attorney joyce advanced, and ben rhodes, former national security adviser to president obama. welcome, all. kristen, a lot of mixed stories coming out about what did he know, when did he know it, what is he saying, to say nothing of that photoshopped tweet. >> that's right, andrea. and the revelations that you just tabblked about, the fact tt "the new york times" is reporting that president trump was informed about the whistle-blower complaint before he decided to release the funding to ukraine essentially takes away one of the key arguments from republicans, which is that ultimately the aid was released. and so the white house is on defense about all of this. president trump overnight of course out at that welcome home rally in florida, lashing out with some salty language as well, trying to cast the entire impeachment inquiry as a sham. but it really complicates the case that the president and his republican allies are trying to make. and it also comes as they are bracing for those hearings next week that are going to be held by the house judiciary committee on december 4th.

ben rhodes also back with us.famous speech we saw in the previous segment. ben, let's talk about that night in 2007, this night in 2007 at that event in iowa. you put a lot into that being the pivotal moment for barack obama and in the end it paid off. >> look, he was lagging behind in the polls. there wasn't a sense of whether or not you could put this whole thing together, and that's really the starting gun. together with john favro and with then senator obama we sat down. what you need to do is why should i be president, why me not nobody else, and what is this sense of urgency that i bring to this? and can i prove to those people in iowa that i've heard them and that is making be a better candidate? and he laid it all out in 15 minutes and from there on that was lightening in a bottle. >> let's talk about a few things that have happened this week starting with tonight. the departure of beto o'rourke. it was starting to look inevitable. does it benefit anyone in the race? >> i first want to say that beto or ran

joining us now, ben rhodes, deputy national security adviser under president obama and author of "the world as it is: a memoir of the obama white house." mr. rhodes, thank you for joining us tonight. let's get your reaction to this. the idea that gordon sondland's testimony in large part was predicated upon this phone call that apparently took place between him and donald trump, a phone call that feels like it might have been scripted, that it was so good in what it had to say, if you were gordon sondland. what do you make of the fact there's no record of this phone call? >> well, look, first of all, ali, the whole fact picture around this phone call suggests that there was entirely a quid pro quo, that trump was leveraging this assistance to try to get an announcement of these investigations, and then this reporting kind of suggests what also seemed apparent, which they knew they were going to be caught, and so this is someone who knows they're being caught, calling someone and saying, i am 234not committing crime. you know, nobody says no quid pro quo. that's not like something you

and stories in terms of who does whatten with. >> ben rhodes, i saw you nodding there.ome less important, less salient because of this vote? >> i think they will. and i think the important point is the way they use this. which is they don't feel the need to win the overall argument about what happened. so it could be a different process argument every day as long as there is something that they're concerned about, that can feed their machine, that can feed their right-wing media machine. keep the base energized in some fashion. they don't to rebutt to the actual facts. you know, let me go on a limb and say this is not on a level. this is the deep state out to get trump or the never trumers. so josh is exactly right. if you look at their transcripts and the questions they're asking, it's going to kind of reveal a lot about what are the conspiracy theories that they're trying to see here? the whistle-blower, his identity is inconsequential to this anyway. >> it's almost like ben knows a little about being at the other end of it. we know bill taylor's name and vindman, i b

ben rhodes and elise jordan.onathan lemire, let me start with you and what the ap is reporting about a second witness to that call between sondland and donald trump who among other problems with it sounds like it wasn't secure at all. >> reporter: right. yesterday in many ways the breakout piece of news, if you will, was the revelation of this phone call from ambassador taylor. he vealed it yesterday in the hearing saying that one of his aides overheard it. that aid will now be testifying behind closed doors in the next couple of days. the ap has been able to report that a second diplomatic staffer was also present at the time, overheard the call and has verified the same contents. so what this does, it is a significant step here. that much more closely ties the president to this effort to shake down ukraine to threaten to withhold the military aid unless it cooperates with his desire to investigate. that's the word he used, investigate, joe biden and his family under the guise of corruption but really for his po

