DECEMBER 31, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


CNN NEWS STORIES TODAY:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/31/app-news-section/quickly-catch-up-december-31/index.html
Quickly catch up on the day's news
By Delaney Strunk, CNN
Updated 2:45 PM ET, Mon December 31, 2018

(CNN)Here's what you might have missed Monday on CNN:

-- Sen. Elizabeth Warren launched a presidential exploratory committee ahead of an expected run for the Democratic nomination in 2020.
-- A new crew of Democrats has subpoena power and is ready to use it. Meet the House chairs who are about to make life harder for the President.
-- An American was arrested in Moscow last week "while carrying out an act of espionage," Russia's intelligence agency said.
-- House Democrats will vote on a legislative package to reopen the government on Thursday when they officially take over the chamber.
-- If it feels like the US has become increasingly divided along race, gender, and other identity lines — it's because it has, a recent report found.
-- A masked man with a loaded gun was arrested on his way to a Texas church to fulfill a "prophecy."
-- From jury duty to pet purchases, here's a look at some of the new laws going into effect in 2019.
-- Alexandra Black, a 22-year-old zoological park intern, was killed by an escaped lion at a conservation center in North Carolina.
-- Comedian Louis C.K. is in hot water again for reportedly making fun of Parkland shooting survivors in a recent comedy set.


https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/31/politics/democratic-investigations-chair-maxine-waters/index.html
By Jeremy Herb and Lauren Fox, CNN
Updated 2:56 PM ET, Mon December 31, 2018

(CNN)President Donald Trump will face an intensified level of scrutiny in the new year, with Democratic House committee chairs poised to comb through every corner of his administration, subpoena his Cabinet and investigate his personal finances, associates and business interests.

While Trump has directed his political attacks at Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi, it's the committee chairs who will soon become his greatest foes.

The President -- no stranger to name calling or political swipes -- has already begun jabbing some of the incoming chairs on Twitter over the past two years, and he has decades of history with one of the new leaders. But despite Trump's declarations that he's prepared to play hardball with the Democratic investigators, there's a new crew of Democrats in Washington -- rising from the party's return to the majority in the House of Representatives -- who have subpoena power and are prepared to use it.

"If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!" Trump tweeted the day after this fall's midterm elections.

Meet the five chairs most likely to battle the President next year:

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, speaks at an event in October 2014 in New York City. Nadler will lead the House Judiciary Committee next year. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Jerry Nadler

Trump's history with Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York dates to the 1980s, when they battled over Manhattan real estate while Nadler was in the New York State Assembly before he was elected to Congress. In his 2000 book, "The America We Deserve," Trump called Nadler "one of the most egregious hacks in contemporary politics."

"This guy wanted to put a railroad yard on the same property where I wanted to build a park and create the best middle-income housing in New York," Trump wrote in his book.

Now Nadler is set to lead the Judiciary Committee, which would put him in charge of any Democratic impeachment effort. His committee will also be in charge of handling a report from special counsel Robert Mueller and any fights that may arise about making it public.

Nadler's committee also has jurisdiction over Trump's signature issue: immigration, an area Nadler is poised to conduct rigorous oversight on -- from family separation to changes to asylum laws -- in the new Congress.

Nadler has said it's too soon to talk impeachment, even though there's a sizable chunk of Democratic advocates -- not to mention some House lawmakers -- who already want to move forward.

Nadler: Impeachable offense doesn't mean impeachment 04:40

That doesn't mean Nadler has avoided the "I" word altogether.

Asked on CNN's "State of the Union" earlier this month about Trump being implicated in Michael Cohen's crimes of paying women for their silence during the campaign, Nadler said: "They would be impeachable offenses."

But he said pursing impeachment is a different question.

"You don't necessarily launch an impeachment against the President because he committed an impeachable offense," Nadler said. "There are several things you have to look at."

If Democrats do to try to impeach Trump, Nadler will be one of the most important Democrats in the caucus -- and will likely face the breadth of Trump's backlash.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, answers questions following a committee meeting at the US in February in Washington. Schiff is expected to chair the House Intelligence Committee starting in January. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Adam Schiff

Rep. Adam Schiff, the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is no stranger to Trump's Twitter tongue lashings. As the top Democrat on the Republican-led House Russia investigation in 2017 and 2018, Schiff was a constant television presence breaking down the newest revelations about Russia and Trump's team.

The President has used multiple nicknames on Twitter for the California Democrat -- Sleazy Adam Schiff, Liddle' Adam Schiff and most recently "little Adam Schitt" -- a sign of his prominence among Trump's Democratic critics.

Schiff has accused Republicans of failing to investigate the ties between Trump's team and Russia, and he's promised to restart his committee's Russia investigation in several areas.

Among them: Schiff wants to investigate questions about Russian money laundering, to learn who Donald Trump Jr. was calling as he set up the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and to interview officials the committee has yet to speak to, like Michael Flynn.

Schiff is a soft-spoken lawmaker, but he's shown a willingness provide headline-grabbing quotes.

"There's a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office the Justice Department may indict him, that he may be the first President in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time," Schiff said earlier this month on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Richard Neal criticizes the Republican tax plan during at the US Capitol in November 2017 in Washington, DC. Neal will chair the House Ways and Means Committee in January. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Richard Neal

In the new Congress it will be Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, a deal-focused Democrat, who will have the job of asking for Trump's tax returns. While modern presidential nominees have publicly released their returns, Trump has defied the norm, which Democrats argue must be remedied.

Under IRS rules, there are only three people on Capitol Hill who can ask the Treasury Department for the President's tax returns: the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the head of the Joint Committee on Taxation and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Neal is the only Democrat.

While Neal has said he wants to ensure that requesting the returns doesn't distract from his committee's work on infrastructure, health care and oversight of the GOP's tax bill, a source close to the process told CNN that Neal has largely given up hope that Trump will turn over his tax returns willingly, given comments from the President's allies. Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani told CNN that the President would be prepared to fight in court over any formal request.

The source familiar with the process told CNN that Neal is prepared to ask the Treasury Department for the returns in the new year. When exactly he would do it is still under discussion.

Trump's tax returns aren't of interest just to Neal, however. Other incoming committee chairs have said the information within the returns could advance their own oversight.

