2
1
A campaign manager for Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 presidential bid on Monday castigated Clinton for ignoring her advice to fire a senior adviser accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a younger female campaign staffer.
The New York Times reported Friday that Patti Solis Doyle recommended the presidential candidate fire her faith adviser, Burns Strider, but Clinton instead decided he would undergo counseling and be docked several weeks of his pay.
"I did my due diligence. I interviewed all the parties involved. I looked at the evidence. I looked at some emails that he had sent. I had looked at other documents and came to the conclusion that there was sexual harassment involved, that the young woman was very credible," Solis Doyle said on CNN Monday. "And my recommendation to the senator was to fire him. And I was overruled."
Host Brianna Keilar clarified whether there were other officials from the campaign that came to the same conclusion. Solis Doyle confirmed there were other individuals who were part of the investigation and they agreed he should not be working on the campaign.
"So she overruled you personally?" Keilar asked.
"I was overruled, yes," Solis Doyle said.
Later in the interview, Keilar talked about Clinton's Twitter response to the Times story on Friday and asked the former campaign manager why Clinton didn't reflect on her decision to keep Strider on by admitting she made the "wrong call."
"I don't know. I was disappointed by that tweet, that response. It was the wrong call. I wish she had said it was the wrong call. I wish she had said, ‘having to do it over I would have fired him,'" Solis Doyle said. "I think that's actually true. I believe that she thinks that ‘if I had to do it over again, I would fire him.'"