After the 2016 Presidential election, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders emerged as a Democrat darling for progressives, and his campaign and message were positively received as the way that the Democratic party should be moving forward. However, now reports are being made that call into question the campaign’s image as a result of questionable backstage behavior.
Former staff members of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign are asking for a formal meeting with the Vermont senator to discuss “the issue of sexual violence and harassment on the 2016 campaign” to “mitigate the issue in the upcoming presidential cycle.”
Although Sanders has not confirmed whether or not he’ll make another run at the presidency, he’s been a Democrat favorite to go against President Trump. In the sunshine state, Hillary Clinton, the eventual Democrat nominee, overwhelming won the state in the 2016 Democrat primaries, but President Donald Trump ended up carrying Florida in the general election.
In a letter sent to the Senator over the weekend, over two dozen former staffers were urging him to focus on creating actionable goals that would prevent “the untenable and dangerous dynamic” that was endured in Sanders’ 2016 campaign.
In the letter, the staffers note that “We – the people who worked on Bernie 2016 – know that much of the success of our campaign was due to the intense commitment, passion and sacrifice of women, people of color and LGBT staffers. In recent weeks there has been an ongoing conversation on social media, in texts, and in person, about the untenable and dangerous dynamic that developed during our campaign.”
Aside from requesting a physical meeting with the senator, they also called for creating “a follow-up plan for implementing concrete sexual harassment policies and procedures” along with developing a “commitment to hiring diverse leadership.”
In response, Sanders’ campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, praised the letter and said that “we always welcome hearing the experiences and views of our former staff. We also value their right to come to us in a private way so their confidences and privacy are respected. And we will honor this principle with respect to this private letter.”