"I think there's a lot of information in them that would be of interest to my committee. For example, we'd like to know exactly what ... has been the sources of income for this President," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the expected chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Cummings continued, "He's made all kinds of claims that he doesn't have relationships with Russia. He told us he didn't have any relationships with Russia, we come to find out that's not accurate. So there've been a lot of allegations, but I think the tax returns where he has to swear that the information is accurate, that would tell us a lot."

Elijah Cummings

After nearly a decade in the minority, Cummings has perhaps the broadest authority to investigate the Trump administration of any Democrat on Capitol Hill. Cummings -- even with his deep and focused voice -- is reserved, but strategic about the plans for his committee.

A foil to Republican chairs like Rep. Darrell Issa of California, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Cummings has argued he plans to be in search of answers, not headlines -- although with his gavel, it's unlikely he will be able to avoid them.

Cummings has laid out a very clear path for his committee. Earlier this month, he re-sent 51 letters he'd sent while in the minority, asking the administration to comply by January 11. The letters ranged from questions about Cabinet secretary travel to immigration to security clearances to hurricane recovery efforts by the administration. But Cummings has also warned that he doesn't want his committee to only zero in on Trump's perceived failings.

"I believe that what we do in this Congress over the next year or so will have impact for the next 50 to 100 years," Cummings said. "We're going to cautiously go about with subpoenas. ... There would have to be something that has a compelling interest to the citizens of the United States, and would have to be something that comes under our jurisdiction. So there's certain criteria that has to be met. I do not expect to be issuing subpoenas -- even the 64 that we've asked for because there are so many things that are backed up. And we'll never get a chance to do everything."

Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, looks on before speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC in January. Waters will chair the House Financial Services Committee in January.

Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, looks on before speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC in January. Waters will chair the House Financial Services Committee in January.

Maxine Waters

Rep. Maxine Waters of California was pushing for impeachment back in 2017, and she's been among the most vocal and well-known Democrats to do so. Now she'll run the Financial Services Committee, which will give her an avenue to probe the finances of Trump and the Trump Organization.

That's also made her a target for the President, who went after Waters during the 2018 campaign in tweets and at campaign rallies as a way to fire up his base. He's also attacked Waters as a "low IQ person," which she has said is a racist attack.

"Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party," Trump tweeted in June. "She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!"

Waters has made controversial statements of her own, including her call for supporters to publicly harass members of the administration in response to Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, which led to family separations at the border.

While in the minority, Waters pressed for an investigation into Deutsche Bank, a lender to Trump that was separately implicated in a Russian money laundering operation in 2017. She's also pushed the Treasury Department to divulge financial ties between Russia and the Trump family.

The jurisdiction of Waters' committee makes it likely she'll clash with Trump in a way that particularly hits home for him: his finances.


THIS WAS CERTAINLY A CLOSE CALL. SOMEONE SUSPECTED A PROBLEM AND ACTED, JUST AS WE ALL SHOULD. WORDS LIKE “FULFILL A PROPHECY” IN SUCH A SITUATION FEELS VERY FRIGHTENING INDEED.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/31/us/church-scare-texas-man-arrested/index.html
A masked man with a loaded gun was arrested on his way to a Texas church to fulfill a 'prophecy'
By AJ Willingham, CNN
Updated 1:11 PM ET, Mon December 31, 2018

PHOTOGRAPH -- Tony Dwayne Albert, 33, of Houston, is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.

(CNN)A scary situation in Seguin, Texas, came to a peaceful end when an off-duty police officer apprehended a man who was wearing a surgical mask, carrying a handgun and acting erratically.

According to the Seguin Police Department, the officer approached Tony Dwayne Albert II on Sunday after concerned bystanders reported Albert for suspicious behavior. The officer noted that Albert was "wearing tactical style clothing, a surgical face shield, carrying a loaded firearm and extra ammunition."

An SPD spokeswoman said Albert claimed he was headed to an unidentified church to fulfill what he called a "prophecy."

Albert, 33, of Houston, was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.

He was being held Monday at the Guadalupe County Jail on a $100,000 bond, according to online records. CNN has not been able to contact his attorney.

Employees at a Mexican restaurant in Seguin told CNN affiliate KSAT they became alarmed after Albert came in with a gun Sunday morning and asked where the nearest Baptist church was. After he left the restaurant they locked the front door and called police.

"The Seguin Police Department is extremely grateful to the citizen who called police," SPD spokeswoman Tanya Brown said. "If this subject was not stopped and apprehended the results could have ended differently."

The responding officer said Albert thought he was in a different city, according to KSAT. Brown told KSAT that police notified officials in the city Albert named, but they are not releasing the name of the city because Albert did not name a specific church or location.

"We don't want to scare people," she said.

Seguin is a city of about 30,000 people located some 35 miles northeast of San Antonio.

CNN's Marlena Baldacci contributed to this report


LOTS OF INUENDO HERE, AND NO SPECIFICS OR PROOF. NO NAMES OR CIRCUMSTANCES. I CHOSE THE NBC ARTICLE BECAUSE I EXPECTED IT TO BE A HIGHER QUALITY OF JOURNALISM THAN THE OTHER TWO ARTICLES. THIS IS MORE DIRTY TRICKS, PROBABLY, BUT IF THERE IS SOMETHING TRUE INVOLVED WITH THIS, I WANT IT TO COME OUT INTO THE OPEN. HOLDING IT BACK WON’T HELP ANYONE.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/bernie-sanders-camp-says-it-working-address-concerns-after-staffers-n953331
Bernie Sanders' camp says it is working to address concerns after staffers allege 'sexual violence' on 2016 campaign
"We share in the urgency for all of us to do better," the Vermont senator's campaign team said in a statement.
Dec. 31, 2018 / 1:36 PM EST
By Frank Thorp V and Jane C. Timm

PHOTOGRAPH -- U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a Get Out The Vote rally for Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed at Cobo Center in Detroit on Aug. 5, 2018.Jacob Hamilton / Ann Arbor News via AP file

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders' team said on Monday that it will continue to improve its policies after staffers alleged a "dangerous dynamic" of "sexual violence and harassment" on his 2016 presidential campaign.

