Sanders To Meet With Women Who Alleged Harassment, Sexism During Campaign

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 10: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) leaves after a news conference on prescription drugs January 10, 2019 at the Capitol in Washington, DC. Congressional Democrats held a news conference to... WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 10: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) leaves after a news conference on prescription drugs January 10, 2019 at the Capitol in Washington, DC. Congressional Democrats held a news conference to introduce a legislative package "that would drastically reduce prescription drug prices in the United States." (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) this week will meet with women who have alleged a culture of harassment and gender discrimination at his 2016 presidential campaign, Buzzfeed News reported.

Sanders’ office arranged for the women to travel to Washington, D.C. to meet with the senator and members of his staff on Wednesday. The trip and hotels for the women were covered by Sanders’ campaign fund, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting who spoke to Buzzfeed.

The meetings will be orchestrated by an outside consulting group that provides training on “workplace inclusion and diversity,” in Buzzfeed’s words. Several male and female former employees of the 2016 campaign sent a letter to the senator last month, requesting a meeting to discuss the “issue of sexual violence and harassment on the 2016 campaign, for the purpose of planning to mitigate the issue in the upcoming presidential cycle.”

Both Politico and The New York Times have reported on women’s allegations of sexual harassment, assault and a pervasive climate of sexism while working on Sanders’ 2016 presidential run. Sanders has apologized and said that his campaign will “do better next time. Yet tthe Vermont senator was criticized for his initial flippant response to the allegations, when he said he was “a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case.”

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  1. Avatar for danf danf says:

    Le sigh… I guess that means he’s running. I have no problems with what Sanders brings to the conversation - and really, aside from not getting out of the primary sooner, Sanders did give full support to HRC - but some of his supporters suffer from an annoying strain of some bizzaro entitlement syndrome. #NotAllBernieSupporters

    I’m not sure why he thinks he has a shot, but you do you Bernie.

  2. I know there’s a lot of intense dislike of Sanders, but this is a positive step. How many others in his situation did anything other than deny the charges.

  3. Get this old has-been the hell away from the Democratic Party. He wants to be an Independent instead of committing to something? Then stop trying to infiltrate the Democratic Party for his own egotistical needs.

    I am so tired of this poser.


    Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.
  4. Just go away, Bernie. Please just go away.

  5. Avatar for erik_t erik_t says:

    I don’t know much about Sanders’ personal finances, but this was a dumb play. Cutting a five-figure check and covering it personally would be PR gold. Mumble something about how it’s important that this be figured out, but you don’t want your supporters’ donations to end up paying for misbehavior, or something.

    It’s way to easy to spin this in the latter framing, and somebody will. It paints him with the same old out-of-touch good old boy brush, and for his campaign to be in any way viable I think Senator Sanders needs to cultivate a pure-as-the-driven-snow reputation.

    (I’m assuming this would be legal as far as campaign finance goes)

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