Bernie Sanders apologizes to Hillary Clinton for campaign data breach

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told Hillary Clinton
during the Democratic presidential debate here Saturday night he is sorry his staff improperly accessed her campaign’s data. Sanders was asked whether Clinton deserved an apology shortly after the candidates made their opening statements.

“Yes, I apologize,” Sanders said.

Sanders’ apology came a little over a day after news broke that his team took advantage of a software issue to access data belonging to Clinton’s campaign. The software was provided to the Democratic National Committee, which maintains a voter file that is shared by all of the party’s presidential candidates. Sanders’ campaign fired one staffer who accessed data from Clinton’s team. Sanders’ team also has said it is conducting an internal investigation and will discipline anyone else who took advantage of the data breach. Sanders emphasized these points on the debate stage at Saint Anselm College.

“I apologize … and I hope we can work together on an independent investigation,” Sanders said. “I want to apologize to my supporters. This is not the type of campaign that we run and, if I find anybody else involved in this, they will also be fired.”

Sanders’ mea culpa came after both campaigns spent Friday and the early part of Saturday taking shots at each other over the data breach incident.

In a conference call and on cable news, Clinton’s aides accused Sanders’ team of “theft.” They claimed that four Sanders campaign staffers accessed the data on over 20 occasions and also made attempts to copy the information. Clinton’s team described the data as “the fundamental keys of our campaign,” including information about the voters they are targeting and the number of supporters they expect to turn out for Clinton in key primary states.

Though the Sanders campaign admitted it was wrong for its staff to access Clinton’s data, it has suggested the situation should never have been made public. Sanders’ team also lashed out against the DNC, which responded to the incident by cutting the Sanders staff off from the shared voter file. The Sanders campaign eventually reached an agreement to have its access restored after filing an injunction in federal court on Friday. This deal included a provision for an independent investigation.

Leading up to the debate, the Sanders campaign suggested the DNC’s response was an attempt to help Clinton, who is currently the overwhelming frontrunner in the Democratic primary. They also pointed to the fact the DNC has scheduled the debates at times with low television viewership as evidence the party organization has taken steps to protect Clinton’s position.

Before his apology, Sanders reiterated some of these arguments.

“What the DNC did arbitrarily without discussing it with us is shut off our access to our own information, crippling our campaign. That is an egregious act,” said Sanders.

Sanders also claimed there have been multiple issues with the data software shared by the Democratic campaigns. Because of this, he said, it is possible his data was improperly accessed by Clinton’s staff. Sanders said his team actually notified the DNC of an earlier breach in the firewall between the data belonging to the two campaigns. He stressed they did this “quietly.”

“We didn’t go running to the media to make a big deal about it,” Sanders said, adding, “It bothers me very much that, rather than working on this issue to resolve it, it has become many press releases for the Clinton campaign.”

After Sanders spoke, Clinton was asked to react to his comments. She said she appreciated Sanders’ apology and commitment to an investigation. With that probe under way, Clinton said it is important to move forward to other issues.

“We’ve agreed on an independent inquiry. We should move on, because I don’t think the American people are all that interested in this,” Clinton explained.

Following Clinton’s reaction, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley piped up. O’Malley, who is polling a distant third behind Clinton and Sanders, also expressed hope the campaign can move on to discussing “pressing” issues with the economy and national security rather than “bickering back and forth.”

Sanders concluded by joining the call for the campaign to move beyond discussing the incident. He compared the situation to the comment he made during an earlier debate in October when he urged the campaigns to stop focusing on the controversy over Clinton’s use of a private email address when she was secretary of state. He then pivoted back to the core message of his campaign — combating income inequality.

“You know we had this incident before, Secretary Clinton, with your famous emails, right? And what I said,” Sanders recounted, adding, “What I hope you say is, when the middle class of this country is disappearing, when we have massive income and wealth inequality, when we’re the only major country on earth without guaranteed health care for all people … those are the issues. Media notwithstanding, those are the issues that the American people want to discuss.”