A senior adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign accused the nonprofit news organization VTDigger.org on Thursday of “helping to uphold” systemic racism.
The adviser, former Sanders campaign manager and Senate chief of staff Jeff Weaver, made the charge as VTDigger reported on the past criminal conviction of another Sanders aide, Chuck Rocha, who is Latino.
“Sadly, like too many others in our society, the Vermont Digger wants to brand people like Chuck Rocha for life — an attitude that disproportionately impacts black and brown people and poor people,” Weaver told the online news outlet in a written statement. “This is just another way systemic racism works. It’s disappointing that VTDigger is helping to uphold it.”
In an interview Friday with Seven Days, VTDigger founder and editor Anne Galloway rejected the claim and called Weaver’s words “a bullying tactic.”
“These are the kind of tactics you’d expect from the Trump administration,” she said.
The story in question, written by reporter Kit Norton, focused on Rocha’s recent work negotiating a first-of-its-kind union contract for Sanders campaign staffers. It noted that Rocha had been convicted in 2013 of embezzling funds from the United Steelworkers union, for which he had previously served as political director.
As Politico reported in February 2016, Rocha pleaded guilty to one felony count of embezzlement and accepted responsibility for 17 other counts after he was caught diverting funds and falsifying records. Rocha used the money for Stanley Cup Final tickets, golf trips to Florida and South Carolina, and travel to London. As part of his plea deal, according to Politico, he was barred from serving as an officer of a labor union until 2026.
The Sanders campaign did not make Rocha available for comment.
In an interview with Seven Days, Weaver said his statement had been “a very measured response” and not “an indictment of VTDigger as an institution.”
Asked whether he believed news outlets should never report on the criminal backgrounds of senior presidential campaign aides, Weaver said, “I didn’t say they didn’t have the right to write it. I didn’t say they shouldn’t write it. I just made the observation that when you engage in this kind of call-out reporting on a story that’s been previously reported … all it does is reinforce an unfair system.”
Weaver said that while he had not spoken to Sanders himself about the matter, he had been speaking for the campaign when he made the remarks to VTDigger. “I will tell you that [Sanders] is a big believer in people having second chances … And that’s why, on our campaign, we have given many people second chances and will continue to do so.”
According to Galloway, Rocha’s ethnicity did not factor — and should not have factored — into VTDigger’s decision to cover his past wrongdoing. She said it was newly relevant because he’d been negotiating a union contract. “We weren’t thinking about his race,” she said. “We were thinking about the conviction and what that meant in this context.”
Galloway said her organization had been called plenty of things over the years — including “the National Enquirer,” by former governor Peter Shumlin — but that this was “definitely a new line of attack.”
“It’s not like we’re a bunch of babies here,” she said. “We have pretty thick skin.” But, she said, Weaver’s allegation was the latest in a “pattern” of negative behavior from the campaign.
“Weaver has been belittling and nasty to us on the phone, so this isn’t the first time,” Galloway said.
Weaver declined to directly address Galloway’s counter-charges. He did go out of his way to note that he’s “not a regular reader of VTDigger.”
“I’m trying to remember the last time I talked to Anne Galloway,” he said. “Maybe never.”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Weaver, nothing upholds systemic racism like that parade mural in Burlington that Bernie refuses to withdraw from. By his inclusion he sends a white supremacist message.
Weaver, Bernie, and Senate staff in Burlington Office see no racism in the parade mural of exclusively white notables that Bernie is part of. The lack of recognition of notable non-white people is not the worst part — the portrayal of a generic Native Ametican as small and subservient to the larger than life white colonizer is despicably racist as well as inaccurate Vermont history.
Weaver, nothing upholds systemic racism like that parade mural in Burlington that Bernie refuses to withdraw from. By his inclusion he sends a white supremacist message.
Weaver, Bernie, and Senate staff in Burlington Office see no racism in the parade mural of exclusively white notables that Bernie is part of. The lack of recognition of notable non-white people is not the worst part — the portrayal of a generic Native Ametican as small and subservient to the larger than life white colonizer is despicably racist as well as inaccurate Vermont history.
Jeff Weaver: hey everyone, look over there! Our campaign doesnt have a race problem…. its… um, its …. its VT Digger that has a race problem!
Also Jeff: Game set match
Here’s my “measured response”.
Because of this story, I no longer support Bernie’s Presidential bid.
As he employs people like Weaver, he’s clearly not up to running the administration for the entire country.
Also; Mr Warren; it’s V.T. Digger. Not The Vermont Digger. It’s a major serious media outlet in the Senator’s home state. Your incompetence is showing.
VTDigger often fails to balance its stories with opposing views, but one thing Digger isn’t is racist.
Sanders’ Achilles heel is black people, whom he has failed to win over so far.
If Bernie fails to get the nomination, it’ll be blacks that will have supported someone else. He had the same problem in 2016.
So Weaver, whose job is to get Bernie into the White House, has to try to win over the minority vote.
Weaver, in attacking VTDigger for being racist, is trying to build up the way Bernie is perceived by blacks.
It won’t work.
If minorities see any racism, it’s on Bernie – not VTDigger.
Vt Chigger gets its marching orders from their sponsor. Gassaway just had ti make a jab at President Trump. There really is TDS in VT. Can barely wait for the indictments to be unsealed. Think that the majority of Democrats in Congress will get arrested, some GOP too. The swamp is huge.
What? Good Lord, those two comparative headlines are not anything like evidence of *institutional racism* by Digger. Was Digger not supposed to report that one of the candidates for Mayor had a past criminal record? I*m sure if that candidate had been white and Digger had NOT reported the criminal record, the same people would be shouting *unfair* and *coverup.* And was Digger supposed to fabricate a criminal record for Mayor Weinberger so they could write about it? And by the way, you picked one bland Digger headline about Weinberger. There have been plenty of critical ones. So the comparison isn*t even fair. Facts: one candidate had a criminal record and the other did not, regardless of color. Reporting on that is factual, NOT racist. It is *reporting.* Period.
The Far Left hates factual reporting just as much as the the Far Right does.
An apparent example of institutional racism from Digger:
Headline re: Infinite Culcleasure, candidate in the last Burlington mayoral race: “Burlington Mayoral Candidate Culcleasure Convicted in 1990s for Cocaine Charges”
vs.
Headline re: incumbent Weinberger: “Bond ratings and water pipes: Into the weeds with Miro Weinberger”
A headline about a black man campaigning for mayor…about a cocaine charge. A headline about a white politician…and his pet concerns about the city. Both reports by the same reporter (Cory Dawson) and — I assume? — given the green light by Galloway. My basic point is — there is at least some evidence to the effect that Digger has shown a racial bias, so the current accusation is not completely without precedent.
Both sides are somewhat right here. Theres no reason VTDigger shouldnt cover this story, but VTDigger is still garbage journalism. Its a shame enough people donate to keep them afloat, but tabloid trash draws eyeballs everywhere, including Vermont.
This isn’t surprising. Bernie hates coverage that isn’t kissing his ass and often responds to it by attacking the press. The word choice is less inflammatory than that of President Trump, but the basic concepts are the same.