News / Politics

Sanders at Dem debate apologizes to Clinton for DNC data breach

Sunday, 20 December 2015 2:25 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 20 December 2015 2:26 AM ]

US Democratic president candidates (L to R) Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton debate at Saint Anselm College on December 19, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (AFP photo)

US presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders has apologized to Hillary Clinton and his supporters for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) data breach, but censured the DNC for banning his campaign from the Democratic Party's voter file.

During the Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire on Saturday night, Sanders said, "I want to apologize to my supporters. This is not the type of campaign that I run."

He called for an "independent, internal investigation" into the incident in which his staffers allegedly exploited a brief breakdown of the firewall in the system to access information from the Clinton campaign.

Clinton accepted the apology, "I very much appreciate that comment. It is important that we go forward on this."

"Now that I think we've resolved your data and agreed on an independent inquiry, we can move on because I don't think the American people are all that interested in this," the frontrunner Democratic contender added.

On Friday, the Clinton campaign alleged that Sanders’ campaign may have broken the law by inappropriately accessing a DNC-controlled voter file and viewed proprietary information collected by Clinton.

“This is totally unacceptable and may have been in violation of the law,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said.

The Sanders campaign said it had notified the DNC of a glitch which allowed campaigns to access rival candidates’ voter data two months ago, adding that they fired the staffer responsible for the breach.

On Friday, Sanders raised more than $1 million amid his campaign’s dust-up with the DNC, a person familiar with the campaign’s finances told the Washington Post.

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