ben rhodes was one of the few people on the inside working the negotiations from the american side.nt obama of course signed that agreement in july 2015, a historic achievement taking a nuclear iran off the table for the foreseeable future. since president trump took the united states out of that deal unilaterally, since he decided to undo that work as fast as he could, ben rhodes has spoken out, saying the president has created a destabilizing situation for the middle east and the world. with today's news about iran shooting down a drone, a u.s. drone near the strait of hormuz, with the president now openly flirting with a potential war with iran, honestly, ben rhodes is the brain i want to hear from on this. ben rhodes, thanks for being here. >> thanks, rachel. >> what is your top level take on how serious the situation is with iran right now today after these reports about this drone shootdown? >> unfortunately, i think it's incredibly serious. and rachel, like you said, this was very predictable. when trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement, since then, all he's done is stack

ben rhodes, talk to me about where things like this go? i'll have barry mccaffrey on in a few minutes to talk about militarily about how this goes. this is people that michael crowley said are eager to go with war in iran, and people in iran eager to go to war with america. both countries have these factions. for whom does this war, such a war make sense? >> nobody. this -- assuming this escalates which i unfortunately think a conflict between the u.s. and iran would escalate, whether it happens gradually or very quickly is a question. i think everybody would end up losing in the end. however, what you have is hard liners inside of the iranian system, and hard liners inside the u.s. system, both of whom have gotten control of the policies of those two governments. we're in a situation right now where there's an escalation cycle started by the united states when trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement. >> because iran was certified to be in compliance with that agreement. at no point was iran in compliance with that. >> the international

so ben rhodes is correct. president obama did not beg to meet. fact if -- we should give president trump credit for meeting with kim jong-un. and if he has a good working relationship with kim jong-un, i think that is to his credit. now, i don't necessarily think it would have been an honor to meet him, but i do think we should give president trump for meeting him and if he can set a good working relationship with kim jong-un, i think that is actually good. because north korea is a country where only the dear leader can set a new course for that country. >> the question becomes what happens below that level. >> exactly. we have a lot going on. i think you make excellent points with pointing out nobody mentioned denuclearization. they're handing it over, what happens between the summits. balbina hwang, thank you. >> it is interesting to see what happens between the leaders. sending beautiful letters and falling in love, yeah, been a rocky road, we're going to show you more of the evolution. discover card. hi, do you have a travel card? we do! the

is right about this, iran is behind it, but ben rhodes has his own problems with the truth.s congressman dan cent shaw responded that ben rhodes commentary saying do or don't you believe the intel common the and you're weighing in on iran the sold the public the falsehood of moderating iranian regime using your media echo chamber your words and ignoring the true danger iran presents in the region. i'm grateful for him, cent shaw wastes no time. he hits twitter or he hits media or you had him here on the couch and he said a lot of people are thinking you hold people accountable for their hipocracy. ed: but it's fact-based too because he talks about a new york times magazine piece that ben rhodes admitted that he basically mislead the media and took advantage of these young reporters who didn't know all of the facts to spin a tail that the iranians were more moderate and it was a good time for barack obama to seal that nuclear deal, which turned out to be a whole bunch of bunk. pete: he basically called he did call these reporters clueless, 27-year-old kids in washington d.c.

we'll have former departmenty national security advise yore ben rhodes in the group up next. and i'll bring in democratic presidential candidate congressman tim ryan to get his take on iran and we'll do our little debate prep with mr. ryan. can he have a breakout moment in miami next week? that is coming up on "saturday night politics." ♪ limu emu & doug look limu. a civilian buying a new car. let's go. limu's right. liberty mutual can save you money by customizing your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. oh... yeah, i've been a customer for years. huh... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ play it cool and escape heartburn fast with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. ♪ tum tum tum tums with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. let's get down to business. the business of getting it done. the business of road trips. the business of getting everyone back together. the business of hustle... ...and hard work... ...and whatever this is. modernized comfort inns & suites have been refreshed because whatever business you're in, ou