"We share in the urgency for all of us to do better," Sanders' Senate campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, said in a statement provided to NBC News.

More than two dozen men and women who worked on Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign signed a letter published by Politico that alleged an "untenable and dangerous dynamic" of sexual harassment and sexual violence during the campaign. The letter did not cite specific instances.

VIDEO -- Sanders: 2020 presidential run not an easy decision
DEC. 13, 201803:33

The signatories requested a meeting with the Vermont senator, his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, and other top staffers "for the purpose of planning to mitigate the issue in the upcoming presidential cycle." Organizers of the effort told Politico they did not intend for the letter to become public.

Sexism in political campaigns is nothing new, but the letter highlights the challenges Democrats will face in the #MeToo era as the race for 2020 kicks into high gear. Sanders, 77, is said to be considering another White House bid. During the last presidential primary, Sanders, an independent who ran as a Democrat, was criticized for his treatment of rival Hillary Clinton, while his more vocal supporters came to be characterized as "Bernie Bros."

Sanders' campaign committee said in their statement that they wanted to allow the signatories to come forward in private and would "honor this principle with respect to this private letter."

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"Speaking generally, during 2016 there were a number of HR actions taken, and while it is not appropriate to discuss them individually, they ranged from employee counseling to immediate termination from the campaign," the statement said.

The committee also noted the "more robust policies and processes" implemented during Sanders' successful Senate reelection bid this year, including training and a toll free hotline for reporting incidents.

"Harassment of any kind is intolerable. 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 continued. "And that's why 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."

Image: Image:
Frank Thorp V
Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.


Jane C. Timm
Jane C. Timm is a political reporter and fact checker for NBC News.


THE SUPPOSED SLIGHTING OF BLACK PEOPLE BY SANDERS OR HIS CAMPAIGN HAS CRAWLED OUT INTO THE OPEN AGAIN WITH A SUGGESTION THAT HIS VERMONT EVENT A FEW WEEKS AGO FOR PROGRESSIVES MIGHT HAVE PURPOSELY SLIGHTED BLACK PEOPLE. FIRST, SANDERS IS TOO INTELLIGENT TO DO THAT. SECOND, I NEVER HEARD ANYTHING SAID BY SANDERS THAT WOULD BOLSTER THAT BIT OF PARANOIA. I AM PRESENTING THE NYT ARTICLE FIRST BECAUSE IT SHOWS SANDERS IN A POSITIVE LIGHT INSTEAD OF ALLOWING THE ALMOST TOTALLY HATE-FILLED ARTICLES BY TWO VERMONT PAPERS, WHICH APPEAR SECOND AND THIRD TO REMAIN UNOPPOSED. YOU WILL NOTE THAT THE VERMONT PAPERS MENTIONED ARE NOT THE MAIN NEWS SOURCES FOR THE STATE.

THIS NYT ARTICLE DOESN’T HAVE THAT STOP BERNIE SLANT LIKE THE OTHER TWO. PERSONALLY, I BELIEVE WE WILL FIND OUT HOW MANY BLACK PEOPLE DISLIKE HIM WHEN THE ELECTION OCCURS. WE DO TOO MUCH PROGNOSTICATING ON THESE ELECTIONS. I FEEL SURE THAT NOT ALL BLACKS FEAR OR HATE HIM. I ALSO THINK THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REMOVE A DEEPLY IMBEDDED FEELING WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL WISHES TO KEEP. BOTH BLACKS AND WHITES HAVE HARD SET “IDENTITY” ISSUES THAT ONLY THEY CAN DROP. THAT’S WHAT KEEPS US FROM MOVING TOWARD SOMETHING AS AN INDIVIDUAL BECAUSE IT IS RIGHT RATHER THAN BECAUSE IT’S POLITICALLY CORRECT.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/us/politics/bernie-sanders-obama-mississippi.html
Bernie Sanders Courts Black Voters Anew. But an Obama Reference Stings.
By Jonathan Martin
April 5, 2018

PHOTOGRAPH -- Senator Bernie Sanders, who struggled for support from black voters in his 2016 presidential bid, at a forum in Jackson, Miss., on the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death.
Credit -- Bryan Tarnowski for The New York Times

JACKSON, Miss. — Senator Bernie Sanders insists he hasn’t decided whether to run again for president, but a 14-hour sprint across the Deep South on Wednesday made clear that he is not only thinking about it but is already trying to remedy his most significant vulnerability in 2016: his lack of support from black voters.

Mr. Sanders began the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination with a morning speech and a march in Memphis, helpfully captured in a picture on the Rev. Al Sharpton’s Twitter feed. He appeared at an economic justice forum here in Mississippi’s capital, speaking before a crowd that included far more African-Americans than his campaign events typically drew. And he wound down over a plate of wings at a late-night dinner with Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Jackson’s new mayor, a 35-year-old African-American and progressive.

Even more than recapturing the magic of 2016 in the early nominating states, Mr. Sanders’s prospects in 2020 would hinge in large part on whether he could garner far stronger support from African-Americans than the less than 20 percent of the vote that he won from them in Southern states.

Still, the same unvarnished bluntness, lack of polish and unwavering devotion to his tried-and-true message — which made him a global hero of the left — continue to create challenges for him. On Wednesday night, after the Jackson forum, Mr. Sanders faced sharp criticism from some African-Americans who thought he had reduced the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama, to merely being what Mr. Sanders called a “charismatic individual.”

If any 2020 coalition of Sanders voters was as monochromatic as his supporters in the last campaign, he would find it nearly impossible to win the Democratic nomination, especially given the abundance of party leaders expected to run who could raid his political base of white progressives.

So the senator from Vermont — a state where the largest city has but one black barbershop — has begun trying to make inroads across the South and beyond and the country with black voters, who are perhaps the most crucial pillar in a multicandidate Democratic primary.

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter

Reverend Al Sharpton
✔
@TheRevAl
Sen Bernie Sanders joined us in Memphis. #MLK50

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Earlier this year, Mr. Sanders invited Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Washington, telling Mr. Richmond, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, that he wanted to work more closely with the group. He recently convened a meeting in his office with two black economists who have researched issues of racial and class inequality. And later this month he is expected to join the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, a North Carolina-based black pastor who has risen to prominence as a social justice activist, for a joint event at Duke University.

