Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is reportedly laying off hundreds of campaign staff members following a number of losses in Tuesday’s primaries.
In an interview, the Vermont Senator said he needed fewer people moving forward, adding that the campaign needed to focus on the last 10 states as opposed to 50 states.
From the New York Times:
“We want to win as many delegates as we can, so we do not need workers now in states around the country,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview. “We don’t need people right now in Connecticut. That election is over. We don’t need them in Maryland. So what we are going to do is allocate our resources to the 14 contests that remain, and that means that we are going to be cutting back on staff.”
When asked how many people would be let go, Mr. Sanders did not give an exact number but did say, “It will be hundreds of staff members.”
“We have had a very large staff, which was designed to deal with 50 states in this country; 40 of the states are now behind us,” he said. “So we have had a great staff, great people.”
When asked if the move was “a posture of weakness,” campaign spokesman Michael Briggs said it was a “posture of reality,” saying the move was a “typical readjustment,” ABC News reports.
“It is the same kind of thing that has happened time and time again after we worked through the calendar,” he said. “We don’t need people in Pennsylvania any more.”
It’s unclear if Sanders’ campaign plans on hiring more people moving into the general election — political experts note that Tuesday’s primaries all but solidified Hillary Clinton’s position as the Democratic nominee — but Briggs said the team is only focused on the states that are ahead.
In late January, the Sanders campaign had more than 1,000 staffers. The campaign would not confirm how many would be let go.
SOURCE: New York Times, ABC News | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
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Bernie Sanders To Lay Off Hundreds Of Staffers was originally published on newsone.com
