‘Foaming, Spitting, Uncontrollable Rage’: Marianne Williamson Ex-Staffers Claim Abuse In Stunning Politico Hit

A dozen former staffers for Marianne Williamson have anonymously shared stories of anger and abuse from the first Democratic candidate to announce a challenge to President Joe Biden.

Williamson launched her longshot candidacy nearly two weeks ago with a speech in which she obliquely called out Biden by saying, “the people who are in power do not have the solutions or do not deeply support the solutions, and people who do have the solutions do not have the power. Once again, let the people get in there; we’ll handle it from here.”

On Tuesday, Politico’s Lauren Egan published a lengthy deep dive entitled “Marianne Williamson’s ‘abusive’ treatment of 2020 campaign staff, revealed” and subtitled “The self-help guru, who is running for president again, was emotionally and verbally abusive to staff, according to interviews with former employees.”

The 1,500-word-plus piece relies mostly on anonymous quotes and anecdotes from “12 people who worked for Williamson during her 2020 presidential campaign” who gave up choice quotes like these:

• “It would be foaming, spitting, uncontrollable rage… It was traumatic. And the experience, in the end, was terrifying.”
• “She would get caught in these vicious emotional loops where she would yell and scream hysterically… This was day after day after day. It wasn’t that she was having a bad day or moment. It was just boom, boom, boom — and often for no legitimate reason.”
• “The message was: ‘dont fuck with me because I will make your life a living hell.’ So no one fucked with her…”

The few on-the-record quotes include a resignation email from a state campaign official and Williamson’s response:

In a resignation email sent to Williamson on Aug. 14, 2019, Robert Becker, the campaign’s then-Iowa state director, wrote that Williamson’s treatment of staff was “belittling, abusive, dehumanizing and unacceptable,” according to a copy of the email exchange with Williamson obtained by POLITICO. Becker, who was a controversial hire due to a prior allegation that he forcibly kissed a subordinate while working on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Democratic presidential campaign, added: “I cannot in good faith subject any future campaign hires to this kind of vitriol. For 30 years I have had zero-tolerance for bullying in the workplace, and that has to include the principle.”

Williamson emailed back: “I did go out on a limb for you, but more importantly I had no idea that you would’ve seen me that way… Hopefully I will learn from what you have said, and hopefully you will not say such things to others.”

The author notes that these ex-staffers acknowledged that women in politics are often subjected to scrutiny for behavior that goes ignored among men in similar situations, but that they claim “Williamson’s behavior was beyond the boundaries of acceptable regardless of her gender.”

One such example is the anonymous parade of ex-staffers who attacked Sen. Amy Klobuchar after she announced her candidacy for president in 2019.

Williamson called the allegations against her “slanderous” while confirming and explaining some details in emails with Politico.