Yet even as he moves to forge new relationships among African-American leaders and Democrats, Mr. Sanders is demonstrating why it may prove difficult for him to command broad support with a bloc of voters who usually do not rally to the more liberal candidates in Democratic primaries.

Image -- The crowd that turned out to see Mr. Sanders on Wednesday night in Mississippi was more racially diverse than that at many of his 2016 campaign rallies.CreditBryan Tarnowski for The New York Times

Appearing with Mr. Lumumba, the Jackson mayor, at the forum on economic justice, Mr. Sanders was asked how he would engage millennial voters and remake the Democratic Party.

He immediately won applause by declaring that the party’s business model had “failed” and then recalled, as he and many Democrats often do, that the party had lost about 1,000 state legislative seats in the last decade.

But Mr. Sanders also said that these setbacks happened on the watch of “a charismatic individual named Barack Obama,” whom Mr. Sanders also called “an extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy.”

Few in the audience responded adversely, many of them having witnessed firsthand the decline of the state and local party. But the fact that his only mention of Mr. Obama was in reference to Democratic defeats, particularly during an event honoring Dr. King in a heavily black Deep South capital with a painful racial history, struck some critics as tone-deaf and even insensitive.

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Jeffrey Wright
✔
@jfreewright
Bernie Sanders down in Mississippi today - IN MISSISSIPPI - giving a master class on expressing TOTAL ignorance of how black folks work.

3,164
11:07 PM - Apr 4, 2018
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Imani Gandy
✔
@AngryBlackLady
did you mention that he was president much less that it was historic?

Because I saw you call him a ‘charismatic individual’—not even leader!

An ‘extraordinary candidate’—not even president!

And ‘brilliant guy’.

Perhaps your office will release a transcript of your remarks.

Bernie Sanders
✔
@BernieSanders
It's unfortunate that some have so degraded our discourse that my recognition of the historical significance of the Obama presidency is attacked. https://twitter.com/briebriejoy/status/981878100500926467 …

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1:23 PM - Apr 5, 2018
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On Thursday, Mr. Sanders and his top aides responded angrily to the suggestion he had diminished Mr. Obama. The senator tweeted that “some have so degraded our discourse that my recognition of the historical significance of the Obama presidency is attacked.”


Bernie Sanders
✔
@BernieSanders
It's unfortunate that some have so degraded our discourse that my recognition of the historical significance of the Obama presidency is attacked.

Briahna Joy Gray
@briebriejoy
Replying to @briebriejoy

I've been following the anti-Sanders press for some time now, so this is no surprise, but the enormous gulf between how I saw people respond to him in that room and how twitter is reacting is genuinely galling. However I am heartened at the end. Because the people get it.

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The episode was also a reminder of another hurdle in his way: the feud between many Sanders supporters and Democratic leaders and Hillary Clinton loyalists, which has been raging ever since he challenged Mrs. Clinton for the nomination. Mr. Sanders remains very much an insurgent in a party he still has not formally claimed as his own, a fact he made clear in a less remarked-upon part of the same answer: “The establishment,” he said, “doesn’t go quietly into the twilight.”

Mr. Richmond, the Congressional Black Caucus leader, said he did not think Mr. Sanders had slighted Mr. Obama. The mistake Mr. Sanders made, according to Mr. Richmond, was that he did not go the next step and explain why Democrats incurred so many down-ticket defeats during the Obama years.

“The real question is why it happened and it’s no secret: Everybody underestimated the backlash that would come to the first African-American president,” he said.

As Mr. Sanders seeks to gain support from black voters, the Jackson forum was also notable for what the senator did not say to the audience, which skewed young and was almost evenly divided between blacks and whites.

While briefly noting that Dr. King had been a “major political inspiration” for him, Mr. Sanders said nothing about his history as a civil rights activist and his arrest demonstrating against segregation as a college student.

“That’s the No. 1 selling point,” said Teneia Sanders Eichelberger, who plays in a husband-wife band here and supported Mr. Sanders in 2016. “For me and for my grandmother, who’s 82, she loved that about him.”

But unless they already knew about Mr. Sanders’s connection to the movement, hundreds of would-be Democratic primary voters left the gathering none the wiser. (Mrs. Clinton won the 2016 Mississippi Democratic primary with nearly 83 percent of the vote; Mr. Sanders took 16.5 percent.)

Part of Mr. Sanders’s appeal is that he is not a typical, lip-biting politician, ever on the lookout to find a personal connection with any audience. But his relentless focus on the policy dimensions of social justice, which has been the animating cause of his life, can also deprive him of creating bonds that can be essential, especially in building a multiracial coalition.

“Yes, I’m a fairly private person and I don’t like to talk about every aspect of my life,” Mr. Sanders acknowledged in a dressing room interview after the forum. “I think a lot of politicians do that in a way that is not appropriate.”

Upon hearing the suggestion that recounting his own youthful activism would be compelling to an audience full of younger voters becoming activists in their own right, he all but rolled his eyes.

“Somebody might be interested in what I did 50 years ago, that’s fine,” Mr. Sanders said with an evident lack of enthusiasm. “Or what I did yesterday. But what people have got to start focusing on is not me. It’s how we transform America.”

Image --
Bernie Sanders memorabilia was on sale outside the forum in Jackson, Miss., where the senator spoke on Wednesday night.CreditBryan Tarnowski for The New York Times

Mr. Sanders’s reticence can frustrate even his closest supporters.

“If you’re talking to a black audience, you’ve got to say, ‘I was fighting for fair housing in the ’60s,’ ” said Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a top Sanders surrogate in 2016, noting that he has “an interesting story to tell.”

Several of those at the forum Wednesday night said they liked what they heard. And as is typical for Mr. Sanders, who in 2016 did best among millennials, the younger black attendees were the most enthusiastic.

“To hear his voice and see what he stands for, it’s powerful,” said Cassandra Hogue, 26, who backed Mrs. Clinton two years ago as part of what she called “a legacy thing” for the Clintons but said she would be open to supporting Mr. Sanders in 2020.

