Despite repeatedly telling the public about her strong advocacy for women’s rights and empowerment, Hillary Clinton elected to retain an adviser on her 2008 presidential campaign run who allegedly sexually harassed a woman under him on several occasions, according to a new report.
What’s more, the soon-to-be secretary of state refused to heed the counsel of her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, to fire the accused harasser, the New York Times reported Friday. Instead, Clinton ordered the adviser, Burns Strider, to attend counseling and withheld his salary for several weeks.
The account of the story was based on discussions with eight former officials on Clinton’s 2008 campaign, the Times said, noting that some of the officials “were troubled that he was allowed to remain on the campaign.”
The unnamed accuser, who was 30 at the time, complained that Strider “rubbed her shoulders inappropriately, kissed her on the forehead and sent her a string of suggestive emails, including at least one during the night,” the Times report said.
When Doyle, the campaign manager, learned of the indiscretions, she approached Clinton and recommended cutting ties with Strider, “who was married at the time,” according to NYT. “Mrs. Clinton said she did not want to and instead he remained on her staff.”
Clinton has also received fire for close ties with ollywood-icon-turned-disgraced-sexual-predator Harvey Weinstein, who helped Democrats with fundraising over the years. After dozens of actresses informed the Times and the New Yorker of Weinstein’s unethical and criminal conduct, Clinton said in an October statement she was “shocked and appalled by the revelations.”
Less than a month later, in December 2017, celebrity Clinton surrogate Lena Dunham disclosed that she tried to warn the Clinton campaign about Weinstein’s toxicity at least a year earlier. “I just want to let you know that Harvey’s a rapist, and this is going to come out at some point,” Dunham said she told a senior campaign official. “I think it’s a really bad idea for him to host fundraisers and be involved because it’s an open secret in Hollywood that he has a problem with sexual assault.”
Clinton’s communications director dismissed Dunham in a statement, saying “We were shocked when we learned what he’d done. Its despicable behavior, and the women that have come forward have shown enormous courage. As to claims about a warning, that’s something staff wouldn’t forget. Only [Dunham] can answer why she would tell them instead of those who could stop him.”
Following the Times’ bombshell October 5 report revealing Weinstein’s dark and violent history, the Clinton Foundation stated that it had “no plans to return” hundreds of thousands of dollars Weinstein had donated.
