Hillary Clinton reportedly declined to fire her faith adviser accused of sexual harassment
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| Sarah Pulliam Bailey – Jan 27, 2018 |
A woman accused Hillary Clinton’s former faith outreach adviser of repeatedly sexually harassing her during Clinton’s 2008 campaign for president, according to a report from the New York Times.
Clinton reportedly chose to shield Burns Strider, who led her religious outreach efforts, instead of firing him as her campaign manager recommended.
“The complaint against Mr. Strider was made by a 30-year-old woman who shared an office with him,” the New York Times report states. “She told a campaign official that Mr. Strider had rubbed her shoulders inappropriately, kissed her on the forehead and sent her a string of suggestive emails, including at least one during the night, according to three former campaign officials familiar with what took place.”
“Strider was docked several weeks of pay and ordered to undergo counseling, and the young woman was moved to a new job,” the report states.
The woman, who was not named in the report, has not spoken publicly about her experience.
Strider’s relationship with Clinton
Strider, a gregarious Southern Baptist, emailed Clinton daily Bible readings every morning during her 2008 campaign and served as a liaison of sorts to religious groups. Politico in 2014 described Strider as “a Hillary Clinton favorite.”
Strider once spoke about his work for Clinton at a gathering at Calvin College in the spring of 2017. There he said he continued to work for her “even after she stopped paying me.”
Strider’s work
He was in the first wave of Clinton hires during the 2008 campaign and built a specific kind of trust and closeness, Sullivan said. He served a pastoral-like role, praying with her and for her.
“When it comes to religion outreach in terms of the trust she placed in him and his skill at knowing all the players, he was the very best,” said Amy Sullivan, author of “The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats Are Closing the God Gap.” “He could counter the stereotype of cold, godless Democrats because he was a white good ol’ boy from Mississippi who had a thick, Southern accent and had a story of coming to Christ. That’s not something most Democrats walking into evangelical spaces knowing how to do.”
Strider’s background
- He has long been part of a group of Democrats pushing candidates to speak more about their faith and to make a more confident run for voters who say religion is a priority.
- One of the first to implement the Democrats’ strategic outreach to religious voters.
- Formerly worked for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), but was mostly absent from Clinton’s campaign in 2016.
- He said Democratic campaigns would only set up meetings in black churches instead of reaching beyond their usual base to white churches.
- Strider co-founded one of the few faith outreach consultancies to Democrats, called the Eleison Group.
- Strider led an independent group that supported Clinton’s 2016 candidacy called Correct the Record, but he was fired after several months for workplace issues, including allegations that he harassed a young female aide, according to the Times’s report.
- He would often be the go-between setting up conversations with faith leaders like megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s wife, Kay Warren, and popular author and speaker Tony Campolo. Several people who have done faith outreach for the Democratic Party told The Washington Post that the party does not seem particularly interested or eager to do much outreach to religious voters at the moment. Some fear that this kind of publicity directed toward Strider doesn’t help the cause.
“It doesn’t excuse anything he might have done, but I don’t think this is a matter of Hillary Clinton protecting just any staffer,” Sullivan said. “I think she would’ve been extra hesitant to let him go.”
