Warren campaign fires organizing director over ‘inappropriate behavior’

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign has reportedly fired its national organizing director after “multiple complaints regarding inappropriate behavior.”

“Over the past two weeks, senior campaign leadership received multiple complaints regarding inappropriate behavior by Rich McDaniel,” campaign spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said in a statement to Politico. “Over the same time period, the campaign retained outside counsel to conduct an investigation. Based on the results of the investigation, the campaign determined that his reported conduct was inconsistent with its values and that he could not be a part of the campaign moving forward.”

Politico reported that an unnamed person familiar with the investigation told the news site there had been no reports of sexual assault but declined to specify what exactly had been reported, citing confidentiality concerns.

McDaniel is a political veteran, having worked for several campaigns including Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid.

He told Politico he had “separated” from Warren’s campaign and “would never intentionally engage in any behavior inconsistent with the campaign or my own values.”

Warren told an NBC News reporter at an SEIU forum Friday, “I want us to have a campaign that lives our values and that lifts up inclusivity. It is really hard for anyone to come forward with a complaint or with a concern and the people who did that showed incredible courage and I am deeply grateful to them.”

Warren continued, “When I first set up this campaign, we put in place a procedure to deal with problems and in this case, we followed that procedure. We resolved the issue in a very short period of time and I stand by the process that we put in place.”

The firing comes after Warren revealed a $24.6 million fundraising haul over the past three months — the second-most in the Democratic field for the third-quarter, just behind U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ $25.3 million.

Warren has continued to rise in the money race along with the polls, tripling her first-quarter sum of $6 million to $19.1 million in the second quarter.

She’s benefited from a relative lack of scrutiny from both the media and her Democratic rivals, unlike Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden, said University of New Hampshire political science professor Dante Scala.

David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said, “Statistically, she has all of the indicators that you need: rising poll numbers, strong fundraising numbers, great attendance at her rallies and positive coverage from media outlets.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2pMLulS