>> coming up next, former cia director john brennan and former deputy national security advisor ben rhodes. >>> sorry, not sorry. joe biden calls cory booker to ease tensions or try to after biden's comments about working with segregationist senators in the past. he offers no apologies. did the former vice president make matters worse? >> joe biden should explain to people, because it's not about me. i don't feel like i want an apology to me. i think that this is something he should speak to the public about. and i think he has an opportunity here. >>> coming up, new york city mayor and presidential candidate bill de blasio, a harsh critic of biden's comments. >>> big little lies, one of donald trump's closest confidants, former white house communications director hope hicks, said she told white lies on behalf of the president, but was blocked by white house lawyers by answering 155 questions before congress. >> i was watching obstruction of justice in action. she would not answer a single question related tod her tenure at the white house. >>> and good day, everyone. president trump is ab

attorney joyce vance with us on set, john heilemann nbc and msnbc national affairs analyst, ben rhodes, former deputy national security adviser for president obama, and politics editor for "the daily beast" sam stein, ben rhodes. i don't know what to say anymore. that's why we show the tape and reporting. it all speaks for itself. up is down, down is up, good is bad, bad is good and it's never russia's fault. even when his own government is trying to protect u.s. from russia. >> first of all u. it's not uncommon want to at least have the capability to have a cyber offensive option. let me tell you, russia certainly does, right? and the fact donald trump is an impediment to his own government doing what's in the interest ut united states,ky tell you vladimir putin assures no such reservation about attacking our democracy and probing our power grid. you have somebody once again in donald trump putting his own interest ahead of the country's. really nicolle, this is part of a pattern. you have seen him also not just in dog whistles but invite russia back into our 2020 election on his beha

it is actually hurting americans right now, this policy toward iran. >> ben rhodes, good to have you. you. coming up beto o'rourke making the case to african-american voters in the south. and with new features and richer stories... ...it can show dad where he's from... and strengthen the bonds you share. it's only $59 at ancestry.com. give it to dad for father's day. i was told to begin my aspirin regimen, blem. and i just didn't listen. until i almost lost my life. my doctors again ordered me to take aspirin, and i do. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. listen to the doctor. take it seriously. play it cool and escape heartburn fast with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. ♪ tum tum tum tums keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for hiv in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights hiv with three different medicines to help you get to undetectable. that means the amount of virus is so low it can't be measured in lab tests. serious side effects ca

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i don't know if it goes to ben rhodes or susan rice or higher.ith those three individuals involved, the orders came from the very top to spy on a presidential candidate because they didn't like his politics. david: we learned they were always trading information with the people at the top, the people from the fbi were, the people from the cia and national intelligence agency. so they were sharing information. why should they not share information about what they thought was a plot or what they were using to try to prevent donald trump from entering the white house. >> my sources tell me clearly there is an email chain out there. the singular most of members of our -- the senior-most of members of the obama administration were in on it. i believe barack obama was completely read in on what was taking place and the fisa applications asked for by the courts in has been no questioning of him. if there were failures in 2016 to stop the russians, that falls under barack obama and his intelligence community, not donald trump who is a candidate for offic

it's garbage, it's being spun by the people in the ben rhodes echo chamber, spun by obama era holdovers -- john bolton is a patriot and he will never, ever give a device that he doesn't think is sound to the president but the president makes the decision. he built his campaign on two things. build the wall, reform immigration, and to stop the stupid wars. the idea that suddenly he is going to be suckered into something that his whole campaign was the antithesis of is just ridiculous. >> sean: the problem is, i supported president bush. for those that would like to know, i had a lot of loud debates and arguments with private citizen donald trump over it. i felt it was necessary post 9/11 but i never thought washington would do it again. that's politicize the war. i don't have any faith or hope in any of these people, to be frank, so i think the only deterrent we now have is the next generation of weaponry, last word. >> you can't let iran get a new, you don't need the 82nd airborne to stop that. there is no debate, at the white house is serious about it. obama had a slow roll path, this

