Senator Bernie Sanders apologized Thursday to women who have come forward to say they were sexually harassed or discriminated against by male staffers while working on his 2016 campaign. The accusations surfaced after more than two dozen staffers penned a letter to Sanders requesting a meeting to discuss “sexual violence and harassment on the 2016 campaign” in the run-up to the 2020 election. Several of Sanders’s top aides have been implicated. This is Senator Sanders speaking Thursday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: “It appears that as part of our campaign there were some women who were harassed or mistreated. And I thank them, from the bottom of my heart, for speaking out. What they experienced was absolutely unacceptable and certainly not what a progressive campaign or any campaign should be about.”

In other news on Sanders’s possible run for president, his 2016 campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, has said he will not return to the same position if Sanders decides to run again. But Weaver is expected to stay on a senior adviser.