Marianne Williamson, a 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, has responded to claims she was verbally and emotionally abusive during her 2020 White House run, calling the accusations a “hit piece” and a “distraction technique”.
Williamson, a self-help guru who is the only declared Democratic candidate challenging incumbent Joe Biden for the party’s nomination for the presidency, rejected claims made by former campaign staffers that she had episodes of “foaming, spitting, uncontrollable rage” during the campaign and threw her phone at staff.
“If I can be a bitch at the office at times, I don’t think anybody’s happy about that”, she told the BBC, adding “but I think anybody reading that can measure that against what is normal in politics.”
An article published by Politico on Thursday also cited claims by former campaign staff, quoted anonymously, that she had criticized their physical appearance, and hit a car door so hard she needed medical attention.
“If I’ve been a tough boss lady, if I have some lessons to learn, which obviously maybe I do, then I hope that I will learn them,” Williamson told the BBC.
Separately, she told Fox News that the claims against her were “slanderous” and “categorically untrue”.
Her campaign also dismissed the accounts as an effort to smear her presidential bid, saying former staffers were “trying to score points with the political establishment” and it “expects concerted efforts to dismiss and denigrate us”. But the campaign added, “the amplification of outright lies should not occur”.
Williamson has accused the Democratic National Committee (DNC) of “rigging” the primary system in favor of Biden, who has yet to declare his candidacy for 2024 amid widespread expectation that he will run for a second term.
The political organization had yet to announce plans for any presidential debates, which Williamson claims amounts to a block by Democratic party officials on allowing her to share a debate stage with Biden.
“The DNC should not be rigging this system,” Williamson told ABC News last week. “They don’t even pretend any more. They’re not even covert about their swaying the primary season. They’re very overt about it.”
