with us tonight to discuss is ben rhodes, former deputy national security adviser, for president obamaeally glad you are here tonight. this is a very complicated trip. during his campaign, biden promised to make saudi arabia, a pariah. but you say this meeting was inevitable. >> well, i'm not happy about it. i wish this meeting wasn't taking place. and look, i've been in the white house, and what happens is, you are looking at a lot of problems coming at you. and they're thinking, we have a huge problem for inflation, if you can get the saudis and opec to do any more production, maybe that would help. we have a huge challenge for the war in ukraine, and we don't want the saudis and the emiratis, who've been kind of been sitting on that war, to drift in the direction of russia and china. we've got this abraham accords, it's a trump initiative in which the gulf states are trying to get closer to israel. that's a lot with iran, and offsetting iran. so there's all of these short term reasons, to compel president to say, it's easier to just make up with mbs and the saudis, get this over, wi

the right answer is, immediately get the medication. >> ben rhodes, you can mitigate the risks. you can't completely eliminate it. fair to say, two points, that with technology there's nothing that the president pretty much can't do besides meeting people in person to carry out the duties of his office if he is feeling fine and he can work, he can do the work he needs to do without necessarily being in the oval with other people, number one? peter is raising his hand. go ahead. >> reporter: i hate to interrupt you. i want to tell you, we are receiving a statement from the president via twitter. it includes a photograph. our team will put that up as they gather it. just posted as we have been having this conversation. president biden writes, folks, i'm doing great. thanks for your concern. just called senator casey, congressman cartwright for missing our event today. keeping busy. those are the words of president biden. our first message from him since it became public he tested positive. there is a photo. we will have this for you momentarily. a photo of the president working fr

ben rhodes sticks around until the next hour.n the room where trump white house counsel pat cipollone has been testifying all day long, we believe, before the january 6th select committee. it's been seven hours and counting. you can see him here heading into a sidebar meeting that he had with his attorneys earlier. congresswoman zoe lofgren will join us in the next hour, but only if she's done. ll ll join us in the nex and find the answer that was right under their nose. or... his nose. only if she's done while wayfair is installing your new refrigerator and hauling away your old one. you're binging the latest true crime drama. while the new double oven you financed is taking care of dinner and desert. you're remembering how to tie a windsor. and while your washer is getting out those grass stains. you're practicing for the big leagues! for all of life's moments get the brands you trust to get the job done at wayfair. ♪ wayfair you've got just what i need ♪ i grew up an athlete, i rode horses... i really do take care of myself. i

ben rhodes is still with us.ck today and if you agree with this assessment and if the ukrainians agree with this assessment, that they are being terrorized by the russians. >> reporter: hi, nicole, well, it was another devastating attack today, took place at about 11:00 this morning. they hit an office building, which was sort of shops in the bottom and a car park. three russian missiles that killed 23 people. amongst them, three children. 34 people are in serious condition in the hospital. five others in critical condition. and 39 other people are missing. so it's hard not to disagree with those assessments. one of the stories and one of the videos we've seen of that tragedy this morning was a 4-year-old girl walking along with her mother, pushing her stroller. half an hour later, those russian missiles came raining down. the little girl was killed. her mother's leg was blown off, and she's in hospital now, fighting for her life. so, i mean, that really is terrorism, especially considering there was nothing mili

your former colleague, ben rhodes wrote that the president should not be making this trip. >> well, iftill in government i would not have supported the trip to saudi arabia and the meeting with bin salman. holding hostage the children of a former saudi official because is he a petulant individual who is a real narcissist and is trying to exert his influence, not just in terms of political power but suppressing political voices in saudi arabia. therefore i think president biden does not like the idea that he's going to be meeting with him, yes, but presidents are elected to make tough decisions, and clearly president biden made the decision as tough as it might be to him, that he needed to make the trip and continue to try to try in the future, particularly at a time of such global turmoil with the russian invasion of ukraine, the situation in yemen and other issues. this is something very much on president biden's mind. >> john brennan, thank you so much. really appreciate your perspective. >>> and the unrelenting inflation hitting another 40 year high. we'll hear directly from the whi

ali vitale on capitol hill and ben rhodes. shaq, we got a lot of information in that press conference just about 24 hours in. what else did we learn? >> how the suspect escaped. yesterday we knew that there were several locations where you saw high velocity of law enforcement. a block from where the shooting took place. they would be here. we saw armored vehicles. this area was on lockdown. there's a second location at the suspect's home or the person of interest or the person authorities say is responsible for the shooting. at the home of the parents is an act i scene and then 15 minutes from where we're standing and where he was captured and see the video of the police pulling him over, we know that there was a rifle in that vehicle. i know our colleague ben collins reported on the online activity of the suspect and suggested he wanted a shootout at the end so it's an idea of the three different areas we saw police activity yesterday and he used the chaos that he used by the shooting. he walked off amid the crowd when disgui

ben rhodes, deputy national security advisor for president obama.u've been in the government and dealt with the saudis, is this a wise move going there? >> i think it's necessary, andrea. the fist bump is the minimum kind of warmth between an american president and a de facto saudi leader. in the past you've seen these leaders, leaders of our two countries, hold hands literally walk arm in arm, embrace, air kiss. you're not going to see that here because the relationship has fundamentally changed. it's not just about khashoggi, it's also about yemen. it's our concerns about the way the crown presence has treated his political rivals, including the one-time leader of the intelligence service there, mohammed bin salman's cousin and rival. i think the president understands we also have been alignment of strategic interests. when you're president, you've got to deal with people you don't like as well as people you do like. we have an alignment of interests on the iran question. iran is weeks away from obtaining enough material to develop a nuclear weapo

