Jennifer Jacobs

jejacobs@dmreg.com

It’s Robert Becker unfiltered.

In a video, Bernie Sanders’ Iowa campaign director says he thinks Hillary Clinton is “in trouble,” mocks fellow candidates, talks about how “undemocratic” the Iowa caucuses are, and speculates about a “let’s get the white guy out” strategy.

The footage was shot on the morning of the Iowa caucuses in 2008, when Becker was Iowa director for Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson.

The 2016 race is a much different affair, but the video, shot by a Democratic supporter, offers an inside look at a tough-talking, blunt speech to campaign troops on game day. Sanders aides say the Vermont U.S. senator has become a big fan of the Iowa caucuses and respects Iowans.

In the video eight years ago, Becker stands on a chair in a campaign office, wearing sunglasses, and talks about how his candidate is an underdog dealing with “political pedigree.”

“Clinton’s in trouble,” Becker says. “She’s got to win this thing. If she wins it, she’s the nominee.”

Becker is again facing off with Clinton, and there is again speculation that if she wins Iowa it would give her the lift she needs to become the Democratic nominee.

In the video, Becker talks about the “wheeling and dealing” that takes place on caucus night, with camps trading supporters to game the delegate system and block rivals from winning.

“Does it make sense? No. Is it fair? No. Is it undemocratic. Absolutely. But that’s the way it works here in Iowa,” he says.

Becker recommends sending extra Richardson voters to insurgent candidate Barack Obama to thwart victories for Clinton and John Edwards. He says if he were a strategist for Obama or Clinton, he’d recommend, “Let’s get the white guy out,” referring to Edwards.

It’s “bare knuckles politics,” he says.

Becker mocks Republican candidate Ron Paul and his TV advertising, and at one point does a brief impression of Joe Biden, imitating Biden’s habit of expressing outrage and saying: “Ladies and gentlemen.”

The video was posted Thursday by Stephen Cassidy, a former mayor of San Leandro, California, who told The Des Moines Register he wanted to highlight “the fog of war in campaigns and unpredictability of the Iowa caucuses.”

“Iowa is critically important to who wins the Democratic nomination,” Cassidy told the Register. “Just as was the case in 2008, if Clinton wins Iowa this year, the race for the Democratic nomination is effectively over. It won't matter what Sanders does in New Hampshire. Clinton will have taken the oxygen out of Sanders' campaign and set herself up well for victories after New Hampshire.”

Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs told the Register Sanders has become a supporter of the Iowa caucuses and admires Iowans' commitment to the process.

“Bernie Sanders believes that the Iowa caucuses are democracy at its finest. He says that in every speech. His admiration of Iowans has only increased as he’s gone through this process," Briggs said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind about Bernie Sanders’ admiration and respect for the people of Iowa and the caucus system and the role Iowans play in the democratic process every four years.”

On Becker, Briggs called him "a very dedicated worker in this campaign, very highly respected."