Bernie Sanders was initially ‘hesitant’ to work with Josh Hawley to push for stimulus checks: book

During the early months of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, it was apparent to most lawmakers that the economy would require some level of intervention from the federal government.

While many politicians, including independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and then-Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California, pushed for $2,000 monthly checks for the duration of the pandemic, lawmakers settled on a single $1,200 stimulus payment early that year, as well as beefed up unemployment insurance for Americans who had lost their livelihoods because of the coronavirus.

In December 2020, when lawmakers sought an agreement for additional aid to Americans, Sanders wanted another $1,200 payment for Americans and was joined in the effort by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri — to the surprise of many people, especially in Washington, DC.

While Sanders had worked with legislators from across the ideological spectrum during his long congressional career, he didn’t know Hawley well and initially had reservations about teaming up with the conservative lawmaker, according to a new book by former deputy campaign manager Ari Rabin-Havt.

In the book, “The Fighting Soul: On the Road with Bernie Sanders,” Rabin-Havt expressed that Sanders had some misgivings about pairing up with Hawley, but ultimately wanted to help Americans in distress.

“We found an unlikely ally in Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley,” Rabin-Havt wrote. “Bernie was hesitant at first. He didn’t know Hawley well and certainly didn’t trust him. And Hawley had ulterior motives, clearly using populist rhetoric and dabbling in populist policy to fuel a future run for president as a more capable version of Donald Trump.”

He continued: “Ultimately Bernie decided it was worth working with Hawley if we thought it could make a difference for Americans, even as he remained wary of empowering Hawley.”

Sanders and Hawley eventually went on with their drive to secure additional $1,200 checks for Americans, with the partnership attracting a lot of attention at the time.

“We pressed ahead, with Hawley and Bernie introducing the legislation and giving floor speeches on the subject. The media could not resist a story about strange bedfellows, so we gave them ample access,” Rabin-Havt wrote.

He added: “The notion of direct aid received the support of both the president-elect [Joe Biden] and Donald Trump’s administration. When Bernie and Hawley began working together, moderates had presented direct payments as a nonstarter. Suddenly, as the relief package made its way through the chamber the week before Christmas, the payments became inevitable.”

While the second payment amount was reduced to $600 for individuals as a compromise — and signed into law by Trump weeks before he left the White House — Sanders and the newly-empowered Democratic Senate majority went on to move through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan which was signed into law by Biden in March 2021.

The legislation included an additional $1,400 stimulus check for Americans — and combined with the $600 checks authorized at the end of 2020 — resulted in a $2,000 payment that Sanders had long advocated for during the pandemic.

Interview with Mehdi Hasan.

Interview on The Majority Report with Sam Seder and Emma Vigland.

Interview with Richard “RJ” Eskow. Eskow has a radio show and he worked on Bernie 2016 campaign.

Something special about seeing your book in the wild pic.twitter.com/puVJY4N2Ge

— Ari Rabin-Havt (@AriRabinHavt) April 30, 2022

https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/the-fighting-soul-on-the-road-with-bernie-sanders-2132188

How did a septuagenarian socialist, who was registered as an Independent, manage to capture the imagination and devotion of the young people of the United States not once but twice as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president? Rabin-Havt, the deputy campaign manager for Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential bid, believes the Vermont senator’s campaign inspired devotion because Sanders stayed true to himself and refused to be influenced by polls, political advisers, or other candidates’ attacks on his policies and positions. Here Rabin-Havt describes, sometimes in humorous detail, the determined, principled persona that Sanders consistently embodied. He provides examples of the campaign’s strategies while showing that Sanders never doubted his own instincts and refused to compromise or hedge positions when staff thought he should. The book also offers insightful details of campaign rallies and 2020 primary debates and documents the drama and excitement of the Sanders campaign’s increasing success. When it became clear Biden would win the Democratic nomination, Rabin-Havt shows that Sanders was ready to campaign for him.

VERDICT A thoughtful and comprehensive account of the Sanders 2020 campaign and an authoritative description of the candidate’s personality. Readers who want to know more about Sanders or are Abouinterested in political campaign narratives will enjoy this book.Reviewed by Jill Ortner, SUNY Buffalo Libs.

Thirty years ago I used to write book reviews for this publication. However, I quit reviewing for it because you were supposed to get a hard copy of the book as a reward for the review, but unfortunately, whomever was the editor of that section did not do its job to follow through with the publishers to send those hardbound copies. But a favorable review makes it worthwhile for public libraries and academic libraries alike to purchase which means the publisher will get its advance money back and then some.

The maverick socialist senator from Vermont flouts the norms of presidential politics in this rollicking campaign memoir. Rabin-Havt (also authored Lies Incorporated), deputy manager of Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, catalogues the ways in which Sanders defied the rules: he disdained polls; eschewed big-money fund-raising; avoided schmoozing with Democratic potentates (though he embraced ideological soulmate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez); remained clueless about celebrity culture; and was “genuinely confused and uncomfortable” about his own late-in-life fame. What Sanders did do, tirelessly, was talk about inequality, injustice, and progressive policies—especially Medicare for All—to audiences large and small, in any and every situation. (Riding in an ambulance to the hospital during a heart attack, Rabin-Havt reports, Sanders questioned the paramedics about their insurance status and views on the healthcare system.) Rabin-Havt’s account of the Democratic primary race is breezy, colorful, and often insightful, but also evasive in blaming Sanders’s defeat on the Democratic Party establishment’s animus toward him without considering whether his left-wing politics were acceptable to most voters. Still, the portrait of Sanders as a crusty but caring man, passionately committed to principles and the interests of working-class people, vividly shows why he is one of America’s most influential politicians.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-63149-879-4