Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has responded to the alleged sexual misconduct that took place within his political camp.
The progressive politician addressed the issue on CNN Monday night, shortly after the New York Times published a piece in which his former staffers claimed to have experienced sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sex-based discrimination while working on his 2016 presidential campaign. Some said they reported the incidents to their superiors, but the complaints were repeatedly ignored.
Sanders claimed he wasn't aware of the alleged misconduct, as he was too occupied with running the race.
"I was a little bit busy running around the country, trying to make the case," he told Anderson Cooper.
After highlighting some of his campaign's accomplishments, Sanders insisted he would "do better next time" to ensure all staffers' concerns and complaints were properly addressed.
"To be honest, Anderson, I'm very proud of the campaign we ran in 2016. You know, we started at 4 percent in the polls, we ended up winning 22 states, 13 million votes," he said. "We started with three or four paid in employees, and over a period of a few months, as the campaign exploded, we went up to 1,200 employees. I am not going to sit here and tell you we did everything right in terms of human resources, in terms of addressing the needs that I'm hearing from now that women felt disrespected, that there was sexual harassment, which was not dealt with as effectively as possible."
Sanders also said that during his re-election campaign for Senate, he implemented several policies to improve the reporting procedures within his team. Meanwhile, former aide Bill Velazquez—who allegedly told a female campaign strategist, “I bet you would have liked it if he were younger," when she complained about being harassed by a Mexican game show host—is set to become chief of staff to a new House member.
