and the message to him unambiguous.”
The Times also reported that Strider was fired from a Clinton-aligned super PAC, Correct the Record, in 2016, for similar reasons. Clinton did not address that in the Facebook post.
Read the full post — published minutes before President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address — below:
The ‘young ones’ and the haters are not going to buy this but I do. I LIVED through harassment in 2008 and this is how it was handled. Everyone may WISH the same sanctimonious take-no-prisoners way of dealing with inappropriate behavior but it wasn’t like that. Women’s rights were already eroding (Thanks George Bush etal) and everyone was running for cover because of the recession. I hate the re-writing of history but it will happen…again and again.
Sometimes, you get one chance to make the right decision.
Like voting for or against the Iraq War.
Ten years ago. Which of us can say we would make the same decisions today that we did 10 years ago? Clinton has to be the most inveighed against person in America history. These articles are worthless and verge on click-bait.
Yup, this was another MaggieH special to balance our her previous day’s “bombshell” (April Ryan covered it last July) about Trump wanting to fire Mueller.
Anything to maintain access and keep the waters muddied.
Cc @cmbudinger
You do know she never voted to go to war in Iraq, right?
But don’t let the facts stop you.