Michael Briggs
| Michael Briggs | |||
 | |||
| Basic facts | |||
| Organization: | Office of Sen. Bernie Sanders | ||
| Role: | Communications director | ||
| Location: | Washington, D.C. | ||
| Affiliation: | Democratic | ||
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| Connections | |||
| •Bernie Sanders •John Edwards | |||
Michael Briggs is communications director for Sen. Bernie Sanders. He was the communications director for the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. He has served four U.S. Senators since the late 1990s. Prior to his political career, he was a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Career
In the early 1990s, Michael Briggs was a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, working in the Washington, D.C., bureau.[1][2] By the mid-1990s, Briggs had transitioned to being a political spokesman, beginning with Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) and Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.).[3][4]
From 1999 to 2005, Briggs was press secretary for Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and, by 2005, he had become communications director for Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.).[5][6]
In 2007, Briggs became the communications director for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) and served as the senator's communications director until 2015.[7][8]
Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, 2016
In May 2015, Michael Briggs joined the Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign as communications director but also retained his role as communications director for Sanders' U.S. Senate office.[8]
Politico noted that Briggs' retention of both jobs exemplified Sanders' propensity to mix his Senate activity with his campaign activity, commenting that although "Sanders’ staff closely follows the time-honored procedures for government staffers working on campaigns — from making sure their salaries don’t exceed the legal cap, to ensuring they don’t use official property for political purposes — the arrangement illustrates the occasionally blurred lines between Sanders’ presidential campaign and his Senate work."[9]
Voter data breach
In late December 2015, the Sanders campaign received criticism for its handling of a data breach in which staffers gained access to the Clinton campaign's proprietary voter data. Paste Magazine commented that a statement issued by Briggs after the incident "seemed to throw some shade at the Clinton campaign for leaking the story, and also noted that this wasn’t the first time the firewall had failed." The portion of Briggs' statement that the magazine referred to is as follows: "On more than one occasion, the vendor has dropped the firewall between the data of different Democratic campaigns. Our campaign months ago alerted the DNC to the fact that campaign data was being made available to other campaigns. At that time our campaign did not run to the media, relying instead on assurances from the vendor."[10]
Same-sex marriage comments
After the Human Rights Campaign endorsed Hillary Clinton, Briggs expressed disappointment with the organization's choice, telling The Washington Blade during a January 19, 2016, interview, "[I]t’s understandable and consistent with the establishment organizations voting for the establishment candidate, but it’s an endorsement that cannot possibly be based on the facts and the record." Briggs added that he viewed Sanders as "a pioneer on this early version of gay marriage, and has by far the most exemplary record on gay rights of any candidate ever in American history."[11]
Several media outlets questioned the veracity of Briggs' claim that Sanders was a pioneer for the issue of same-sex marriage. The Daily Beast commented that "Sanders finally 'evolved' on marriage four years before Hillary Clinton—the length of an entire presidential term—but it’s hardly the light-years-ahead-of-its-time stance his campaign is touting." Huffington Post noted, "If anybody's been a pioneer on this front, it's not Sanders or Clinton."[12][13]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ C-Span, "Rep. Rostenkowski Legal Status," accessed June 16, 2015
- ↑ Huffington Post, "Trail To The Chief: The 2016 Handlers Behind The Curtain Edition," May 4, 2015
- ↑ Chicago Tribune, "Sen. Simon Closes The Door On 22 Years In Washington," December 16, 1996
- ↑ Washington Post, "Moseley-Braun's Rich Foe May Be Surprisingly Strong," March 19, 1998
- ↑ P2016, "Bernie Sanders," accessed June 16, 2015
- ↑ The Sundial, California State University Northridge, "U.S. House passes Children’s Safety Act legislation," October 26, 2005
- ↑ Politico, "The power players behind Bernie Sanders' campaign," May 26, 2015
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 CNN, "Bernie Sanders distances himself from 'dumb' 1972 essay on rape," May 28, 2015
- ↑ Politico, "Bernie's spokesman holds down two jobs," July 24, 2015
- ↑ Paste Magazine, "How the So-Called Data Breach By the Sanders Campaign Highlights the Divide in the American Left," December 18, 2015
- ↑ Washington Blade, "Sanders campaign blasts Human Rights Campaign over Clinton support," January 19, 2016
- ↑ Huffington Post, "Bernie Sanders Was No 'Pioneer' On Same-Sex Marriage," January 20, 2016
- ↑ The Daily Beast, "Bernie Sanders’s Real Beef With the LGBT 'Establishment'," January 22, 2016
