Ari Rabin Havt, former campaign manager and aid to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the progressive leader in his new book “The Fighting Soul: On the Road with Bernie Sanders.”
Havt’s new book profiles Sanders’ life on the road during the 2020 presidential election cycle, when Havt served as Sanders’ campaign manager. The book also goes into Sanders’ highly guarded private life.
“Very few people have profiled him in a real way,” Havt said while appearing on Hill.TV’s “Rising.” “Very few people know who he is what he’s about and I feel like I had a unique view on history I had this real privilege of being at his side for three years traveling to 35 states being with on picket lines, and in restaurants, and in cars and on planes.”
“I wanted to give people that picture because he is such a significant figure in history,” Havt added.
Havt said despite rising to fame late in his life and career, Sanders is as authentic on camera as he is behind it.
“He’s him no matter what. That’s the trick of Bernie is Bernie is Bernie regardless of whether there’s a camera, whether there’s not. But I think he really did absorb what this meant. I think in a lot of ways it was shocking to him, right?” Havt said.
“In his 70s going from being a senator, but relatively unknown outside a small circle on the left, to being one of the most famous people in the word, one of the most powerful people in Washington,” he added.
Havt said despite not winning a presidential election, Sanders has had as much significance on U.S. politics as other prominent politicians including former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan and President Theodore Roosevelt, who lost his second bid for the presidency in 1912.
“Bernie Sanders is one of the most significant historic figures of the 21st century. He is probably one of the most significant figures who has not won the presidency. You know you think about William Jennings Bryan, you think about Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, and then I think Bernie kind of is in the category of having shifted the Democratic party.”
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