Patti Solis Doyle, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager during her 2008 presidential bid, said the former candidate’s response to sexual harassment allegations against a top adviser was disappointing.
Clinton chose to keep Burns Strider on her 2008 presidential campaign after he was accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a younger staffer who shared an office with him, the New York Times reported Friday.
Clinton responded to the story later Friday, saying she was “heartened the young woman came forward, was heard, and had her concerns taken seriously and addressed.”
“We deserve to be heard,” she added.
But Doyle says she pushed for Strider’s firing during the 2008 campaign and was overruled by Clinton.
“Firing a high-profile person on the campaign would have certainly made news and caused a distraction, so it wasn’t an easy call,” Doyle told CNN on Monday.
Doyle said she wishes Clinton would have admitted in her tweet that she made the wrong call in not firing Strider. Strider was instead denied several weeks of pay and told to undergo counseling. The woman who accused him of sexual misconduct was moved to a different job.
“I was disappointed by that tweet, that response,” Doyle said. “It was a wrong call. I wish she had said it was a wrong call. I wish she had said, having to do it over, I would have fired him.”
Strider co-founded the American Values Network and sent Clinton scripture readings each morning during the campaign. During her 2016 presidential campaign, he led Correct the Record, an independent group created by Clinton ally David Brock, which supported Clinton’s candidacy. Strider was fired from Correct the Record after several months for workplace issues, which included allegations that he harassed a younger female staffer.
Doyle thinks by not firing Strider, they gave him a platform to go on and harass other women at Correct the Record.
“I feel a great deal of regret that I didn’t fight harder, didn’t push harder for him to be fired,” she said.
Doyle said she doesn’t believe accusations against former President Bill Clinton made Hillary Clinton more skeptical of believing the Strider allegations.
“Look, people are complicated and Hillary is no exception. She definitely made the wrong call here,” she argued. “She loves her husband. There is a real mutual respect and admiration and a lot of love in that marriage. And I think in that instance this was about a wife wanting to keep her marriage together.”
The revelations about Clinton’s decision not remove Strider from her campaign comes amid the #MeToo movement in which numerous high-profile men have been accused of sexual harassment.
Clinton spoke out last year against longtime Democratic donor and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, saying she was “shocked and appalled” by the allegations against him.
After Clinton’s statement on Weinstein, actress Lena Dunham said she warned Clinton aides about his treatment of women during the 2016 presidential campaign, but nothing happened.
Magazine editor Tina Brown added at the time that she had warned a member of Clinton’s inner circle about Weinstein as far back as 2008.
