Sydney Ember and Katie Benner

<h1>WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday met with former staff members who conveyed their dismay over the mistreatment of women during his 2016 campaign, in an effort to calm the unrest over sexism that is overshadowing his possible 2020 bid.</h1>

Sanders met with roughly two dozen former workers for about an hour in a conference room at a hotel near the Capitol. The meeting was convened in response to a recent letter sent by more than two dozen people who worked on Sanders’ 2016 campaign, asking to meet with the senator and his leadership team to discuss issues of harassment.

The senator did not make himself available for comment afterward, and some attendees said they preferred to keep the discussions private. One woman said she found the meeting exhausting but declined to elaborate.

Jenny Yang, a human resources consultant and a former chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hired by the Sanders team as a facilitator for the meeting, said in a phone interview that “people were there to hear and listen to each other.”

She added that they were looking at the meeting as a “first step in a longer process to understanding the kinds of systems that can be put in place to address some of the challenges that we heard about.”

Among those close to Sanders who attended were Jeff Weaver, his 2016 campaign manager, and Ari Rabin-Havt, Sanders’ deputy chief of staff. Others from his campaign arm included Arianna Jones, a communications aide. Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders, made a brief appearance.

Sanders skipped an important Senate vote on Russia sanctions to attend the meeting around noontime. He was the only senator not to appear as Republicans blocked a Democratic resolution to prevent the Trump administration from easing sanctions on a Russian oligarch. The measure, which required 60 votes to proceed, was defeated, 57-42, and his vote would not have affected the outcome.

There were some signs of trouble even before the meeting began. Some attendees were upset that the draft of the agenda did not directly address specific allegations of mistreatment of women or say which top Sanders aides would attend. Several women said the travel logistics were poorly handled, with some saying they were not invited until 48 hours before the daylong meeting was scheduled to begin.

Still, the meeting was the most concrete attempt yet by Sanders and his advisers to calm unease among former workers and supporters after allegations emerged about mistreatment of women during his 2016 campaign. Reports in the past two weeks by The New York Times and Politico described accounts of harassment and discrimination of former staffers.

Sanders has twice apologized publicly for the incidents — but only in response to media questions following detailed articles — and has promised to do better if he runs again. He is still weighing a 2020 bid, after finishing second to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race in 2016.

People close to Sanders have said three of his top advisers from 2016, including his campaign manager, either will not return or will serve in different roles in a future campaign.

A draft agenda included a discussion with 2016 campaign management and facilitators from Working IDEAL, a company that advises on workplace inclusion and diversity.

Some of the women who have spoken out to reporters about pay disparities, harassment and other instances of discrimination said they were not a part of the planning process for the meeting and were not aware it was happening. Last Friday, concerned that there would be no meeting, some of those women told the Sanders office that they felt it would be unfair to be excluded should a meeting occur, according to emails reviewed by The Times.

On Monday, Sanders’ office told them it would be arranging travel for them to arrive in Washington by Wednesday. But the women said the office did not send them formal invitations or any details about what would be discussed.

Some of them scrambled to rearrange their schedules, but several women said they did not hear back from Sanders’ office after being asked for travel details. One of the women was Sarah Slamen, who was the state coordinator in Louisiana in 2016 and who told The Times that she quit Our Revolution, Sanders’ progressive organization, because of gender discrimination.

Slamen said she was eventually given a midnight flight back to Texas on Wednesday after the meeting. She declined, she said, because she is 6 1/2 months pregnant. Although she said she would not attend and did not book a flight, she later received a confirmation email for a hotel in Washington.

She said the logistical mix-ups were reminiscent of a 2016 campaign that she and some other women said was chaotic and disorganized.

“That they botched this process is emblematic of their inability to run a meeting,” Slamen said.

This article originally appeared in <a id="e2ed6e95-2a1b-4a69-998d-92fbb26a71ac" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/us/politics/bernie-sanders-discrimination-sexism.html">The New York Times</a>.

Sanders Meets With Former Staff Members, Seeking to Quell Anxiety Over Sexism

Sanders met with roughly two dozen former workers for about an hour in a conference room at a hotel near the Capitol.