Deterrian Jones, 19, made the two-hour-plus drive from the University of Mississippi to Jackson and clutched a handful of buttons he bought from vendors outside, one of which featured Mr. Sanders’s unmistakable visage and logo but with a new slogan: “Hindsight 2020.”

“He talks to millennials, unlike other politicians,” Mr. Jones said.

Yet Mr. Sanders could encounter trouble among black voters if he faces a black Democrat in the primary. “Black voters take special pride in being able to vote for viable African-American candidates,” said former congressman Mike Espy, who plans to run for the Senate.

And while few in attendance at the forum said it so directly, many alluded to Mr. Sanders’s age — he is 76 — and voiced a desire for new blood.

“It’s really time for change,” said Rachael Ighoavodha, 24, a recent Jackson State University graduate sporting a “Black Girl Magic” pin. “It’s time for something new.”

In the interview, Mr. Sanders repeatedly assailed what he called the media’s excessive focus on personality over substance. But when confronted with questions about his age, he replied with good-natured humor on a process question.

”What did you say?” he said, feigning hearing loss and gripping a reporter by the shoulder. “Get me my cane.” Yes, age is a fair question, he said. “But health is a factor,” Mr. Sanders quickly added, before turning to an aide and asking how many times the senator had missed work because he was ill.

The staffer could not recall a single instance.

A version of this article appears in print on April 7, 2018, on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Sanders, in Courting Blacks, Is Tripped Up by Notion He Slighted Obama. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe



THIS NATIONAL REVIEW ARTICLE CONSISTS SOLELY OF A HUGE BARRAGE OF ATTACKS ON BERNIE SANDERS BY A KNOWN “CONSERVATIVE” BLOGGER JIM GERAGHTY IN A “CONSERVATIVE” VENUE. THE VICIOUSNESS OF IT LEADS ME TO DOUBT BOTH HIS HONESTY AND FAIRNESS, AS WELL AS THE NUMBER OF SPECIFIC COMPLAINTS. IT LOOKS LIKE THE WORK OF AN “ELECTION RESEARCH” ORGANIZATION TO ME.

GERAGHTY CLEARLY HAS A GRUDGE AGAINST SANDERS. I’VE NEVER HEARD MOST OF THESE THINGS FROM ANOTHER SOURCE, AND THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT ACCUSATIONS HERE THAT IT LOOKS LIKE A SMEAR TO ME. WHO WOULD PAY FOR THAT? PROBABLY THE MAINSTREAM DEMOCRATS, BUT PERHAPS TRUMP AS WELL. HE REALLY DOESN’T LIKE AN OPPONENT WHO IS TOO STRONG. HE TRIES TO HAMSTRING THEM AHEAD OF TIME.

THE NEXT ARTICLE AFTER THAT, FROM ARGUS, GIVES THE PERSONAL COMPLAINTS FROM A MORE LOCAL VIEW, WHICH IS THAT SANDERS AT THE RECENT SANDERS INSTITUTE ACTIVITY, SEEMED TO SOME BLACK GROUPS THAT HE HAD EXCLUDED THEM FROM THE LIST OF SPEAKERS AND ATTENDEES. THAT IS THE ONLY THING THAT LOGICALLY EXPLAINS THIS TORRENT OF SPITE FROM BLACK SOURCES NOW.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/bernie-sanders-twenty-things-you-didnt-know/
Twenty Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Bernie Sanders
By JIM GERAGHTY
December 31, 2018 6:30 AM

ART -- (NRO Illustration: Elijah Smith; Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

The Vermont senator’s history of taxing hospitals, getting slapped, and IRA meetings, and his “honorary woman” status
1) Longtime friend and supporter Garrison Nelson, a political scientist at the University of Vermont, told The New Yorker in 2015, “Bernie’s the last person you’d want to be stuck on a desert island with. Two weeks of lectures about health care, and you’d look for a shark and dive in.”

2) In 2016, he probably received more write-in votes for president, without running in the general election, than anyone else in American history. Only eight states count write-in votes for candidates who did not file paperwork to run in the general election.

In 2016, 18,218 Vermont voters wrote in his name in the presidential general election, which was 5.8 percent of the total vote. That was more than libertarian Gary Johnson and Green-party nominee Jill Stein — combined. In California, Sanders got 79,341, which was more than Evan McMullin; in Pennsylvania, Sanders had 6,060; in New Hampshire, Sanders won 4,493; and in Rhode Island, 3,497 (again ahead of McMullin). Among the states that counted write-in votes, Sanders had 111,609 votes.

In 1996, Green-party nominee Ralph Nader received 685,297 votes, but he was a write-in candidate in some states and listed on the ballot in others.

3) His first campaign for public office started because he simply showed up and volunteered. In 1971, Vermont Republican senator Winston Prouty died, setting up a special election. A young Bernie Sanders chose to attend the meeting of the newly formed Liberty Union party, which he described in his memoir as “a small peace-oriented third party.” (The party called for “nonviolent revolutionary socialism” and compared the draft to slavery.)

In Sanders’s account, he became the candidate for Senate because at the meeting the party needed a candidate; he raised his hand and volunteered. He won 2 percent statewide. In the subsequent decade, Sanders twice ran as the Liberty Union party’s candidate for Senate and twice for governor, never winning more than 6 percent of the vote. During this time, he declared on the campaign trail that the Central Intelligence Agency was “a dangerous institution that has got to go,” and that “right-wing lunatics use it to prop up fascist dictatorships.”

By the time Sanders was elected to Congress, the Liberty Union party saw him as a sellout, calling him “Bernie the Bomber,” charging “Bernie became an imperialist to get elected in 1990” and declaring, “Bernie’s selling out says clearly to working people and those unable to find work that even leftists become mainstream politicians, when and if they win office.” The group also observed that, at the time, Sanders had “no person of color on his staff.”

4) His first successful campaign, for mayor of Burlington in 1981, was largely driven by opposition to higher residential property taxes.

The city’s five-term Democratic mayor, Gordon Paquette, proposed raising property taxes by 65 cents per $100 of assessed value and barely bothered to campaign. Sanders contended that the city’s needs could be funded by a 25-cent increase, and the voters preferred the lower hike.

