We’ve posted before here at Boing Boing about the many legendary reports of abusive behavior by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar.
Well, now there are more such reports.
One of the anecdotes in a new story by Matt Flegenheimer and Sydney Ember at the New York Times is pretty shocking.
Let’s just call it the plastic hair comb and airplane salad incident.
It begins with the United States presidential candidate being tired and hangry in an airport.
An aide, joining her on a trip to South Carolina in 2008, had procured a salad for his boss while hauling their bags through an airport terminal. But once onboard, he delivered the grim news: He had fumbled the plastic eating utensils before reaching the gate, and the crew did not have any forks on such a short flight.
What happened next was typical: Ms. Klobuchar berated her aide instantly for the slip-up. What happened after that was not: She pulled a comb from her bag and began eating the salad with it, according to four people familiar with the episode.
Then she handed the comb to her staff member with a directive: Clean it.
The moment — an abridged version of which Ms. Klobuchar recounted herself in a speech to fellow Democrats at the time — encapsulates the underside of life on the Minnesota senator’s team, detailed in interviews with more than two dozen former staff members and internal emails reviewed by The New York Times. As Ms. Klobuchar joins the 2020 presidential race, many of these former aides say she was not just demanding but often dehumanizing — not merely a tough boss in a capital full of them but the steward of a work environment colored by volatility, highhandedness and distrust.
— Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) February 22, 2019
Oh boy.
But read it to the end, it gets worse. The parental leave thing has been reversed since the article was published, says Klobuchar’s team.
How Amy Klobuchar Treats Her Staff [NYT]
PREVIOUSLY: Amy Klobuchar legendarily abusive to staff
I know we're all focusing on the comb/salad anecdote, but this in the NYT story on how Amy Klobuchar handled parental leave for her staff… https://t.co/eM88W5hND2 pic.twitter.com/VgtSeDWPWE
— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) February 22, 2019
Not saying it was appropriate conduct, but the @amyklobuchar fork story has now received more coverage in less than a day than Donald Trump's mob ties received during the entire 2016 campaign.
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) February 22, 2019
The real trick, fwiw, is eating soup with a brush.
— Matt Berman (@Mr_Berman) February 22, 2019
I need a firmer description of the comb.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) February 22, 2019
the comb incident appeals to all of you people who are total cops on airplanes
— Tim Dickinson (@7im) February 22, 2019