. >> former obama adviser ben rhodes hitting back on twitter, saying "trump is lying."administration. what's your reaction to this back-and-forth? >> well, president trump is flat out wrong. president obama, when he was a candidate, in a debate against hillary clinton, said he was willing to meet with kim jong-un, if needed to be. but obviously, he did not beg, he did not offer that at all. in fact, it's north koreans -- the north koreans have always consistently asked for a meeting, but u.s. president -- we did not. president clinton did not. he almost did. president george w. bush did not. and president obama did not. and there's a reason for that, because you are giving legitimacy to the north korean leader without getting what we needed, which is denuclearization. so, that's flat out untrue. i'll just say one more thing about this timeline, the sanctions relief, and president trump saying he's not in a rush? that just plays into north korea's hand. north korea has all the incentive in the world to play this out and drag this out. and eventually, get what it wants, w

can you back up ben rhodes with what he's saying? >> absolutely. this is not true what president trump said. and the fact that president trump routinely lies about things minor and things major should not make us immune to the fact that when he does it, it's a problem. president trump clearly likes the idea that he's the first to do things or that he can do things president obama never did. it's not based in fact. you heard kim jong-un say you would be the first president to step on our soil. he knew that would appeal to president trump and his ego, despite the fact it doesn't solve the problem. i think to what the ambassador said, a key point we should look at is the fact that it is probably time to work on some sort of interim dwreemt with north korea. if we go all or nothing on denuclearization, that's very unlikely to happen. and so i hope that this time under president trump who is working on the details looks at the fact that if we can get some sort of first step agreement to halt parts of the program, to get a full inventory, to build some c

former obama deputy national adviser ben rhodes wrote that trump is lying.sought a meeting with kim jong-un. foreign policy isn't reality television, it's reality. so chris, is there any evidence that trump is telling the truth? >> there is no evidence not surprisingly that he's telling a lie here as my former colleague ben rhodes said. let's be clear what he's trying to do. he's trying to suggest that when he took over tensions were very high. they were high. but he ramped them up. i mean, he after all was the person that called kim rocket man. so what's happened over the past 2 1/2 years is basically to kind of get us back to where we were. when donald trump took office. so yet again this is another self-inflicted crisis that he comes in at the last minute and purports to solve. here's the thing. diplomacy by photo opportunity is not the same as real diplomacy. during the obama administration you saw the hard work that went in to improving relations not only with cuba, but with iran. and then you have seen this current administration try to undo both of th

obama's deputy national security advisor, ben rhodes, tweeted this.e seven feels like the kind of incident where you'd want to international investigation to establish what happened. a huge risk of escalation." that drew a sharp rebuke from republican congressman and former navy seal dan crenshaw who tweeted this -- "so, what do or don't believe the intel community, and you are not really a trusted source to weigh in on iran. you sold the public a falsehood of the moderating iranian regime, using your media echo chamber, your words, in ignoring the true danger iran presents in the region." we go back and forth on twitter and they go back and forth with those ships out there, those oil ships. where are we on iran? >> richard: this is evidently a very, very interesting situation. don't get me wrong, people have problems with the deal. but when we pull out of the deal leaving nothing -- >> harris: see blame the tankers being hit on us coming out of the deal? >> richard: no, the escalation, possibly enriching more uranium. this idea that they are enrichin

what he heard from ben rhodes. >> again, it's an effort to re-write the history, making it sound as thoughdent obama was willing to take the peninsula to war. that was not the case. if anything, the obama administration practiced strategic patience. and president bomb was nowhere near taking the peninsula to war. when president trump was elected, and through no fault of his own, there was ramped up testing. the first 11 months of trump's administration, they did 20, plus a hydrogen bomb test and trump responded by escalating. talking about fire and fury. and sending strategic assets to the region. and i think people thought in 2017, we were on the brink of war. and many in the government felt we were headed in that situation. so, you know, again, this is the president positioning himself. trying to take the only positive dip loe ma diplomacy, he has been doing anywhere in the world, and take credit for it. the visit we have seen up to the outlook point is different in character and different in optics than we have seen for past presidents. but, he is not nearly as successful as diplomacy a

and netanyahu and trump shouldn't listen to the b team and if you look at the twitter feed of ben rhodes, the former deputy national security visor for strategic communications of president obama, he is saying exactly the same thing, literally the same thing. lee: is it possible that they might, the iranians might forget that propaganda started with them? that strikes me as actually a potentially dangerous thing. michael: how do you mean? lee: that they come to believe this. we see this happen all the time. people believe their own information operations, if you're talking about this is certainly what happened in large parts of the obama administration, if they're putting this out and they're saying, stop it, we don't want war, there will be war, they're moving towards war. so what extent does that go through the regime and people actually come to believe this? michael: no, i think they know exactly what they're doing which is that they are trying to influence the balance of power within the administration and isolate those elements in the administration they want to get bolton fired for