. >> joining me now is ben rhodes, former deputy national security advisor to president obama. d phil rutger. i'm sensing a political calculation here, guys. ben, nikki haley, loyal ambassador to the united nations. it was very clear that the state department was not all that comfortable with her because she was not, they thought, as well qualified for that post as she should have been, but she was a former well-regarded governor of south carolina. now if she's going to be a candidate in 2024 or in 2020, get added to the ticket in some way, what else is going on for her to be coming out so supportive of president trump when he's at his most embattled? >> first of all,it's interesting what we're not talking about. she was ambassador of the u.n. for a little less than two years. we're not talking about their foreign policy record. we're talking about this kind of reality show. it should be concerning to people that the secretary of state and white house chief of staff seemed to think that the president of the united states was some kind of danger to the country because he was so u

allegedly these people were moderates, our government like samantha power and ben rhodes and all these, if the obama administration said shirley we have to oppose assad come he's wicked. the conclusion i trump from your presentation you just made is the logical, the greatest, the simplest route to peace for the most people in syria is to support the assad government. it has to be. it has to be, because the destabilizing force in this area is as you point out, the isis guys, the free syrian army guys and al-nusra were basically the same thing. who oppose these people the most effective opposition force on the ground in syria is of the syrian government. >> so in other words, let's circle back to david's remarks earlier. do you think, david, what president trump is now doing is sort of restoring the balance of power in syria between extreme sunni elements, extreme she elevates? and this is why we see what's unfolding now in the north in the agreement between the u.s., turkey, russia? >> u.s. policy is to incoherent to be referred to as restoring a balance of power. u.s. policy, plain and

joining us now is ben rhodes. this is not me calling it a conspiracy theory.elf that it's a conspiracy theory. this is what the president's own administration officials call it. fiona hill said it just the other day. in fact, i should play it again just to remind everybody exactly how this is being characterized as ukraine theory. >> some of you on this committee appear to believe that russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country and that perhaps somehow for some reason ukraine did. this is fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the russian security services themselves. >> a fictional narrative that is being pushed by russia, ben. what's going on? >> well,icat katey, what's goin this theory that ukraine was behind the interference in our election is a russian disinformation campaign. let's be clear mike pompeo and donald trump are propagated a russian disinformation campaign for them. it's a sign of kind of how far we've fallen in terms of our politics that you can have something originating in moskow

joining us now is ben rhodes. world as it is a memoir of the obama white house" which he was able to put his name to proudly. thank you for being with us tonight. i appreciate you making time. i know you've been absorbing the excerpts of this book as i've been delivering them here. i want to get your top line reaction. this does feel like a warning from this anonymous trump administration official. >> on the one hand, look, this isn't surprising. anybody who's watched this administration and president for three years is not surprised to hear these things. i do think, though, we have to understand just how serious this is. peoples lives are at stake. people died because of these kinds of incidents that the author writes about. and to be very specific you read the excerpt of the iran sanctions poster, for instance. i remember briefing president obama and groups of people many times having long briefing memos where president obama the next morning had read them the night before and said, well, on page 7 i have questi

ben. also coming up: gary rhodes, the celebrity chef who championed british food, has died at the age of 59llo, everyone, this is afternoon live. the scottish national party has launched its manifesto for next month's general election, saying it is time for scotland to be treated fairly. the party leader, nicola sturgeon, said the country will pay a price for what she called the conservatives‘ obsession with brexit. she said another independence referendum next year would be the main demand for supporting a possible minority labour government alongside calls for increased spending on the nhs. our scotland correspondent, james shaw, reports. for many, this is the brexit election. for nicola sturgeon and the snp, it is also the independence election. because her price for supporting a minority labour government would be the right to hold a second independence referendum. first, there was a warning about what she thinks a conservative government would actually mean. unless borisjohnson is stopped, this willjust be the start. brexit is nowhere near being done. the tories have barely got going.