As the New York Times described it, “Mr. Sanders did not campaign as a Socialist and Mr. Paquette did not make an issue of it.” He told the paper, “I’m not going to war with the city’s financial and business community and I know that there is little I can do from City Hall to accomplish my dreams for society.”

Sanders called property taxes regressive because “they are not based on ability to pay” and boasted that he held off any additional residential property tax increases for seven years. But while he was mayor, the city implemented taxes on meals and hotel rooms, raised commercial and industrial property taxes, and taxed cable television.

5) It didn’t take long for Sanders to start pushing policy in unorthodox directions, most notably declaring in 1987 that the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, now known as the University of Vermont Medical Center, was no longer tax-exempt; he sent the hospital a tax bill for $2.9 million. Sanders declared, “There are a heck of a lot of people up there making a heck of a lot of money.” This led to a court fight; a superior court judge ruled against the city on all counts, declaring that “statutes should not be construed in such a way that will lead to irrational or absurd consequences.” Twelve years later, after Sanders had departed the mayor’s office to become Vermont’s lone representative in the U.S. House, the hospital and Burlington reached an agreement on payments in return for municipal services and higher levels of charitable care.

6) Shortly after being elected as mayor, Sanders kicked off of the 40th annual Chittenden County United Way fundraising drive by announcing to gasps, “I don’t believe in charities.” Sanders went on to argue that government, rather than charity organizations, should take over responsibility for social programs.

7) As mayor, Sanders liked to pursue his own foreign policy. In 1985, he lamented that Americans were unfairly and unreasonably hostile to the Soviet Union, telling the Los Angeles Times:

A handful of people in this country are making decisions, whipping up Cold War hysteria, making us hate the Russians. We’re spending billions on military. Why can’t we take some of that money to pay for thousands of U.S. children to go to the Soviet Union?

(In the preceding few years, the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan, shot down Korean Air Lines flight 007, and pushed for the institution of martial law in Poland.)

The city of Burlington issued many proclamations about U.S. foreign policy. “I did not want to see taxpayer dollars going to the CIA for an appalling war,” Sanders wrote in his 1998 autobiography, Outsider in the House. “While most of the Democrats and Republicans on the Board of Alderman disagreed, to us this was very much a municipal issue.”

8) He argued that bread lines in Communist countries were a sign of the system’s success:

It’s funny, sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is, that people are lining up for food. That is a good thing! In other countries people don’t line up for food: The rich get the food, and the poor starve to death.

He said in a 1985 interview that he espoused “traditional socialist goals — public ownership of oil companies, factories, utilities, banks, etc.”

In the mid 1980s, Burlington’s minor-league baseball team was named the “Vermont Reds,” but this was not, as some Internet sites claim, a salute to Communism. The team was affiliated with the major-league Cincinnati Reds. However, Sanders’s softball team was indeed called “the People’s Republic of Burlington.”

9) In 1985, Sanders was invited by the Nicaraguan government to Managua to visit for the celebration of the sixth anniversary of the rebel Sandinista takeover. According to Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald, “Republicans also had video of Sanders at a 1985 rally thrown by the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua where half a million people chanted, ‘Here, there, everywhere, the Yankee will die,’ while President Daniel Ortega condemned ‘state terrorism’ by America.” A UPI wire service report described the chant; Sanders has many times discussed attending the rally, calling it “a profoundly emotional experience,” but he has never mentioned the chant.

10) That 1985 Los Angeles Times article also noted that “representatives from the Irish Republican Army have stopped by Sanders’ office during the past four years.” A subsequent Boston Globe article stated, “members of the Irish Republican Army were regularly invited to City Hall.”

11) Many profiles of Sanders mention that he and his wife Jane “honeymooned in the Soviet Union,” which is technically accurate but a bit misleading. Burlington had a “sister city” program with Yaroslavl in Russia, and a foreign-exchange trip with the Soviet Union was scheduled in 1988. Sanders later said that he and his wife “set their wedding date to coincide with that trip because they didn’t want to take more time off.”

12) For much of his career, Sanders has theorized that there is a psychological or psychosomatic aspect to cancer: “When the human spirit is broken, when the life force is squashed, cancer becomes a possibility,” the 28-year-old Sanders wrote in the Vermont Freeman, an alternative newspaper, in December 1969. In 1988, discussing the death of Nora Astorga, a Sandinista politician who had died of cervical cancer. Sanders said:

I have my own feelings about what causes cancer and the psychosomatic aspects of cancer. . . . One wonders if the war did not claim another victim of another person who couldn’t deal with her tremendous grief and suffering that’s going on in her own country.

In one of his infamous essays in the Freeman, Sanders wrote, in 1969, “The manner in which you bring up your daughter with regard to sexual attitudes may very well determine whether or not she will develop breast cancer, among other things.”

13) In 1988, Sanders attended a non-binding Vermont Democratic-party caucus in Burlington, supporting Jesse Jackson. In Outsider in the House, he writes, “A number of old-line Dems stood up and turned around as I delivered my speech. And when I returned to my seat, a woman in the audience slapped me across the face.” Sanders said it was the first and last time he ever participated in a formal Democratic-party function. Because Vermont has no formal party registration, he has never formally registered as a Democrat, although by 1994, the Vermont Democratic party stopped running candidates against him. In early 2015, he filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president as a Democrat.

14) In 1989, Sanders taught at the Institute of Policy Studies at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and came away somewhat disappointed. “I know that conservatives worry a great deal about Harvard,” Sanders wrote in Outsider in the House. “They see it as a bastion of progressive thought, the brain trust for revolution. Trust me. They can stop worrying. Harvard has many wonderful attributes, but the revolution will not start at Harvard University.”

15) In his 1986 campaign for governor, Sanders declared he would be a better feminist than the incumbent, Democratic governor Madeleine Kunin. He dismissed her in an interview, declaring, “Many people are excited because she’s the first woman governor. But after that, there ain’t much.” Feminist groups didn’t seem to mind; at a 1996 rally for his congressional campaign, feminist Gloria Steinem called him “an honorary woman.”

