[W]hile a possible 2020 presidential campaign by Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to take hits over allegations of sexual misconduct during the 2016 campaign, supporters of the Vermont independent are planning nearly 400 events across all 50 states Saturday to back another White House run.
The People for Bernie Sanders and Organizing for Bernie, political action groups unaffiliated with a possible Sanders campaign, announced on Thursday that the 400 events prove there is already “an army of community led organizers already ramped up to put him miles ahead of other candidates in the 2020 race.”
“Last month, Sen. Sanders said grassroots support would determine whether or not he decides to run for president again,” Winnie Wong, co-founder of the People for Bernie, said in a statement, “We are here, and we are ready to support him all the way to finish line.”
Rallies are planned in critical early primary states New Hampshire, Iowa, California and Texas.
This show of support for a Sanders 2020 presidential run comes hours after the latest in a series of reports of sexual misconduct involving members of the Sanders 2016 campaign.
Politico reported late Wednesday that Robert Becker — who oversaw Sanders’ 2016 Iowa campaign, then helped lead his efforts in Michigan, California and New York as deputy national field director — allegedly approached a 20-year-old campaign staffer, grabbed her wrists and forcibly kissed her, “putting his tongue in her mouth as he held her.”
In a Tweet early Thursday afternoon, Sanders issued an apology.
“To the women on my 2016 campaign who were harassed or mistreated, thank you, from the bottom of my heart for speaking out. I apologize,” he said. “We can’t just talk about ending sexism and discrimination. It must be a reality in our daily lives. That was clearly not the case in 2016.”
Politico’s report said the “female staffer did not report the incident immediately because the campaign had just ended at the time of the incident.”
Becker has been conducting unaffiliated Sanders campaign work in recent months, which included calling potential staffers and traveling to early primary states to prepare for a possible presidential run.
In a statement sent to VTDigger before Sanders had issued his apology, the senator’s primary campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, said Becker’s alleged conduct is “deplorable and fundamentally unacceptable.”
“Robert Becker would not be a part of any future campaigns,” the statement said, “No one who committed sexual harassment in 2016 would be back if there were a 2020 campaign.”
As Sanders and surrogates explore a 2020 presidential bid, more than a dozen former female and male staffers who worked on the 2016 campaign signed a letter requesting a meeting with Sanders and his leadership team “to discuss the issue of sexual violence and harassment on the 2016 campaign, for the purpose of planning to mitigate the issue in the upcoming presidential cycle.”
Sanders, his top aides and the writers of the letter have not yet had a face-to-face meeting.
Other former staffers spoke about experiences of sexual misconduct on the campaign trail to the the New York Times, which published a story earlier this month.
This spotlight on the 2016 campaign has not left Sanders’ inner circle unscathed.
CNN reported on Wednesday that Jeff Weaver, the longtime Sanders confidant and 2016 campaign manager, will not return to the role he held in 2016 should Sanders decided to run again, and Friends of Bernie Sanders confirmed this to VTDigger.
It has been reported that Weaver’s decisions around complaints of sexual misconduct was troublesome and that there was no clear path for complaints to be made, according to the New York Times.
Weaver could not reached for comment.
Kat Brezler, the other co-founder of the People for Bernie Sanders, said in a statement that part of coming together in support of a Sanders 2020 campaign would be to discuss best practices moving forward and to learn from past mistakes on campaigns.
“First things first, we’re coming together on Jan. 12 to talk about what worked and what didn’t work in 2016 so we can build the strongest campaign for 2020 to support our movement,” Brezler said.