>> well, you know, you can't ever really trust what ben rhode s says, you have to remember he was literallythe air quotes national security expert in the obama administration, he's probably the architect behind many of the internationals farrakhans that came out of there. i was with obama on a trip to south korea, i coordinated the logistics there. i don't recall any effort at that time to meet with the north koreans. that's not to say it didn't happen obviously i was with the secret service not the white house staff but trusting ben rho des, is like you put a quarter in the back of him and they will tell you a story i wouldn't take ben rhodes word for just about anything. jedediah: dan i'm skeptical when it comes to north korea, not only that they will go through with denuclearization but their internal verification mechanisms there's so many questions and concerns i have. with that being said if president obama had been able to achieve a meeting like this, he would be getting praised throughout the press for this . this is a historic moment a think out of the box decision by your presiden

ben rhodes, to you first, a couple pieces in "the new york times" this morning about this incident, thesee challenges are diplomatic and economic as well as military. in another piece, pointing out there's a deeper distrust of an american administration that has pulled out of the iran nuclear deal, spurning its european allies and sowing suspicion that the united states is spoiling for a fight with iran. that's where i want to go with you. it's been a year plus since the u.s. left that deal. what's your sense of how your peen al highs are looking at things like the video that the pentagon presented yesterday? >> they think they're living in a crisis of america's making, not iran's. a year ago trump pull us out of the deal, having said that iran wasn't complying when the international agency responsible said that iran was. so again here we are on the precipice of a potential war and why are they going to trust president trump? ever since he pulled out of that deal, they've stacked on provocations emanating from us towards iran, so stacking up sanctions, designating the iranian revolutionar

. >> ben rhodes, thank you very much. good to have you back on the show., president trump has been focusing his recent remarks on joe biden but senator elizabeth warren made her name attacking wall street but can her economic plans set her apart in a crowded democratic field? we have more reporting on that next on "morning joe." ♪ hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. ♪ mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! there are roadside attractions. and then there's our world-famous on-road attraction. the 2019 glc. lease the glc 300 suv for just $459 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. . >>> a national poll shows a tightening race for second place, joe biden down 3 points while senator bernie sanders falls to 13%, just four points ahead of elizabeth warren. south carolina voters shows joe biden falling 9 points to 27%

they named three other officials the daily beast think one of them is ben rhodes.> thanks for calling this out, brian. it's completely unacceptable. brian: you gout it. i hear you. straight ahead. hillary clinton accused of sharinclassified email on priva. that was a single sentence tweet. what is she thinking about? where are those glasses? ♪ i don't know what's going on. i've done all sorts of research, read earnings reports, looked at chart patterns. i've even built my own historic trading model. and you're still not sure if you want to make the trade? exactly. sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. is there a cure? td ameritrade's trade desk. they can help gut check your strategies and answer all your toughest questions. sounds perfect. see, your stress level was here and i got you down to here, i've done my job. call for a strategy gut check with td ameritrade. ♪ copdso, to breathe better,the. i started with anoro. ♪ go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way" with anoro. ♪ go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medi

rthbound 295 before benning, left side blocked by an accident there. and south dakota near rhoded road,hut down for a fatal house fire. >> thank you. >>> we're following two breaking .news stories this morni we want to begin in the district. >> melissa alluded to it. a woman died after she was rescued from a burning home in s northeast wngton. news4's aimee cho is at the scene for us at lawrence and 22nd streets with new information. amy r -- aimee, good morning. regime an elderly woman and her son lived in the house that caught on fire. according to neighbors, the son was able to escape and tellt firssponders that his mom was still trapped inside on the second floor. ficials confirmed aman died in the fire, but they've not yet released her name. i want to show pictures from earlier. we are talng about a massive fire here. the entire house up in flames. every floor of the house including the attic.al fire offici say they searched the whole house and confirmed no one else is trapped inside. firefighters just told me moments ago itth appears house did not have working smoke detecto