The fallout within the Bernie Sanders campaign continued today as two more staffers were “suspended” in relation to downloading voter data compiled by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Last week, his national data director, Josh Uretsky, was fired over the incident.
The workers reportedly gained improper access to the voter information when a the computer firewall of a private vendor failed. This opened Clinton’s voter information to her rivals in the Democratic presidential primary. Sanders apologized to Clinton during last Saturday’s Democratic debate.
During a news conference on Friday, officials working with Sanders’ insisted that their campaign is a “clean” one and that, in fact, they had “alerted” the Democratic National Committee (DNC) two months back that such campaign data was accessible to others.
Speaking today on This Week with George Stephanopolous, Sanders said that a temporary block by the DNC to voter data was “total overreach.” He and campaign manager Jeff Weaver said news of the data incident was leaked by the DNC itself.
Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for Clinton, referred to the breach as “a very serious matter,” and that Sanders campaign “took data” and “tried to save it.” For their part, Palmieri said no one with the Clinton campaign took advantage of the technical issue to likewise access the voter files of rival campaigns.
Sanders says that, when the vendor “screwed up” that his staff then acted improperly in taking advantage of the security opening.
In addition to his public apology to Clinton, Sanders also apologized to his supporters. “This is not the type of campaign that we run,” he said.
At the debate, Sanders proposed to Clinton that an independent investigation be made into the incident. His opponent said that they should put it behind them. “… I don’t think the American people are all that interested in this,” she said.