CNN host Brooke Baldwin and two female writers expressed disappointment on Monday at Hillary Clinton's lack of response to reports that her former senior adviser Burns Strider sexually harassed female staffers.
At the same time, the panel was unhappy with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley's decision to call out Clinton's Grammy Awards cameo–a cameo that featured Clinton promoting the work of author Michael Wolff, even when he groundlessly implied Haley slept with President Donald Trump.
Ruby Cramer, who reported for BuzzFeed on Strider’s behavior, began by discussing the allegations against Strider. She noted evidence that Strider not only kissed female staffers, but that he also sent sexually suggestive messages and was still allowed to continue working for Clinton. In one email to a staffer, Strider described how beautiful she was and said, "you’re filling my mind tonight so I needed to share."
"By the time that e-mail arrived, and it's dated November 15th, that same day she went to the campaign to complain, file a formal complaint about this," she said. "That was one incident. Then what we know from our reporting is that when he was later hired six years later at the pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC–the super PAC that was essentially laying the groundwork for her next presidential campaign–this exact same kind of behavior continued."
Former Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle has revealed Clinton "overruled" her advice to get rid of Strider during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Cramer said people should not focus on Clinton’s role in this.
"Hillary Clinton is involved in the story, but the important thing to remember is these are young women just starting to get into politics," Cramer said. "They want to work for a cause that they believe in, and this should not be an experience that should drive them out of politics."
The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell described the incident as "disappointing" and offered qualified criticism of Clinton’s lack of an apology.
"If you want to give Hillary the benefit of the doubt, maybe she could say, ‘I have changed my mind.’ But she has not given any indication at this point that she's willing to, at least, think about herself critically," Rampell said.
Rampell added the Clinton "reached out" to Strider's accuser who worked on the 2008 campaign, but did not give a full-throated "I screwed up" statement.
Baldwin then took the topic to Clinton’s cameo appearance at the Grammy Awards in which she read from Michael Wolff’s controversial book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Rampell said the segment wasn’t funny but she hit back at Haley for criticizing it.
Haley said Wolff’s book was "trash" and that the awards show shouldn’t be politicized in that way.
I have always loved the Grammys but to have artists read the Fire and Fury book killed it. Don’t ruin great music with trash. Some of us love music without the politics thrown in it.
— Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) January 29, 2018
Wolff’s book implies Haley slept Trump, which Haley has denied, but Rampell said Haley was still wrong to voice her criticism.
"This fundamentally misunderstands the fact that politics and music are inextricably linked," Rampell said about Haley's response. "That said, I get why Nikki Haley would be particularly set off by the Michael Wolff reference there."
Baldwin and Rampell acknowledged the problem of sexual rumors being spread about successful women, but they still said it was "ridiculous" and "crazy" that Haley would criticize the Grammy Awards for the segment.