[Peace-discuss] Biden campaign risked lives of Iowa staffers by suspending work rules

[Robert Naiman]

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-iowa-car-accident/

The Biden Campaign Pushed Iowa Staffers to Drive in Dangerous Weather
Leaked messages show staffers worrying about their safety on Iowa’s icy
roads.
By Ken Klippenstein
January 24, 2020

With the pivotal Iowa caucuses coming up on February 3, Biden campaign
staffers have had at least one concern besides the election: their own
safety.

On December 30, with Iowa sheathed in snow, the campaign’s regional
organizing director for Iowa, Kay Glad, instructed staffers that its
inclement weather policy was being suspended, according to staff text
messages reviewed by *The Nation*.

The policy had allowed them to avoid driving during potentially hazardous
weather conditions, but, at that busy time, it was being called off.

“Hey guys, all weather policy is dissolved throughout the entire state
because we have five weeks left until the election,” Kay Glad, Biden’s
regional organizing director for Iowa, informed staffers. “If it feels like
unsafe driving conditions, then talk to me separately but quite frankly I
don’t want to hear any complaints because you know how important this is
and how much time we have left.”

Glad added: “By showing an ability to be adaptable, flexible, and willing
to what [sic] you’ve been hired to do, then that is the most basic
threshold of demonstrating your ability of leading others. Every single day
is an audition for post-Iowa.”

Glad’s admonition carries with it a sad irony. In 1972, both Biden’s
then-wife and daughter died in a fatal car accident
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/joe-biden-and-the-politics-of-grief/2019/10/28/b3556418-d4b5-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html>when
a truck broadsided them while they were shopping for a Christmas tree. He
has frequently referenced the tragedy in public as well as during this
campaign.

The text messages were provided to *The Nation* by a Biden staffer on the
condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak. The staffer
also said that there had been at least five different car accidents among
the campaign’s Iowa staffers between Christmas and New Years Day alone.
Citing a recent car accident that resulted in the death of a Warren
campaign volunteer, the staffer described other campaign workers as fearful
of another potential accident.

In September, Zachary Presberg, a former field organizing fellow and
volunteer for the Warren campaign in Iowa, died when
<https://iowastartingline.com/2019/09/25/elizabeth-warren-iowa-volunteer-dies-in-car-crash/>
his
car was struck by a semitruck while he tried to pass another vehicle.
Presberg was 22.

In 2016, Braden Joplin, an Iowa staffer for Ben Carson’s presidential
campaign, died in
<https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/19/politics/ben-carson-van-accident/index.html> a
car accident while trying to navigate slick roads, which left three other
campaign staff injured. Joplin was 25.

[...]
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