Sanders meets with former staff members, seeking to quell anxiety over sexism

<h1>Sen. Bernie Sanders, accelerating his efforts to contain the damage from reports of sexism and harassment during his 2016 presidential campaign, plans to meet Wednesday with a group of former staff members seeking assurances of better practices if he runs again in 2020.</h1>

As other potential presidential candidates prepare to roll out campaigns with forceful, positive messaging, Sanders and his supporters have instead been forced to play defense, addressing allegations during his last presidential bid.

The meeting Wednesday, which will be held in Washington, will focus on the treatment of women going forward, some invitees and people close to Sanders said Monday. Sanders’ campaign arm began reaching out to the former staff members to help make travel arrangements and intends to pay for air travel and hotel expenses, the people said.

Sanders plans to attend a portion of the meeting.

The steps Sanders and his supporters have taken over the past week underscore the sense of urgency the senator faces as he prepares for a likely 2020 campaign. Though he has not yet announced that he intends to run, he has told aides and advisers that a decision is coming soon.

In the past two weeks, The New York Times and Politico have published reports with accounts of harassment and discrimination from former workers in Sanders’ 2016 campaign. Sanders has twice apologized publicly to women who were mistreated, and promised to do better if he runs again.

The allegations have also contributed to a shake-up of Sanders’ core group of advisers. Should he run again in 2020, three top aides from the 2016 campaign either will not return or will serve in different roles, according to people close to Sanders. One of those advisers is Jeff Weaver, his campaign manager, who has said he would not return in the same role if Sanders runs again.

The meeting Wednesday comes in response to a letter sent two weeks ago by more than two dozen people who worked on Sanders’ 2016 campaign, asking to meet with the senator and his leadership team to discuss issues of harassment.

Sanders and his advisers have emphasized that his 2018 Senate campaign worked with outside experts and consultants to create and implement a new harassment policy and brought in an outside human resources firm for people to report instances of mistreatment. The meeting Wednesday will be led by Jenny Yang and Pamela Coukos from Working IDEAL, a company that advises on workplace inclusion, fair pay and diversity.

That meeting follows a series of house parties across the country Saturday in which loyal supporters urged Sanders to run; part of a livestream presentation for the events focused on workplace conduct issues.

Sheila Healy, who worked on Sanders’ re-election campaign for his Senate seat in Vermont last year, described steps his campaign had taken to make it more inclusive — including new human-resources policies that she said were posted on walls in all of the campaign’s offices. She reassured the livestream viewers that these policies would be in place should he run again in 2020.

Healy had been asked by a moderator to discuss the measures put in place in 2018 to ensure that people working on the campaign “felt welcome and empowered and respected” and what the implications would be for 2020.

“In 2018 here in Vermont, Bernie’s campaign took some of the lessons that we learned from 2016 and used them to create new policies that were designed to ensure that accountability, respect and professionalism stay a part of our culture,” Healy said.

This article originally appeared in <a id="e9de64fc-9eed-4993-b958-fc2dfb538b14" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/bernie-sanders-sexism.html">The New York Times</a>.

Bernie Sanders, Addressing Sexism Complaints, Will Meet With Former Staff Members

As other potential presidential candidates prepare to roll out campaigns with forceful, positive messaging, Sanders and his supporters have instead been forced to play defense, addressing allegations during his last presidential bid.

Bernie Sanders, addressing sexism complaints, will meet with former staff members

On Wednesday, his campaign plans to hold a meeting in Washington with former campaign workers to discuss the treatment of women going forward, according to some invitees and people close to Sanders. Sanders’ campaign arm began reaching out to the former staff members to help make travel arrangements and intends to pay for air travel and hotel expenses, the people said.

Sanders plans to attend in person for a portion of the meeting.

The meeting comes in response to a letter sent two weeks ago by more than two dozen people who worked on Sanders’ 2016 campaign, asking for a meeting with the senator and his leadership team to discuss issues of harassment.

Separately, supporters held house parties across the country on Saturday urging Sanders to run, and part of a livestream presentation for the event focused on workplace conduct. Sheila Healy, who worked on Sanders’ re-election campaign for his Senate seat in Vermont last year, described steps his Senate campaign had taken to make it more inclusive — including new human-resources policies that she said were posted on walls in all of the campaign’s offices. She reassured viewers that these policies would be in place should he run again in 2020.

In the last two weeks, The New York Times and Politico have published reports with accounts of harassment and discrimination from former workers in Sanders’ 2016 campaign. Sanders has twice apologized publicly to women who were mistreated, and promised to do better if he runs again.