16) Sanders relationship with another liberal Vermont politician, Howard Dean, is surprisingly complicated. In 1996, then-governor Howard Dean said he had never voted for Sanders, who was then in his third term as a congressman. Dean said he had left his ballot blank. In 1993, when Sanders was pushing for the state to embrace Canadian-style single-payer health care, Dean accused Sanders of being dishonest about the costs:

I don’t think it’s fair for politicians to raise these kinds of expectations and pretend it’s going to cost everybody less because it’s not going to happen. That’s just not fair. People have had that done to them for a long time. Ronald Reagan was a master of that kind of stuff.

Sanders responded, “I have never been attacked for being like Ronald Reagan. I find that very amusing.”

As a superdelegate, Dean voted for Hillary Clinton over Sanders in 2016. In December 2017, Howard Dean said during an appearance on MSNBC that older members of the Democratic party need “to get the hell out of the way and have somebody who is 50 running the country.”

17) In 2015, a Vermont alternative newspaper held a “Bernie Sanders sound-alike contest,” and more than 40 people participated. The winner was comedian James Adomian, who imitated Sanders insisting that pizza and cheesy bread are “a right for all people, and not just a privilege for the few.”

18) During his 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders said he wanted to end fracking entirely, that there has never been a single U.S. trade agreement with a foreign country that he’s been comfortable with, and declared, “It makes no sense that students and their parents pay higher interest rates for college than they pay for car loans or housing mortgages.” The comparison ignores the concept of collateral and the fact that most homeowners and car buyers put money down at the time of purchase. It is difficult to repossess an education.

19) In 2016 and 2017, Sanders made more than $1 million, mostly from book advances and royalties. He received a half-million-dollar advance for this year’s book, Where We Go from Here. (Ironically, back in 1974, Sanders told the Burlington Free Press, “Nobody should earn more than $1 million.”) When the senator received some grief during the 2016 campaign for not releasing his tax returns, he said his wife does the couple’s taxes. Days later, he released his 2014 returns, showing adjusted gross income of $205,271. Despite Sanders’s 1981 statement that he didn’t believe in charities, he and his wife donated $8,350 to charity, according to the return.

20) The population of Vermont is so heavily white that the NAACP didn’t establish a branch in the state until 2015. Progressives among the roughly 1.2 percent of Vermonters that are African-American have at times accused Sanders of neglecting them.

In December 2018, the Sanders Institute — a think tank founded in 2017 by Sanders’s wife, Jane, and her son from a previous marriage, David Driscoll, who previously worked at a snowboarding company — held a three-day conference on the progressive agenda. Fourteen progressive and African-American community leaders objected to a lack of local representatives invited or speaking. They signed a letter declaring, “This is either a major oversight or just one more example of how institutional oppression looks, even among those who are progressive.”

Some of the criticism was even harsher. Curtiss Reed Jr., executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, told a local newspaper,

This is a well-established pattern that Sanders has illustrated over the decades of marginalizing people of color, of not extending himself to understand our experiences here as they relate to micro-aggressions, micro-invalidations, micro-injustices. He has shown himself incapable or unwilling to do what it takes to engage us, one-to-one or collectively, in terms of understanding what our experiences are in this state and how he might be able to mitigate the negative effects of systemic racism.

JIM GERAGHTY — Jim Geraghty is the senior political correspondent of National Review. @jimgeraghty


ANTI-SANDERS VOICES SPEAK FROM SOME RACIALLY ACTIVIST GROUPS, AS VOICED BY PATRICK MCARDLE AT TIMESARGUS.COM LOCAL NEWS. FROM WHAT I CAN GATHER, THOUGH THIS IS LESS SPECIFIC INFORMATION AND MORE INVECTIVE STATING THAT SANDERS IS NOT “AWOKE,” AND THAT HIS SANDERS INSTITUTE DID NOT INVITE ENOUGH LOCAL PEOPLE OF COLOR TO THE RECENT GATHERING, IMPLYING THAT IT WAS A “MICRO-AGGRESSION,” OR IN MORE COMMON USAGE, A SNUB. ONE WOMAN STATES THAT SOME WHO DID GO HAD TO “BEG THEIR WAY IN.” I THINK IN ALL PROBABILITY THEY HAD TO LIMIT THE LIST OR SIMPLY DIDN’T THINK OF EACH ONE AS BEING INTERESTED IN ATTENDING. PERHAPS ALL THE SANDERS INSTITUTE NEEDED TO DO WAS POST AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT ATTENDEES WOULD BE LIMITED TO A CERTAIN NUMBER AND GIVE A TELEPHONE NUMBER FOR LOCAL PEOPLE TO CALL CONCERNING EXTRA SEATS, THE WAY LITTLE THEATERS SOMETIMES DO. AS IT IS, THOUGH, HE IS BEING PRESENTED IN A BAD LIGHT, THOUGH WITH NO SPECIFIC CHARGES EXCEPT AN INFERRED EXCLUSION. THE FACT THAT A NUMBER OF PEOPLE FROM VERMONT WHO APPEAR TO FEEL THAT THE STATE IS EXCLUDING TOWARD PEOPLE OF COLOR IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM, HOWEVER, AND SANDERS SHOULD CONSIDER IT FOR HIS ATTENTION. THE FACT THAT BOTH OF THESE NEWS OUTLETS ARE KNOWN TO BE “CONSERVATIVE,” IS NOT INSIGNIFICANT, THOUGH, AND CAUSES ME TO QUESTION EVEN THE RELIABILITY OF THIS INFORMATION.

https://www.timesargus.com/news/local/social-justice-leaders-challenge-sanders/article_2f805e07-335a-5c10-b69c-3d34e394c0cb.html
social justice groups
Social justice leaders challenge Sanders
By Patrick Mcardle Staff Writer Dec 4, 2018 0

Last week, the Sanders Institute hosted a three-day forum on progressive ideas, but looking at the guest list, a number of Vermonters, many of them black leaders of political organizations, are feeling excluded, angry and marginalized.

The event was described by the Associated Press as a “pep rally for ... policy issues such as universal health care, protecting the environment and economic and criminal justice reform.” The Sanders Institute is an independent nonprofit but Sen. Bernie Sanders was a speaker at the event.

