David Axelrod: A Life in Politics

David Axelrod discusses his book Believer: My Forty Years in Politics with award-winning journalist Mike Barnicle.

[@theushistorian]

Barnicle never worked as an aide to RFK's campaign. Barnicle initially claimed to be a chief RFK campaign speech writer and stated he was at RFK's assassination. Then Kennedy's actual aides and speechwriters (like Frank Mankiewicz and Adam Walinsky) disputed Barnicle's speechwriter claims. Although Barnicle was the one making this claim, in 1998 he conceded to Boston Magazine the "reports" about him being a speechwriter were incorrect. But he was the one making these claims. He maintained he did "advance work" for the campaign. In a 2018 Daily Beast article Barnicle downgraded his position with the RFK campaign to "volunteer" doing advance work who somehow got an invite to the RFK funeral. Even by Barnicle's most recent iteration of his involvement with the RFK campaign, the Kennedy Library referring to him as an "aide" to RFK is entirely (albeit inadvertently) misleading.

[@JK-eh2jp]

Lighting, audio, and background all need attention for future interviews.

[@LownarYouKnowMe]

Awesome video thanks for posting. Audio is weak though, kind of hard to hear especially at the end during Q&A

[@proudunapologeticliberal2026]

interesting interview !!!!!!!

[@lvmusiccomfort]

Rd burns literature

[@erict.5678]

remember the simpler times .............

[@boganxxx]

The haters love to hate...half way thru the audio book, great listen.

[@TomSanderson100]

Hmm so being a Governor is a lot more difficult than being in Congress he says?

[@easymoney1661]

depending on the state size of state, governing North Dakota will be as challenging as running the train system in New York.