The steps Sanders and his supporters have taken over the last week underscore the sense of urgency Sanders now faces as he prepares for a likely 2020 campaign. Though he has not yet announced that he intends to run for president again, he has told aides and advisers that a decision is coming soon.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/bernie-sanders-sexism.html" id="50d3391f-f4ed-3252-a781-ab151d06a57d">The New York Times</a>.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, accelerating his efforts to contain the damage from reports of sexism during his 2016 presidential campaign, plans to meet on Wednesday with a group of former staff members seeking assurances of better practices if he runs again in 2020.

<h1>In February 2016, Giulianna Di Lauro, a Latino outreach strategist for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential operation, complained to her supervisor that she had been harassed by a campaign surrogate whom she drove to events before the Democratic primary in Nevada.</h1>

She said the surrogate told her she had “beautiful curly hair” and asked if he could touch it, Di Lauro said in an interview. Thinking he would just touch a strand, she consented. But she said that he ran his hand through her hair in a “sexual way” and continued to grab, touch and “push my boundaries” for the rest of the day.

“I just wanted to be done with it so badly,” she said.

When she reported the incident to Bill Velazquez, a manager on the Latino outreach team, he told her, “I bet you would have liked it if he were younger,” according to her account and another woman who witnessed the exchange. Then he laughed.

Accounts like Di Lauro’s — describing episodes of sexual harassment and demeaning treatment as well as pay disparity in Sanders’ 2016 campaign — have circulated in recent weeks in emails, online comments and private discussions among former supporters. Now, as the independent Vermont senator tries to build support for a second run at the White House, his perceived failure to address this issue has damaged his progressive bona fides, delegates and nearly a dozen former state and national staff members said in interviews during the last month.

And it has raised questions among them about whether he can adequately fight for the interests of women, who have increasingly defined the Democratic Party in the Trump era, if he runs again for the presidential nomination in 2020.

The former staff members said complaints about mistreatment and pay disparity during and just after the campaign reached some senior leaders of the operation.

In an interview Wednesday night on CNN, Sanders said he was proud of his 2016 campaign and attributed any missteps with staff members to the explosive growth that was sometimes overwhelming. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we did everything right, in terms of human resources,” he told Anderson Cooper.

“I certainly apologize to any woman who felt she was not treated appropriately, and of course if I run, we will do better the next time,” he said.

Asked if he knew about the staff complaints, he said, “I was a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case.”

Some women said the fledgling 2016 campaign was disorganized and decentralized, which made it hard to know who to turn to in the case of mistreatment.

“I did experience sexual harassment during the campaign, and there was no one who would or could help,” said Samantha Davis, the former director of operations in Texas and New York, who also worked on the campaign’s advance team. She said her supervisor marginalized her after she declined an invitation to his hotel room.

In interviews, women told of makeshift living accommodations on the road, where they were asked to sleep in rooms along with male co-workers they did not know. Women who had access to salary records were taken aback to learn that some female staff members made thousands of dollars less than their male counterparts.

Two delegates who supported Sanders two years ago recently told his staff that he cannot run for president again without addressing the sexism they believe surfaced in his last campaign.

“There was an entire wave of rotten sexual harassment that seemingly was never dealt with,” one of the delegates wrote in a December email, obtained by The New York Times, to a Sanders political strategist.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ 2016 campaign manager and currently a top adviser, said in an email that “anybody who committed harassment on the campaign would not be asked back” and expressed regret for some of the operation’s shortcomings.

“Was it too male? Yes. Was it too white? Yes,” he said. “Would this be a priority to remedy on any future campaign? Definitely, and we share deeply in the urgency for all of us to make change. In 2016, as the size of our campaign exploded, we made efforts to make it a positive experience for people. That there was a failure pains me very much.”

Friends of Bernie Sanders, the senator’s campaign committee, said in a response to questions from The Times that there were a number of actions taken during the 2016 campaign regarding harassment and sexism, including employee counseling and a campaignwide review to standardize pay, and that there was a set of procedures and guidelines for workplace conduct that staff members were required to read. It also said it had developed a new harassment policy for Sanders’ Senate campaign last year.

Disenchanted Supporters

Allegations of sexism surfaced during Sanders’ campaign in 2016, when many of his male fans were derogatorily dubbed “Bernie Bros” for their aggressive online attacks against female reporters and supporters of Hillary Clinton. But they did not overshadow the electrifying nature of his insurgent challenge.

