The 2016 presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has faced accusations of "sexual violence and harassment" by staffers who worked on the campaign. Now new reporting from Politico identifies a senior campaign director who allegedly made inappropriate physical advances on a junior staffer in 2016.
Politico's national political reporter, Alex Thompson, broke the story in December about more than two dozen women and men from the 2016 Sanders campaign who signed a letter seeking to address past incidents of sexual harassment on the campaign.
The signees cited sexual violence, pay disparities that split along gender lines, an environment that could be hostile to women and the campaign's failure to take harassment allegations seriously as motivations for the letter. They all sought to avoid future incidents on a potential 2020 Sanders campaign.
The senator apologized publicly on CNN to to "any woman who felt that she was not treated appropriately."
Sanders says he was not aware of any claims of harassment or intimidation and that he would do better if he runs in 2020.
Politico published Thompson's latest story Thursday, naming Robert Becker—a campaign worker for the Sanders campaign in Iowa, Michigan, California and New York—with specific allegations of harassment.
Thompson joins Vermont Edition to explain the allegations against Becker, what's motivating campaign staffers to speak up and how this issue will resonate across all political campaigns in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
Broadcast live on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
