Mark Penn, the highly-paid “senior strategist” fired from the embattled Presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton over the weekend, told his company Monday that the whole thing is a sham and that he is still a major player in the faltering organization.
Penn, in a conference call with Burson Marsteller managing directors, said the whole thing was nothing more than a name change.
Mark Penn, who resigned over the weekend as the Clinton campaign’s chief strategist, went into full damage control mode on Monday, hosting a conference call with Burson Marsteller’s managing directors to persuade them that the fallout from his resignation was both overblown and would soon pass.
Peppered with questions from colleagues — one mentioned her “pretty panicked client,” another asked bluntly, “Ultimately did you think that it was the best thing for the company [to work for Clinton’s campaign]?” — Penn insisted that “the situation has played itself out.”
But he confirmed that while his title with the campaign had changed — and his work load would undoubtedly decrease — he still would play a direct advisory role for Clinton.
“I think you’ve heard that I made the decision to step down as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign. Penn Schoen and Berland is going to continue to poll for it and I’ll continue to play a role advising Senator Clinton and former President Clinton as well as the rest of the leadership of the campaign,” he said.
Later, he added: “The title, the position of chief strategist tended to be one that drew a tremendous amount of attention. And, number two, yes, I will have more time. We will continue – Penn and Schoen will continue to do the polling and I will be advising, but the net of it will still be that I will have more time than I otherwise would have had so that definitely is going to be the case.”
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