Circumstances have changed since then. Sanders is no longer an outsider, but an established leader who will be held to a higher standard. And regarding the treatment of women, he must now grapple with the effects of the #MeToo movement.

Political campaigns can be grueling experiences for both the women and men involved. But some involved said they considered the treatment of women on the Sanders campaign especially upsetting because the senator positioned himself as a champion of progressive ideals and equality, according to interviews and messages shared on Facebook.

“I don’t think he has to be the vehicle or the platform for the movement that emerged from his campaign,” said Sarah Slamen, who worked for the campaign in Texas, was the state coordinator in Louisiana and helped build out Our Revolution, a progressive organization born from Sanders’ presidential campaign.

“Do you know how hard that is for me to say after working so hard for him?” she said.

Slamen quit the organization at the end of 2016 after she said she was berated by a male member of the Our Revolution steering committee for suggesting an organizing plan. In emails reviewed by The Times, she raised issues about sexist behavior with committee members who saw the incident and Our Revolution’s national board of directors. She said she received no reassurance that anything would change.

In recent weeks, a Facebook group for campaign alumni has become a sounding board for complaints about harassment, lewd comments and gender discrimination. Some alumni have requested a meeting with the senator and his campaign leadership team to address the “overall toxic atmosphere of the 2016 campaign,” according to a screenshot of a post viewed by The Times. Politico first reported on the request.

Di Lauro, the former strategist in Nevada, was emphatic in her own Facebook posts. “I have to speak up about this now because I hope it will be of service to the next Sanders campaign,” she wrote on Dec. 7.

In her interview with The Times, Di Lauro said she told several people who were high up in the campaign, including Rich Pelletier, who served as national field director, about her encounter in Nevada with the surrogate, a Mexican game show host named Marco Antonio Regil. But she felt she was not taken seriously by the campaign.

“It was as if nothing happened,” she said.

Masha Mendieta, who was also on the Latino outreach team and who was with Di Lauro when she spoke with Velazquez about the incident, confirmed his comments.

Velazquez said he does not recall making the flippant remark to Di Lauro and that he took her complaint seriously. He said he assigned two women to accompany the surrogate, and he checked in with them to make sure there were no problems.

Regil said through his agent that he was honored to be a campaign surrogate for Sanders. “I sincerely apologize for any interactions or behavior on my part that could’ve made anyone feel uncomfortable,” he said.

Velasquez said he also told his boss, Arturo Carmona, another manager on the Latino outreach team and deputy national political director, about what had happened and followed up with a memo to Carmona two weeks later, detailing the incident in an email and saying that he believed Di Lauro.

Carmona said in an email to The Times that, after Velazquez notified him about the incident, he reported it to Pelletier.

The senator’s campaign committee, in its responses to The Times, said no member of the leadership above Pelletier was aware of the incident until after the campaign.

The committee said managers in some cases had not received appropriate training. “With the benefit of hindsight, the surprise explosion of the campaign resulted in there being less-than-ideal training infrastructure,” it said.

Pelletier did not respond to phone messages and emails seeking comment.

Pay disparity became another source of frustration among some women, according to former staff members, especially given that labor was one of the senator’s signature issues. During his campaign, Sanders earned kudos for paying his interns, a relatively unheard-of practice.

Some former staff members said there was little pay transparency, and employees often negotiated their own salaries — practices that tend to favor men, who often feel more comfortable requesting higher compensation packages.

Davis, the former state director, said that she was originally paid about $2,400 a month as a senior staff member and saw in the campaign’s records that a younger man who was originally supposed to report to her made $5,000 a month. She said she brought the issue to the campaign’s chief operating officer, who adjusted her salary to achieve parity.

“I helped at least a dozen women request raises so that they would be paid on par with their male peers,” Davis said.

The senator’s campaign committee acknowledged that there were pay disparities but said salaries were based on experience or the nature of the job and “never determined based on any consideration of an individual’s gender or of any other personal characteristic.'’

During the campaign, the committee said, it conducted a review to try to standardize pay across the states and within headquarters.

Treated Like ‘Personal Assistants’

Frustration among campaign alumni boiled over in recent weeks when Carmona, the deputy national political director and a divisive figure on the 2016 campaign, appeared smiling in a photograph in early December with Sanders’ wife, Jane, at a symposium hosted by her organization, the Sanders Institute.

