Bizarre: A Democrat Presidential Candidate Ate A Salad With A Comb, Then Demanded A Staffer Clean It
Peter D'Abrosca
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The New York Times dished some bizarre dirt Friday on Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), has has previously been accused of treating staffers degradingly.
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.
Much of the report detailed Klobuchar’s oddities, including forcing her staff to abstain from using the word “absolutely,” her paranoia about “sabotage from her own team,” which often led her her to interfere with other job opportunities on Capitol Hill from veterans of her team, and her willingness to humiliate staffers with odd task requests.
Her behavior was described by former staffers as “not just demanding but often dehumanizing.”
“She was known to throw office objects in frustration, including binders and phones, in the direction of aides, they said. Low-level employees were asked to perform duties they described as demeaning, like washing her dishes or other cleaning — a possible violation of Senate ethics rules, according to veterans of the chamber,” the report said.
Once, Klobuchar snapped at a staffer named Erikka Knuti in an elevator in front of another member of Congress. Later, Knuti said Klobuchar apologized. Knuti had been so demoralized by Klobuchar that she said the apology “made [her] feel valued.”
One day, the Senator was thirsty in the Capitol building.
“I would trade three of you for a bottle of water,” she reportedly said to a team member.
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