Following the New York Times’ Friday report revealing that Hillary Clinton decided against firing her 2008 presidential campaign’s faith adviser when he was accused of sexual harassment, Clinton’s campaign manager at the time, Patti Solis Doyle, spoke out about the decision on CNN on Monday.
Solis Doyle recommended that Clinton fire the adviser, Burns Strider, but Clinton overruled that suggestion and kept Strider on, as the New York Times reported. Solis Doyle confirmed this on CNN and said that she still believes Clinton made the “wrong call.”
Solis Doyle also said she was “disappointed” by Clinton’s tweet responding to the story over the weekend, in which the former presidential candidate acknowledged the incident but did not say whether she believes she should have done things differently.
A story appeared today about something that happened in 2008. I was dismayed when it occurred, but was heartened the young woman came forward, was heard, and had her concerns taken seriously and addressed.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 27, 2018
“I was disappointed by that tweet, that response. It was the wrong call. I wish she had said it was the wrong call. I wish she had said, ‘You know, having to do it over, I would have fired him.’ I think that’s actually true. I believe that she thinks that ‘if I had to do it over again, I would fire him,” Solis Doyle said on CNN.
Solid Doyle also argued that it was a challenging decision for Clinton to make.
“It wasn’t an easy call. None of these calls are easy. And especially in a presidential campaign, we were just a few months away from voting beginning to start with the caucuses and the primaries, firing a high-profile person on the campaign would have certainly made news and caused a distraction, so it wasn’t an easy call,” she said on CNN.
She also defended Clinton personally and attested to the former presidential candidate’s commitment to hiring and helping female staff.
“I feel like I know the totality of her as a person, as a politician, as a public servant. And this is a woman who allowed me to put a crib in my office, in the White House, and bring my 3-month-old baby to work every day because she knew that I was struggling with balancing my early motherhood with a rising career,” Solis Doyle said. “This is a woman who hires women at the highest levels in her orbit, promotes women, gives them raises, who is dogged in her advocacy for the issues that she cares about.”