In 2017, when Carmona was running for Congress, Mendieta, the woman who worked with Di Lauro, came forward with allegations that Carmona had demeaned women during the 2016 campaign. Mendieta said in a March 2017 post on Medium that Carmona treated female staffers “like his personal assistants fetching things for him and doing his errands.”

Other women backed up Mendieta’s allegations, and a letter signed by dozens of former campaign staffers and surrogates was circulated urging progressives to withdraw their endorsements of Carmona. (He lost his special election primary bid in 2017.)

In an interview, Mendieta said she complained multiple times to Velazquez and Pelletier about Carmona and was repeatedly ignored, at one point being told by Velazquez that she should forgive Carmona’s behavior because he was “macho.”

Velazquez said he does not remember making that remark or anything like it.

Mendieta was among the Latino outreach team members who she said were expected to stay in a rundown house in Chicago in March 2016. When she arrived, she said she was told she was supposed to sleep in a room with three men she did not know.

“I was shaking with fear,” she said. “Literally, I remember thinking to myself, ‘What am I going to do?'” She said she reported the incident to Pelletier.

The campaign committee said that “the challenge of finding staffer housing is one that plagues every large campaign.” It said it knew of one instance that was brought to the attention of senior leaders, including Weaver, the campaign manager, and that both Weaver and the chief operating officer “ordered that staff never be housed in coed hotel rooms again."

Some weeks later, Mendieta and other members of the Latino outreach team shared their concerns about Carmona and Velazquez during a conference call with Pelletier, Mendieta said. The Times has reviewed an email scheduling the call, and another staff member who participated confirmed the substance of the discussion.

Carmona was promoted out of the Latino outreach group during the campaign and named a deputy national political director.

Carmona, in an email, denied the allegations that he was demeaning and said, “All sexual harassment and issues of discrimination should be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.”

This article originally appeared in <a id="d5c4a4f3-0a61-4dc8-a90c-c65955336827" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign-sexism.html">The New York Times</a>.

Paid Less, Treated Worse: Claims of Sexism From 2016 Sanders Campaign

The former staff members said complaints about mistreatment and pay disparity during and just after the campaign reached some senior leaders of the operation.

Paid less, treated worse: Claims of sexism from 2016 Sanders campaign

The former staff members said complaints about mistreatment and pay disparity during and just after the campaign reached some senior leaders of the operation. It is not clear whether Sanders knew of the complaints.

“I did experience sexual harassment during the campaign, and there was no one who would or could help,” said Samantha Davis, the former director of operations in Texas and New York, who also worked on the campaign’s advance team. She said that her supervisor marginalized her after she declined an invitation to his hotel room.

Davis, the former state director, said she was originally paid about $2,400 a month as a senior staff member and saw in the campaign’s records that a younger man who was originally supposed to report to her made $5,000 a month. She said that she brought the issue to the campaign’s chief operating officer, who adjusted her salary to achieve parity.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign-sexism.html" id="4f0fec87-1822-3c60-abca-b5e7511fa25c">The New York Times</a>.

For Bernie Sanders, Claims of Sexism in 2016 Campaign Hang Over 2020 Bid

In February 2016, Giulianna Di Lauro, a Latino outreach strategist for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential operation, complained to her supervisor that she had been harassed by a campaign surrogate whom she drove to events before the Democratic primary in Nevada.

Disenchanted Supporters

Treated Like ‘Personal Assistants’

In an interview, Mendieta said she complained multiple times to Velazquez and Pelletier about Carmona and was repeatedly ignored, at one point being told by Velazquez that she should forgive Carmona's behavior because he was “macho.”

Mendieta was among the Latino outreach team members who she said were expected to stay in a run-down house in Chicago in March 2016. When she arrived, she said she was told she was supposed to sleep in a room with three men she did not know.

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Sydney Ember and Katie Benner

Articles written by the author

Sanders meets with former staff members, seeking to quell anxiety over sexism

Bernie Sanders, addressing sexism complaints, will meet with former staff members

Bernie Sanders, Addressing Sexism Complaints, Will Meet With Former Staff Members

Paid less, treated worse: Claims of sexism from 2016 Sanders campaign

For Bernie Sanders, Claims of Sexism in 2016 Campaign Hang Over 2020 Bid

For Bernie Sanders, Claims of Sexism in 2016 Campaign Hang Over 2020 Bid