. >> it's such a smart point, ben rhodes and when you look at how many states fake electors were soughtt's a slightly smaller number that actually produced and sent fake electors, but it is something that nara is investigating and it's obviously in the purview of the january 6th committee and we know it's under investigation by the doj, as well. to betsy's point, you need one of 16 to answer the question, do you happen to have that voice mail? can i look at your phone? this seems in some ways the softest open door to push on. >> yeah. i mean, sometimes it's easy to look at this thing that with just a few crazy meetings in the white house, right? this was steve bannon at the willard and rudy giuliani having press conferences and in order to achieve the situation where you have people speaking up as fake electors and that entails conspiracy and that proves coordination and that wasn't just the dreams of donald trump in a crazy meeting with mike flinn or rudy giuliani cooking up legal theories and filing fair lawsuits and this was a nationwide effort focused on the specific states that tru

ben rhodes is back.al security adviser, also an msnbc political contributor. and a.b. stoddard is here. katie, on this question of how difficult it is to prove the criminal acts and intent, the committee's response to that seems to be challenge accepted. >> well, i think the committee's response is challenge accepted indeed, but keep in mind their committee works differently from a trial. nobody has cross examined their witnesses. nobody has produced exculpatory evidence. nobody has produced new evidence and nobody questions the central premise of the committee's mission, which is something federal prosecutors would all face should they enter a court of law including any investigation that could lead to charges against the former president. that's one of the reasons the committee can be pretty confident in their ability to show donald trump has done something wrong but what i think we know that is going on inside of the justice department is they're not only watching hearings closely, but they're talking

. >>> rhode island man has become the youngest ben & jerry's franchise owner in the country sam reed has the scoop on this sweet promotion. >> reporter: as the summer season ramps up in newport -- >> the weather is there, and people are around, we'll be busy so his business will boom. >> we're selling an ice cream cone everyone wants a sweet treat. >> reporter: for more than 12 years, the 26-year-old has had a sweet gig. >> i believe the summer i turned 14, i started working here i got brought into it because my older tsitsipaser was working here as well and then i just kind of continued scooping ice cream every summer from high school and threaten through college. >> reporter: while on a walk with a former franchise owner, he was offered an opportunity to scoop up this street and a second location nearby. >> i was at a franchise meeting last november in nashville and i was sitting in the room with all the other franchise owners it was clear that i was significantly like one of the younger people there. >> reporter: just over halfway to 30 years old. >> i took over april 29th. >> rep

you see when the department of justice starts leaning on people, people like ben and start squealing. people like stewart rhodes start talking. there is a lot that the fbi subpoena and a doj prosecution can do to loosen some violence around here. >> elie, mike, doug, thank you for being here. i really appreciate it. after the break, we are following the breaking news out of uvalde after scathing reports released by texas officials uncovering many systemic failures in the mass shooting there. gun violence is on the rise in some cities, but getting a little attention. i'll speak to nbc's kate snow who was embedded overnight and one of the hardest hit areas. that is next. s embedded overnight and one of the hardest hit areas that is next >> tech: when you have auto glass damage, trust safelite. this dad and daughter were driving when they got a crack in their windshield. [smash] >> dad: it's okay. pull over. >> tech: he wouldn't take his car just anywhere... ♪ pop rock music ♪ >> tech: ...so he brought it to safelite. we replaced the windshield and recalibrated their car's advanced safety system, so features like

. >> a certain ice cream enthusiast in rhode island has new bragging rights, check this out. >> the countries youngest benerry's a franchise owner. it has already been more than a decade in the ice cream business. a former franchise owner was offered an opportunity to scoop up a shop and a second location nearby and now he has two ice cream shops, 40 employees and he sees it as a pretty sweet jig. >> it speaking of sweet gigs, i want to mention rob will be in the dental parade tomorrow morning and will have his twins with him. >> that will be fun. >> be there and be prepared for anything. >> the parade is three hours. >> to have her three hours long. >> should we bring ice cream? >> how a it frees? >> i wish i could afford it. i'm not wealthy. see you at 1 this? this is supersonic wifi from xfinity. it's fast. like, ready-for- major-gig-speeds fast. like riding-a-cheetah fast. isn't that right, girl? whoa! it can connect hundreds of devices at once. [ in unison ] that's powerful. couldn't have said it better myself. and with three times the bandwidth, the gaming never has to end. slaying is our business.

writer ben warheit has been known to tickle the ivories, and he's put together an audition for the movie that i think solves all of their problems so, without further ado, please welcome the pride of rhodeyboard guy himself, mr. bobby jake [ cheers and applause ♪ ♪ it's 10:00 on a thursda ev a cluster of folks scuttle in ♪ ♪ there's a young dude no too far away with a big shaggy beard on his chin ♪ ♪ he says, "bud, can you do me a singing song? i'm not really sure where ams ♪ ♪ but i know that you mus be the keyboard gu cause the keyboard's right under your hands ♪ ♪ east side las she's beensleeping i a big pile ♪ of cash she never gonna date a west-side dude ♪ ♪ it doesn't matter if yo think she's rude she got to 'tude randy newman, labor day ♪ ♪ rubber ducky, gamma ray orange soda, kevin nealo lou dimaggio we didn't cause the ♪ ♪ earthquak we were still awakened whe the earth was shakin we didn't cause the ♪ ♪ earthquake, n we were hooked on phonic they were plate tectonics ♪ ♪ ♪ bottle of bud ♪ [ light laughter ] ♪ bottle of coors we'll drink whatever bee the bar guy pour you join me anytime, i ♪ ♪ pleas at the bar at applebee's ♪ ♪ ♪ [ cheers and applause >> seth: we have fun ben wa