More than two dozen staffers who worked on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign have signed a letter urging the Vermont senator and his top strategists to discuss sexual misconduct on the campaign trail and how to put an end to it in a possible 2020 run, according to a Politico report.
The story, published on Sunday evening, said the organizers had not intended for the letter to become public.
In a statement sent to VtDigger, Friends of Bernie Sanders, the senator’s primary campaign committee, condemned harassment of any kind and said the organization was grateful that former staffers were coming to it with concerns.
“Hearing the experiences and thoughts of individuals who worked on Bernie’s 2016 campaign is a vital part of our commitment to work within our progressive community to improve the lives of all people,” the statement said. “We thank the signers of the letter for their willingness to engage in this incredibly important discussion.”
The staffers’ letter, which was sent to Sanders aides on Sunday, did not outline specific instances of sexual misconduct that took place during the 2016 campaign, but it did ask for a conversation with top campaign officials to begin before a 2020 presidential bid.
The letter also requested that the meeting be in-person, with an unrecorded phone line for those who could not attend, and that it include 2016 campaign manager Jeff Weaver; Sanders’ chief of staff, Caryn Compton; deputy chief of staff Ari Rabin-Havt; the campaign manager for Sanders’ 2018 re-election effort, Shannon Jackson; and top communications official Arianna Jones, along with Sanders himself.
Weaver and Jackson could not be reached immediately for comment.
“It is critically important that Senator Sanders attend this meeting to understand the full scope of the issue from 2016 and how the campaign plans to move forward,” the letter obtained by Politico said.
Sanders’ campaign committee did acknowledge in its statement that during the 2016 campaign there were multiple complaints to the human resources department for myriad workplace issues.
“While it is not appropriate to discuss them individually, they ranged from employee counseling to immediate termination from the campaign,” the committee said. “We share in the urgency for all of us to do better.”
In the letter, former staff members also wrote that the campaign should be “implementing concrete sexual harassment policies and procedures; and a commitment to hiring diverse leadership to pre-empt the possibility of replicating the predatory culture from the first presidential campaign.”
Friends of Bernie Sanders pointed out it in its statement that it has implemented “more robust policies” regarding discrimination and harassment and began to use a third-party toll-free hotline for reporting incidents outside the structure of the campaign during the 2018 Senate re-election campaign in Vermont.
“We will continue to examine these policies and processes, with feedback welcome, and will make any necessary changes, as we continue our work to build a world based on social, racial and economic justice,” the committee said.