A leader of a group pushing for a 2020 presidential run by Beto O’Rourke has quit after circulating a newly discovered video of a shirtless Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., singing “drunkenly” during a trip to the Soviet Union in 1988.
The biography and picture of Travis Justin, who was director of Veterans Outreach, was removed from the Draft Beto website after he tweeted the video, saying: “Recently discovered footage from 1988 reveals a shirtless Bernie Sanders with his wife, Jane, on their honeymoon in the USSR, drunkenly singing ‘This Land Is Your Land’ with a group of presumed Soviets.” The tweet was later deleted but a screenshot was captured.
Justin, a Navy veteran who had been listed as part of the Draft Beto team of leaders, told the Washington Examiner that he “made the decision and informed the group today” that he believed “it is in the best interest of Draft Beto for me to part ways for now.”
“At this time, I determined it best to temporarily separate myself from Draft Beto. I did not want to become a distraction or detriment to the tremendous work being done by the team,” Justin said. “Draft Beto has a strict policy against negativity towards other Democrats and sharing the video was perceived as negative by some.”
He insisted he did not intend to denigrate Sanders by posting the video, and the he wants to “elevate Democrats” and “lift the ideas of Democrats, including Sen. Sanders.” He said: “Draft Beto strongly supports candidates singing, whether it be in a punk rock band, karaoke, or shirtless if they choose.”
Senior adviser to Draft Beto, Boyd Brown, said Justin was not fired and that all of those working for the group were volunteers who could come and go as they pleased.
Justin said that he would consider returning to continue on in efforts to get O’Rourke to run for president “because I truly believe in Beto and know he would enhance an already experienced, talented, and energetic group of Democratic candidates.”
In the video Justin shared Wednesday, a younger version of the now-independent senator from Vermont can be seen singing and drinking shirtless while on a trip to the USSR in 1988.
Sanders wrote about the trip — part of his official duties as mayor of Burlington, Vt. — in his memoir, Outsider In the White House, jokingly referring to it as a “very strange honeymoon.” He had married his wife, Jane, the day before the 12-person delegation from Burlington traveled to its sister city Yaroslavl. The senator wrote: “Burlington had a foreign policy, because, as progressives, we understood that we all live in one world.”
Justin said that he posted the video on his Twitter account, which described him as “Director of Veterans Outreach @RunBeto2020” in his biography, as a private user and it was not part of his role with Draft Beto.
