RNC finance chair Steve Wynn resigns after sexual harassment allegations
January 28, 2018 by admin
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Casino mogul Steve Wynn was President Donald Trump’s handpicked choice for the finance position. | Charles Krupa/AP Photo
Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn on Saturday stepped down as Republican National Committee finance chairman, according to three senior Republicans briefed on the decision.
The decision followed a Friday report in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Wynn engaged in sexual harassment.
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Wynn, 76, was President Donald Trump’s handpicked choice for the finance position. It has not yet been determined who will replace him.
“Today I accepted Steve Wynn’s resignation as Republican National Committee finance chair,” said RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, who spoke about the Wynn situation with the president on Saturday morning, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation. Trump returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday evening.
Wynn has had a long relationship with the president, himself a former casino owner. After the 2016 election, Trump tapped the Las Vegas Republican to oversee the RNC’s fundraising heading into a perilous midterm election for the party. Last Saturday, Wynn headlined a fundraiser for the president’s reelection campaign and the RNC at Trump’s posh Mar a Lago resort.
During recent fundraising events — including one recent one in New York City — Wynn has praised Trump as a history-changing president in the mold of Lincoln and Reagan.
But the sexual misconduct allegations against Wynn put Republicans in an untenable situation after the RNC and other GOP officials had ripped the Democratic Party last fall for its connections to Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul who raised and contributed large amounts of money for Democrats.
Wynn acknowledged the “distraction” caused by the controversy in a statement released Saturday.
“Effective today I am resigning as Finance Chairman of the RNC,” he said. “The unbelievable success we have achieved must continue. The work we are doing to make America a better place is too important to be impaired by this distraction. I thank the President for the opportunity to serve and wish him continued success.”
The RNC, which holds its annual winter meeting in Washington next week, was radio silent on Friday after the allegations against Wynn first emerged — as were most top Republicans. Democrats, meanwhile, seized on the political opportunity presented by the allegations against Wynn.
In Nevada, GOP Sen. Dean Heller — who is facing a competitive reelection challenge — immediately came under fire from Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, who called on him to disavow Wynn’s endorsement and demand that Wynn step down from his RNC post.
Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, reacted to the news of Wynn’s resignation by saying, “I’m sure the RNC will find another billionaire to replace Steve Wynn, and they’re all going to do essentially the same thing: hoard wealth for the richest people and exclude hard-working people from real opportunity.”
Wynn has been a prolific Republican donor, particularly over the past decade: He has donated more than $2.5 million to the Republican Governors Association since 2012 and has been a top donor to several individual gubernatorial campaigns.
The casino mogul also contributed $411,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee over the past five years, $248,000 to the RNC and $100,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to campaign finance records.
In a statement emailed to POLITICO Friday, Wynn said the allegations are “the continued work of my ex-wife Elaine Wynn, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement.”
“The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous,” Wynn added. “We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth, and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multi-year lawsuits.”
Kevin Robillard, Maggie Severns and David Siders contributed to this report.
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Hillary Clinton Chose to Shield a Top Adviser Accused of Harassment in 2008
January 27, 2018 by admin
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The complaint from the young woman was initially brought to Jess O’Connell, who was the national director of operations for the Clinton campaign.
Ms. O’Connell, who is currently chief executive officer of the Democratic National Committee, handled the investigation and advised Ms. Solis Doyle that Mr. Strider should be fired, according to three people familiar with the events.
Ms. O’Connell told colleagues she was concerned that the young woman making the allegations should not be demoted when she was moved from Mr. Strider’s supervision. The woman requested to have no more interactions with Mr. Strider, and she was moved to a different job within the campaign, reporting directly to Mike Henry, the deputy campaign manager.
The investigation into Mr. Strider’s conduct was described as brief, but it included a review of a number of emails he sent the young woman, who had shared an office with him.
A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton provided a statement from Utrecht, Kleinfeld, Fiori, Partners, the law firm that had represented the campaign in 2008 and which her advisers said has been involved on sexual harassment issues.
“To ensure a safe working environment, the campaign had a process to address complaints of misconduct or harassment. When matters arose, they were reviewed in accordance with these policies, and appropriate action was taken,” the statement said. “This complaint was no exception.”
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The woman’s experience and the reaction to it have not been previously reported. Until now, former Clinton associates were unwilling to discuss the events for publication.
But that changed in the wake of the #MeToo movement, in which dozens of men across the country and across different industries, have been fired or suspended for sexual misconduct.
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This account was based on interviews with eight former campaign officials and associates of Mrs. Clinton.
They said the campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, and other senior campaign officials discussed the situation involving Mr. Strider and Mrs. Clinton’s response at the time. Some of them were troubled that he was allowed to remain on the campaign.
The complaint against Mr. Strider was made by a 30-year-old woman who shared an office with him. 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.
The complaint was taken to Ms. Doyle, the campaign manager, who approached Mrs. Clinton and urged that Mr. Strider, who was married at the time, be fired, according to the officials familiar with what took place. Mrs. Clinton said she did not want to, and instead he remained on her staff.
The woman who made the accusation against Mr. Strider in 2008 has not spoken publicly about it. She, like most campaign staffers, signed a nondisclosure agreement that barred employees from publicly discussing internal dynamics on the campaign, according to two people with direct knowledge of the contract. Reached by a reporter, she declined to comment.
Ms. Solis Doyle also declined to comment.
Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy has been cited as an inspiration for the #MeToo movement, but she has not played a visible role in it. After several Hollywood actresses told The Times and The New Yorker that Harvey Weinstein, a longtime friend and donor to the Clintons, had harassed or assaulted them, Mrs. Clinton spoke out against his behavior, saying in a statement that she was “shocked and appalled by the revelations.”
Weeks later the actress Lena Dunham, one of Mrs. Clinton’s most visible celebrity supporters in her 2016 presidential bid, told the Times that she warned two Clinton campaign aides against associating with Mr. Weinstein. “I just want you to know that Harvey’s a rapist and this is going to come out at some point,” Ms. Dunham said she told the campaign.
Nick Merrill, the communications director for Mrs. Clinton, said at the time Ms. Dunham spoke publicly that she was mistaken. “As to claims about a warning, that’s something staff wouldn’t forget,” he said.
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