What did Obama think of Boris, May and Corbyn?
Politics Unpacked
Anna Covell
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 July 2018
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Matt Chorley speaks to Ben Rhodes, whose new book, The World As It Is, charts a decade at Barack Obama’s side, from the campaign in Chicago to flying with him to California on the day he left the White House for the final time
He was at the table for the Iran nuclear deal, the opening up of relations with Cuba, the night US Navy seals killed Osama Bin Laden.
And he was there when David Cameron asked Barack Obama for his help to stop Brexit.
More than just a speechwriter, he sought to recast the American story, but it was a story that had an unhappy ending for Team Obama, with the election of Donald Trump.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and |
| 0:03.7 | welcome to the Red Box Politics Podcast on The Times, I'm Matt Chorley. |
| 0:07.6 | Ahead of July the 4th, American Independence Day and Donald Trump's |
| 0:10.4 | visit to Britain on July the 13th. Let's talk about US politics and |
| 0:14.1 | influence and impact on the UK. I'm delighted to be joined for this special |
| 0:18.0 | episode by Ben Rhodes, whose new book The World As It Is, charts a decade |
| 0:22.0 | at Barack Obama's side from the campaign in Chicago to |
| 0:25.1 | flying with him to California on the day he left the White House for the final time. |
| 0:29.3 | Officially Ben's title as Deputy National Security Advisor, but for many he came to be the most significant figure deciding US foreign policy behind only the President himself. |
| 0:38.0 | US commentators talk about a mind-mailed between the two men. |
| 0:42.0 | He was at the table for the Iran nuclear deal, the opening |
| 0:44.2 | of relations with Cuba, the night US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, and he was there |
| 0:49.0 | when David Cameron asked Barack Obama for his help to stop Brexit. |
| 0:53.2 | More than just a speech writer, he sort of recast the American story, but was a story that had an |
| 0:57.6 | unhappy ending for team Obama with the election of Donald Trump. |
| 1:01.9 | Ben welcome. |
| 1:02.8 | We will come to all of that. |
| 1:04.4 | First of all, let's start at the beginning. |
| 1:06.3 | How did you, as when you talk in the book about being an aspiring novelist? |
| 1:09.7 | Yes. |
| 1:10.7 | How does an aspiring novelist end up working for the guy who ended up being the future president of the United States? |
| 1:16.3 | Yeah, well it wasn't the plan, but actually what happened is I was getting a advanced degree in fiction writing and working actually on local politics in New York on September 11th, 2001. |
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