Latest news with #BenRhodes
Fox News
11-08-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Obama official says Democratic Party 'afraid of its own future,' wants it to embrace Mamdani strategy
Ben Rhodes, a key former Obama administration official, believes the Democratic Party is "afraid of its own future" and needs to embrace the strategy of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who identifies as a Democratic socialist. Rhodes, who was deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, is perhaps best known for his advocacy of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. He has since emerged as a prominent figure in liberal media as a contributor to MSNBC and co-host of the "Pod Save The World" podcast. His latest work is a New York Times guest essay headlined "How Short-Term Thinking is Destroying America," which suggested Democrats are reluctant to "stand behind controversial positions or abandon language that polls well but sounds hopelessly inauthentic" because they don't want to alienate donors. "Even when presented with Zohran Mamdani's campaign in New York — an innovative example of fresh political tactics and policies — many party leaders recoiled. The party seems — quite literally — afraid of its own future," Rhodes wrote. "It is past time for Democrats to do what Mr. Mamdani did in his campaign: get out in communities. Don't live in fear of bad-faith attacks. Mine cities and state legislatures for new ideas. Enlist civil society, faith groups, beleaguered universities and industry in envisioning an alternative future," Rhodes continued. "Abandon campaign financing that makes you beholden to donors who make you hypocrites. Make a concerted effort to facilitate generational change, so that the faces of the party are younger, different and more diverse," he added. Mamdani is a Ugandan-born Muslim who won the Democratic Party's primary for New York City mayor in June. He launched a "Five Boroughs Against Trump" tour in the Big Apple on Monday. Rhodes concluded his guest essay by writing, "Trump is a 79-year-old strongman nostalgic for the past. His domination of the present is not permanent, but it is leading many Americans to live in the status quo he commands while ignoring where we are going. To overcome that reality, Democrats must mobilize people to believe in the future." Rhodes became a nationally recognized name in 2016 after boasting in an interview with The New York Times Magazine that he and Obama's foreign policy team built an "echo chamber" of experts to help sell the controversial Iran nuclear deal. Trump later pulled the U.S. out of the Iran deal in 2018, calling it "defective at its core."
Washington Post
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The Trump doctrine on nuclear nonproliferation is born
Matthew Kroenig is vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University. Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser, posted on social media this week that Trump's choice to give up on diplomacy and use force on Iran's nuclear program was 'Just devastating to non-proliferation.' In fact, the opposite is true. The main lessons from this week are that countries that build the bomb risk getting bombed themselves. Pursuing nuclear arms is not a path to security, but to insecurity. By striking Iran's nuclear facilities on Saturday night, President Donald Trump did not just deal a blow to Iran's nuclear ambitions. He also established an important new precedent. By demonstrating that the United States is willing to use military force to stop the spread of the bomb, he made it much less likely that any other country will follow Iran's path and build an illegal nuclear program. Since the dawn of the nuclear era, nuclear weapons have slowly spread to additional countries: United States (1945); Soviet Union/Russia (1949), Britain (1952); France (1960); China (1964); Israel (1967); India (1998); Pakistan (1998); and North Korea (2006). Until a few days ago, Iran stood on the precipice of becoming the 10th member of that club. The United States has gone to great lengths to stop the spread of nuclear weapons in the past by extending its nuclear umbrella to friends and pressuring adversaries. Israel's efforts, however, have been more kinetic — bolt-out-of-the-blue strikes on nuclear reactors in Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007. Washington also bombed nuclear facilities as part of ongoing wars against Nazi Germany and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. But, until last week, the United States had never launched military strikes on the nuclear facilities of a country with which it was not at war. By bombing Iran, the U.S. has reset expectations. In 1994, President Bill Clinton seriously considered bombing North Korea's lone nuclear reactor, but he demurred. Now, North Korea is estimated to possess dozens of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of reaching the continental United States. Some analysts look back at that episode as a missed opportunity to forestall the much greater threat Pyongyang presents today. Shortly after Iran's nuclear program was