A letter written by Tabitha Pohl-Moore and Steffen Gillom, the presidents of the NAACP’s Rutland Area Branch and Windham County Branch, respectively, and signed by other social justice leaders, asked how Sanders “could be ‘awoken,’ in the words of Victor Lee Lewis, when you come home to Vermont to talk about justice and institutional oppression and don’t invite the very people you represent?”

Pohl-Moore called the forum an “elitist event” that excluded Vermonters who worked diligently with marginalized people to create Vermont’s reputation as a progressive state.

“If there is a meeting and they are sitting at the table, we ask them to have a seat on that table,” added Wafic Faour, a member of Vermonters for Justice in Palestine and Black Lives Matter of Greater Burlington.

Kiah Morris, a former state representative for Bennington, who resigned because she was receiving threats and harassment, said it was not news that Vermont was in the midst of a “crisis when it comes to the rights and the experiences of people of color.”

“It’s international news. If there was ever an opportunity to show our Vermont leaders — because it was held in Vermont. That was not a mistake — so if we ask the global leaders that we are to be driving these conversations, than we have to be there. There is no future without us,” she said.

Asked to explain how the guests and speakers were chosen for the forum and to respond to the letter from Pohl-Moore and Gillom, which was posted on Facebook, Sanders’ office released a statement.

“The senator is proud that the Sanders Institute was able to bring progressives from all over the country and from throughout the world to our state of Vermont to discuss some of the biggest issues we face. Needless to say, in Vermont, like other states across the country, there are some very serious social and racial justice challenges, and the senator looks forward to continuing his work with Vermonters on these issues.”

Morris said she was especially offended because people of color already recognized systemic racism as toxic.

“For us to be excluded and only considered as an afterthought and to have to sort of beg our way in is a ridiculous notion,” she said.

Beverly Little Thunder, an activist and member of the Peace and Justice Board, called the effort to pass responsibility to the Sanders Institute an “old game played by white men all over this country.”

Discussing the event on Monday, many who had spent years or even decades working for social justice expressed disappointment in Sanders.

“This is a well-established pattern that Sanders has illustrated over the decades of marginalizing people of color, of not extending himself to understand our experiences here as they relate to micro-aggressions, micro-invalidations, micro-injustices. He has shown himself incapable or unwilling to do what it takes to engage us, one-to-one or collectively, in terms of understanding what our experiences are in this state and how he might be able to mitigate the negative effects of systemic racism,” said Curtiss Reed Jr., executive director of Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity.

Reed added Sanders had “never stepped foot in the arena of social justice for the state of Vermont.”

The executive director for Justice For All, Mark Hughes, said he was going to say “all the things nobody is saying.”

“We also have a so-called progressive, neo-liberal white movement across this state that worships — and I say that with a capital W — Bernie Sanders and will come at you, sideways, if you say anything about him, in conjunction with Bernie being extremely defensive, which creates an environment similar to that that’s created by Trump himself because no one wants to say anything,” he said.

Gillom said progressive politicians could be taking a risk by not considering exclusion.

“Gone are the days when people of color are just going to sit by idly while movements use our intellectual capacity and promote themselves on our backs and we just go with it. We have come a long way and people of color are resilient,” he said.

Hughes added that the issue would not be forgotten.

“We’re disappointed in what Bernie Sanders had to say about this. … I expect there will be some pushback, especially from our so-called white neo-liberal progressives who are hugely protective of Bernie, I’m fully expecting that and I’m looking forward to the conversations,” he said.

patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com


THE GATHERING

https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/vermont/2018/12/31/bernie-sanders-2016-campaign-workers-demand-meeting-sexual-harassment-politics-politico/2450852002/
Politico: Former Sanders campaign workers demand meeting on sexual harassment in political work
Nicole Higgins DeSmet, Burlington Free Press Published 2:57 p.m. ET Dec. 31, 2018 | Updated 3:12 p.m. ET Dec. 31, 2018

PHOTOGRAPH – SANDERS SPEAKING Photo: (APRIL McCULLUM/FREE PRESS)

Former staff of potential presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, want to get ahead of a possible 2020 run with a talk about sexual violence and harassment on Sanders political campaign, according to Politico, a political news site and magazine based near Washington, D.C.

The group hopes to "mitigate the issue in the upcoming presidential cycle," according to the letter, which also states that such issues are ubiquitous on political campaigns in general, not specific to Sanders' campaign.

More: VT Insights: 5 signs Bernie Sanders is running in 2020
More: Bernie Sanders gathers with progressive faithful as 2020 hangs in the air

More than a dozen former campaign staffers for Sen. Sander's signed the letter asking to sit down with the Senator and 2016 campaign manager Jeff Weaver as well as other top staff including: Caryn Compton, Ari Rabin-Havt, Arianna Jones and Shannon Jackson, according to the document published by Politico on Dec. 30, 2018.

The letter writers hope to create a "gold standard" harassment policy.

Sanders staff did not respond to a request for comment to confirm the letters or answer if the requested meeting was scheduled, by the time of publication.

The letter, published by Politico, kept the writers anonymous. No specific incidents of harassment were outlined.

Here is a copy:

DOCUMENT
TEXT

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Alex Thompson, the reporter who broke the story, posted a Tweet showing a response from the Friends of Bernie Sanders, Sander's principal campaign fundraising group.

The campaign group, according to the letter, condemned harassment, welcomed feedback and promised to honor the privacy of the signatories to the letter.

There was no mention of a specific meeting to address the concerns.


Alex Thompson
✔
@AlxThomp
· Dec 30, 2018
Exclusive: More than 2 dozen women and men who worked on Bernie's 2016 campaign are seeking a meeting with Sanders + advisers to “discuss the issue of sexual violence and harassment on the 2016 campaign" according to a copy of letter obtained by POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/30/bernie-sanders-campaign-harassment-1077014 …

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Alex Thompson
✔
@AlxThomp
Friends of Bernie Sanders, the senator's principal campaign committee, responded to the letter in the attached statement. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/30/bernie-sanders-campaign-harassment-1077014 … pic.twitter.com/VSVCryCkNd

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Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.


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