Sen. Elizabeth Warren says it’s time for America to consider its “long legacy” of racism in response to six minority staffers who quit the Nevada arm of her campaign.
The Massachusetts Democrat discussed the issue with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes this week as she vies for further traction in the party’s presidential primaries.
“There’s a story in Politico that I saw you responded to, and I just want to get your response to it here on-air about six women of color that quit your Nevada campaign with complaints of a toxic work environment and tokenism. One of them went on the record,” the “All In” host said Thursday. “I saw that you responded to that and apologized. What do you want to say in response to learning about that?”
“I believe these women without any equivocation, and I apologize personally that they had a bad experience on the campaign,” Ms. Warren responded. “I really work hard to try to build a campaign and a work environment where it’s diverse and open, and everyone is welcome and celebrated and gets to bring their whole self to work every day.”
The candidate then said that her campaign’s problems were symptoms of a long-standing disease within the nation: racism.
“But I’m also very aware that racism and oppression in this country have left a long legacy,” she said. “It creates the kind of toxicity where people — power structures, people take advantage of other people. It’s something for which we have to be constantly vigilant and constantly determined to do better. I take responsibility for this, and I’m working with my team to address these concerns.”
Ed Morrisey of the conservative website Hotair responded to her interview by asking why other campaigns are not experiencing similar problems.
“These walkouts should be a regular occurrence, if Warren’s theory holds up,” he wrote Friday morning. “Why has this only managed to happen on her campaign? And who hired the people who ’take advantage of other people’ in the first place? … Warren’s claim to ’take responsibility for this’ are transparently false. She’s trying to pass the buck literally to everyone else except her. It’s your fault, America. And vote for me!”
Sen. @ewarren blames America’s “legacy” of “racism and oppression” for her campaign staff creating a “toxic work environment” for their minority staff pic.twitter.com/yf29uW10l7
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 7, 2020
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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