revealed in 2002, consecutive U.S. presidents threatened military action to keep Tehran from the bomb. In 2013, for example, Obama said 'we take no options off the table, including military options.' And earlier this year, Trump said that if Iran doesn't negotiate away its nuclear program, 'there will be a bombing … a bombing the likes of which the world has never seen.' But many observers, including apparently Iran's supreme leader, did not believe the threats. Would Washington really risk a wider war to stop Iran's nuclear program? North Korea, Pakistan, India and arguably other cases, had set a precedent. Washington would apply pressure, but it would shrink from using military force. If a country was persistent enough and willing to endure sanctions and diplomatic isolation, the world would eventually relent and accept them as a de facto member of the nuclear club. Iran was attempting to follow in the footsteps of these predecessors. If the United States had simply stood by and watched Iran cross the nuclear threshold, after successive U.S. presidents threatened that all options were on the table, then that unfortunate precedent would have been further reinforced. Future American threats would have been perceived as a mere bluff that can safely be ignored. But Saturday's strikes sent the opposite message. Leaders around the world must now consider that an attempt to start an illegal nuclear weapons program could very well result in a devastating confrontation with the Pentagon. Iran spent four decades and an estimated $500 billion on its nuclear program only to invite an attack from the most powerful country in the world and have its nuclear facilities reduced to rubble. What other leader in their right mind will want to sign up for that deal? In fact, the United States could capitalize on this moment and declare a new foreign policy doctrine of counterproliferation through military force. Trump should warn that any other country that attempts to build an illegal nuclear program risks suffering the same fate as Iran: Any country that tries to build the bomb risks getting bombed itself. This brutal reality will not only make any future leader think twice about going nuclear, but will strengthen global nonproliferation efforts and perhaps, paradoxically, make the world a safer place.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Timing of Israeli strike on Iran raises questions about regard for Trump
Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor, talks with Jen Psaki about the awkwardness of the Trump administration trying to distance itself from Israel's attack on Iran, and what it means about Donald Trump's status that Israel's attack came while Trump was attempting to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nicolle Wallace calls out Kristi Noem's lie over Sen. Alex Padilla's handcuffing and forced removal
Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House with reaction to the incident involving California Senator Alex Padilla where he was forcibly removed from a press conference held by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and the lies being spewed about the incident by Noem and her department.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
NASCAR ejects four car chiefs after Truck Series inspection failures
On Friday, each of the 31 NASCAR Truck Series entries for Kansas Speedway rolled through inspection. Most of the teams made it through without much drama, but not all of them. Four trucks, including three from ThorSport Racing, struggled to pass. They were the No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford of Ben Rhodes, the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford of Ty Majeski, the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford of Matt Crafton, as well as the No. 26 Rackley W.A.R. Chevrolet of Dawson Sutton. Matt Crafton, ThorSport Racing Ford Matt Crafton, ThorSport Racing Ford Sean Gardner / Getty Images Sean Gardner / Getty Images Advertisement Each of these trucks failed twice before passing on the third attempt. As a result, each team will lose pit stall selection for next weekend's race at North Wilkesboro, but there was a more immediate punishment as well. Each of their car chiefs -- or rather, 'truck' chiefs, have been ejected from the track for the remainder of the race weekend. This is common protocol for when there are two failures in trying to pass pre-race inspection. Brad Means (No. 98), Derek Rohlfing (No. 99), Tyler Kontos (No. 88), and Tucker Scanlon (No. 26) will be watching the race from afar on Saturday. This will be the extent of the penalties. ThorSport, which has won the last two Truck Series titles (Rhodes in 2023 and Majeski in 2024), have yet to visit Victory Lane this year. The team's fourth entry is the No. 66, driven by Luke Baldwin this weekend, which made it through tech without issue. Read Also: Judge warns 23XI and FRM "you can't have your cake and eat it too" Will Buxton: Jeff Gordon BAR move "would have broken F1 in America" decades earlier 2025 NASCAR at Kansas schedule, entry list, and how to watch To read more articles visit our website.
