Staffers at President Joe Biden’s advance office face a toxic work environment.
The advance office, responsible for preparing and coordinating the president’s public appearances, saw its associate director Ian Mellul resign on March 1 following a months-long investigation by the White House Counsel’s Office into complaints of verbal harassment. Mellul told employees who made mistakes that he would “ruin [their lives]” and often called junior staffers “worthless” and “pieces of shit,” several people familiar with the situation alleged during interviews with Politico.
“There’s a right and a wrong way to treat people in any business,” a former advance associate said of Mellul’s alleged verbal abuse. “You’re just not putting your best face forward for anybody if you’re just lashing out at people, barking commands, not treating people with respect, not treating people with dignity.”
Brie Moore, Biden’s former director of press advance, also recently resigned after multiple journalists and correspondents assigned to the White House complained about her repeated failure to accommodate the press and communicate travel plans, sources familiar with the complaints told Politico.
Six current and former Biden staffers blamed the toxic work environment on Ryan Montoya, the director of scheduling and advance and an assistant to the president. “Ryan Montoya is the head of the department who I think everyone would blame for this whole issue. People went to Ryan many times and Ryan would just laugh it off and ignore it,” a former White House official said.
