Democratic presidential nominee Marianne Williamson claims a report that she verbally abused campaign staffers during her first White House nomination four years ago is a “hit piece.”
Williamson, the best-selling author and spiritual advisor who earlier this month became the first Democrat with a national following to challenge President Biden in 2024 in the top spot, accused in a Fox News interview that the report and White’s recent apparent mockery of the candidate Karine Jean-Pierre, the House press secretary, calls actions by Democratic “establishments who don’t want me in the game.”
Williamson has had a very successful career encouraging people to highlight the power of love and the importance of forgiveness. But according to a report released Thursday, a dozen people who worked with Williamson on her 2020 presidential campaign say she “subjected her employees to unpredictable, explosive fits of rage. They said Williamson could be cruel and demeaning to her staff and that her behavior goes far beyond the typical stress of a grueling presidential cycle.”
Williamson calls the allegations “defamatory” and “categorically untrue”.
WILLIAMSON 2020 CAMPAIGN STAFFERS CLAIM MISCONDUCT BY DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
Self-help author Marianne Williamson addresses the crowd as she launches her 2024 Democratic presidential campaign in Washington, Saturday, March 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
According to former campaign workers interviewed by PoliticoWilliamson’s outbursts included throwing phones at staffers and in one instance, the candidate reportedly became so angry about the logistics for a campaign trip that she slammed on a car door until her hand began to swell, forcing her to go to an urgent care facility. to go.
Former two-time Representative Paul Hodes of New Hampshire, who served as Williamson’s state director in the crucial first state presidential primary in the country in 2020, confirmed the report.
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“What Politico reported was completely consistent with what I saw during the campaign and what I personally experienced with her on multiple occasions,” Hodes, who was quoted in the Politico report, told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “There are several reasons why I am not helping her this time. Her behavior is one of the reasons.”
“It’s important that we have a president with the right temperament,” Hodes stressed. “It’s very important to have leadership that is calm under pressure. The presidency is a very stressful job…you need real leadership that can be calm under pressure.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Williamson dismissed the report as an attempt to smear her presidential bid.
Williamson said that “former staffers trying to score points with the political establishment by smearing me may be good for their careers, but the intent is to divert attention from the important issues facing the American people … This presidential campaign expects concerted efforts to denigrate and belittle us. But the reinforcement of outright lies must not occur.”
Williamson also denied ever throwing a phone at staff, but she did acknowledge that she went to the emergency room after getting upset and banging her hand on a car door, but said that “a car door is not a person . I would never physically hurt you.” to a person.”
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Hours later, she told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that “if anyone ever felt like I disrespected those who worked for me, I’m sorry. But I also know this is a hit.”
“I think every time someone criticizes you, you should always ask yourself, is some of it true? Is 10% of it true? If 10% of it is true, then I want to correct that in myself and in my behavior.”, added she added. “But that’s not what’s going on here. Do I have some things to learn from any experience, including that experience? Absolute. But I also think people can see through the obvious game being played here by established forces who don’t want me in the game.”
When asked at a White House briefing last week if the president was annoyed by the launch of Williamson’s campaign, Jean-Pierre appeared to mock the nominee by saying, “I don’t follow that. I mean, if I’m a — what is he shouted? A little globe here—a crystal ball, I could tell you. A magical eight-sphere or whatever. If I could feel her aura.”
President Joe Biden speaks at the Winter Meeting of the Democratic National Committee on Friday, February 3, 2023 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (AP)
Opinion polls show Biden, who has yet to announce his 2024 re-election campaign, ahead of Williamson. Asked in an interview with Fox News Digital last week if she felt the president and his team and the Democratic Party weren’t taking her campaign seriously, Williamson responded: “I think it’s pretty fair to say they don’t take me seriously. But more importantly than that, they’re trying to get you to not take me seriously. Which really means they’re taking me seriously on some level.”
But Williamson charged “that kind of ridicule is purposeful. This is what they did to me last time – make her look like a laughingstock so no one could take seriously the idea of voting for her. They know what they’re doing. That It’s the talking points of the Democratic Party establishment right now. But I hope people don’t buy it as easily as they did last time.”
And on Thursday, she repeated her criticism, arguing in her Fox News Channel interview that “this is what they do. This is what they do. These are the hits they make. Hit pieces are coming. Press secretary mockery at the president comes. The women in The View. These are the dirty tricks that mean you’re rattling someone. Someone isn’t happy that you’re here. Someone feels threatened by the conversation you bring up. So here’s what’s happens in politics.
Democratic presidential nominee Marianne Williamson campaigns in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on March 9, 2023. (Marianne Williamson campaign)
During the 2020 cycle, Williamson was an unconventional candidate who preached the politics of love. She highlighted “six pillars for a season of moral recovery,” including economic justice. She proposed creating a Department of Children and Youths and a Department of Peace, and pushed for reparations for the descendants of African American slaves. One of her unorthodox acts was holding a meditation session while campaigning in New Hampshire.
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But Williamson struggled with fundraising and failed to qualify for most Democratic presidential debates. Days after she fired most of her small staff, she dropped out of the race in January 2020, just before the start of the primaries and primaries.
“I have the right to run. This is democracy,” Williamson told Fox News Digital last week. And while pointing to the Democrats, she said, “How can a party claim to be a champion of democracy when something in its initial process is the suppression of that democracy? And let there be no doubt about it, mock me, mock me, mock me besmirch a way of trying to suppress my voice.”
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter from New Hampshire.
