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		</div><p>US senator Bernie Sanders has offered contrition as some of his 2016 presidential campaign staff face allegations of sexual harassment that threaten to derail a second White House bid before it begins.</p>
<p>Hours after a New York Times report detailed allegations of unwanted sexual advances and pay inequity on his first campaign, Mr Sanders apologized &#8220;to any woman who felt that she was not treated appropriately&#8221;.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;Of course, if I run again, we will do better next time,&#8221;</em> the Vermont senator told CNN.</p>
<p>Yet there were signs that the allegations, which did not directly involve Mr Sanders, could hurt the self-described democratic socialist&#8217;s 2020 ambitions in the midst of the #MeToo era.</p>
<p>In the wake of the report, some Democratic activists and operatives complained about the aggressive culture during the first campaign, when male staff and supporters were sometimes labelled &#8220;Bernie bros&#8221;.</p>
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<div><em>&#8220;I&#8217;m not the least bit surprised,&#8221;</em> National Organization for Women president Toni Van Pelt told the Associated Press, noting she was forced to block Mr Sanders&#8217;s supporters from her social media feed in 2016.</div>
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<p><em>&#8220;To me, it was really clear this was the way they were running the campaign.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>She blamed Hillary Clinton&#8217;s loss to Donald Trump, at least in part, on Mr Sanders and his supporters.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t just Trump, it wasn&#8217;t just the Russians, it was also the sexist people that ran his campaign,&#8221;</em> Ms Van Pelt said.</p>
<p>The timing could not be worse for Mr Sanders, who is gearing up for a second presidential bid.</p>
<p>His senior adviser said last month that Mr Sanders would run a &#8220;much bigger&#8221; operation and would start out as a front-runner if he ultimately decided to run.</p>
<p>Yet the 2020 Democratic field would have little in common with that of 2016, in which Mr Sanders emerged as the anti-establishment alternative to Mrs Clinton.</p>
<p>Should he run again, the 77-year-old would enter a crowded field that features multiple prominent liberal women.</p>
<p>Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren has already launched a presidential exploratory committee.</p>
<p>Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who has been a central figure in Washington&#8217;s reckoning with the #MeToo era, is considering a presidential run.</p>
<p>Senator Kamala Harris of California could also be a leading contender.</p>
<figure id="attachment_123346" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-123346" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/KamalaHarrisDemocrat17_large.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-123346" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/KamalaHarrisDemocrat17_large.jpg" alt="Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat, U.S., Politics" width="600" height="325" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-123346" class="wp-caption-text">Senator Kamala Harris</figcaption></figure>
<p>Even before the Times&#8217; story was published, Politico reported that more than two dozen former campaign workers and volunteers had requested a meeting with Mr Sanders to discuss alleged sexual violence and harassment that occurred during the 2016 campaign.</p>
<p>The Times detailed one situation in which a campaign surrogate was said to have touched a strategist&#8217;s hair in a &#8220;sexual way&#8221;, among other unwanted advances.</p>
<p>It also reported that in some cases, women were expected to sleep in the same quarters as men they did not know.</p>
<p>Others discovered examples of men who were paid significantly more for doing similar jobs.</p>
<p>Mr Sanders&#8217;s wife, Jane O&#8217;Meara Sanders, said the meeting with concerned former staff and volunteers would take place in a matter of days, although it had not yet been scheduled as of late Wednesday.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;The fact is if somebody didn&#8217;t feel safe in any way, it was a failure. I, we, apologise profusely. This is not acceptable,&#8221;</em> she said.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;Of course things happen in our society. The question is, &#8216;How do you handle them?'&#8221;</em></p>
<p>Ms O&#8217;Meara Sanders said she and her husband became aware of the allegations only after the campaign was over.</p>
<p>They subsequently implemented a series of safeguards on his 2018 Senate re-election campaign, which included mandatory staff training, strict guidelines and the creation of a complaint hotline run by a third party.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t hear specific things during the campaign. We heard some of them after the campaign. We&#8217;ve heard others just now that were never reported,&#8221;</em> Ms O&#8217;Meara Sanders said.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;We were, as you can imagine, out on the road and you do delegate. But we do think at the top level, people did the best they possibly could.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>Mr Sanders noted the 2016 campaign grew from just a handful of employees to roughly 1,200 workers in just a few months.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;I am not going to sit here and tell you we did everything right in terms of human resources,&#8221;</em> he told CNN.</p>
<p>There was no immediate indication that Mr Sanders was backing away from another presidential run.</p>
<p>When asked about her husband&#8217;s 2020 aspirations, Ms O&#8217;Meara Sanders said the new situation would have no impact on their plans.</p>
<p>RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the National Nurses United and a chief Sanders ally, suggested the revelations might help his political future by forcing an important conversation and stronger anti-harassment policies.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;This is Bernie Sanders. This is someone who believes from the bottom of his heart in equality. He does. I think he&#8217;ll be the best president in the history of America on equality,</em>&#8221; Ms DeMoro said.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;I&#8217;m hopefully going to be part of organising every woman in this country for Bernie in 2020.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>Nina Turner, who leads the Sanders&#8217; political arm, Our Revolution, noted that none of the women who alleged misconduct said Mr Sanders had any direct knowledge.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;This is hurtful, this moment is heavy &#8211; as well it should be when people are coming out saying they were mistreated in the campaign based on their gender,&#8221;</em> Ms Turner said in an interview.</p>
<p>But on the ground in South Carolina, a key state on the presidential primary calendar where Mrs Clinton beat Mr Sanders in 2016, Democratic state senator Marlon Kimpson said people were already decidedly &#8220;less enthusiastic&#8221; about Mr Sanders heading into 2020.</p>
<p><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/BernieSandersHillaryClintonAwkwardDance_large.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-123347" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/BernieSandersHillaryClintonAwkwardDance_large.jpg" alt="Democrat, U.S., Politics, Hillary Cinton, Bernie Sanders" width="600" height="325" /></a></p>
<p>Mr Kimpson said the state&#8217;s Democratic primary voters &#8211; most are women &#8211; would want to hear directly from Mr Sanders about what he knew about the allegations and when.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;In this day and age, the allegations of sexual harassment have to be taken very seriously and action must be taken swiftly to send a message to your campaign that this behaviour will not be tolerated,&#8221;</em> Mr Kimpson said.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;This will be a material issue in people making up their minds if he&#8217;s talking the talk and walking the walk.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>Ms Van Pelt cast the blame on Mr Sanders whether he had direct knowledge of misconduct or not.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;If he didn&#8217;t know,&#8221;</em> she said, <em>&#8220;he has no business being in office.&#8221;</em></p>
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