Bernie Sanders staffers want a meeting about ‘sexual violence’ of 2016 campaign

Veterans of Bernie Sanders’s insurgent 2016 campaign for the presidency want the Vermont senator to meet with them to discuss “sexual violence and harassment” on the campaign trail as he contemplates whether to run in 2020.

“In recent weeks there has been an ongoing conversation on social media, in texts, and in person, about the untenable and dangerous dynamic that developed during our campaign,” said the letter sent Sunday, Politico reveals.

A reply from Friends of Bernie Sanders, the senator’s campaign organization, has welcomed the letter but did not say whether it would accede to the meeting. It notes that personnel actions, including firings, were taken during the 2016 campaign in response to complaints, and that Sanders’s 2018 Senate campaign set up a hotline run by a third party to handle complaints.

— JTA