Marianne Williamson entered the 2024 race hoping to be its Bernie Sanders. But it looks like she’s the new Amy Klobuchar.
The spiritual leader and author entered the Democratic primary to challenge Joe Biden earlier this month. Now Politico has spoken to “twelve people who worked for Williamson during her 2020 presidential campaign” who “paint a picture of a boss who can be verbally and emotionally abusive.” Congratulations to Politico for finding a dozen people who worked for Marianne — and revealing that her last run was not so namaste…
Politico reports, “Williamson would throw her phone at staffers… Her outbursts could be so loud that two former aides recounted at least four occasions when hotel staff knocked on her door to check on the situation. In one instance, Williamson got so angry about the logistics of a campaign trip to South Carolina that she felt was poorly planned that she pounded a car door until her hand started to swell… Ultimately, she had to go to an urgent care facility.”
The painfully progressive outlet also included the following delicious line: “Former staffers interviewed noted that tough boss criticisms tend to unfairly be lobbed at female leaders. But they also stressed that Williamson’s behavior was beyond the boundaries of acceptable regardless of her gender.” That aside is super helpful if, like Cockburn and General Mark Milley, you want to understand white rage, regardless of gender.
Williamson’s 2019 debate performance in Miami garnered her a significant internet fandom, due to her spaced-out hippie approach, which stood in stark contrast to the likes of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, with whom she shared the stage. Right after, she spoke to Cockburn’s comrade Matt McDonald and decried the “aggressive energy” of the debate. “I have talked to millions of people about how principles of righteousness, principles of love, principles of compassion, actually repairs your life,” she told him. Cockburn is guessing those millions don’t include her staffers.
Cockburn actually saw Marianne in Milford, New Hampshire, earlier this week, and saw signs of her temper. At the town hall, the first constituent asked her about whether government intervention to help transition to green energy could harm the working class — which got her hackles up. “Yeah, I get what your spiel is… the stuff you were talking about were not high-minded conservative principles, they were MAGA extreme right,” she said.
Williamson is currently the only challenger to Joe Biden — and, Speccie columnist Grace Curley argued a few weeks back, could find herself a lane if she’s able to come across as more compassionate than the president. But if she keeps channeling her inner Katie Porter, Cockburn doesn’t fancy her odds.
