Sanders promotes book out this week

Fourteen months after leaving the West Wing, former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is sharing her story, in print and on the airwaves.

“Speaking for Myself: Faith, Freedom, and the Fight of Our Lives Inside of the Trump White House” is the latest in a long list of releases by former aides and associates of Donald Trump, the 45th president.

It is scheduled for release Tuesday.

Sanders will make more than 75 media appearances to promote the book, according to her publisher, St. Martin’s Press.

The 272-page release was the top seller in Amazon. com’s “Women in Politics” category days ahead of its release.

“Speaking for Myself” hits the shelves the same day as “Disloyal: A Memoir” by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and comes one week before the release of “Rage” by the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward.

“America First: The President Succeeds Against All Odds,” due on Sept. 29, is written by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and David N. Bossie.

So far, more than 1,200 books have been written about Trump over the past four years, an Aug. 31 New York Times article stated, citing analysis by NPD BookScan.

Many others are in the pipeline.

Sanders will promote hers in the coming days, including a live book signing Wednesday with Books-AMillion and virtual appearances Thursday at the Clinton School of Public Service, the California-based Commonwealth Club and the Florida-based Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.

She is also scheduled to appear Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “The View” as well as Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.”

St. Martin’s Press has called “Speaking for Myself” a “frank, revealing, and engaging memoir” that offers a “candid, riveting account of the Trump White House.”

It also includes a chapter titled “Arkansas” that recounts what it was like growing up as the daughter of Mike Huckabee, the state’s lieutenant governor from 1993-1996 and its governor from 1996-2007.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was given an advance copy of the chapter.

In the excerpt, Sanders, who is weighing a run for governor herself in 2022, portrays the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion as a great and somewhat awe-inspiring place to grow up.

Prior to moving in, she’d been living in Texarkana.

In the Little Rock residence, “Everything seemed bigger, grander, and more intimidating than any place I’d ever visited, much less called home,” she wrote.

“The mansion staff took care of everything, from the grounds and meals, to scheduling and organizing hundreds of events each year,” she noted.

Troopers, who provided security, also taught her how to drive a car and win at blackjack, she wrote.

They also helped to keep her safe in 1999 when a tornado devastated portions of the Quapaw Quarter, where the mansion is located.

Trustees, selected from the state correctional system, helped her hone her basketball skills. The mansion’s chefs helped teach her how to cook.

The home is now roughly 30,000 square feet, she noted. Its 8.5-acre grounds are immaculate and include a garden that was designed with help from P. Allen Smith.

The Grand Hall staircase is covered by a runner, with the name of the home’s previous occupants woven into the carpet, she noted.

Sanders, Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and state Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Jim Hendren have all expressed an interest in adding their name to the list; Griffin and Rutledge have already announced that they’re running.

The future press secretary’s political training came from her father, who ran unsuccessfully against Democratic U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers in 1992 before winning a special election for lieutenant governor the following year.

The book portrays some of Sanders’ political apprenticeship, including one incident that could have turned tragic.

Driving near Mountain View during her father’s 2002 reelection campaign, she lost control of the car and veered off a rain-slicked roadway.

“We flipped multiple times and crashed sideways into a tree jutting out the mountainside, crushing the roof of the car and shattering all the windows. It happened so fast. I hung sideways from my seatbelt. … We were stuck against a tree on the side of the cliff,” she wrote.

A passing driver had seen the accident and rescued the vehicle’s occupants.

“We found out later that another car had gone off the cliff at nearly the exact location as we did and all the passengers had been killed,” she wrote. “The tree on the side of the mountain had saved us, but we were also told that if our car had hit that tree six inches in the other direction we would have been killed on impact.”

Sanders would later serve on the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign and as campaign manager for U.S. Sen. John Boozman’s successful 2010 bid.