Ben Rhodes

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Benjamin Rhodes

Benjamin J. "Ben" Rhodes (* 1977 in New York City , United States ) was Deputy Advisor for National Security and Strategic Communications to US President Barack Obama . His exact title was “Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting.” From 2007 onwards, Rhodes wrote speeches for Obama on international politics.

Education, job and life

Rhodes was born in New York and grew up on the Upper East Side in Manhattan . He is the son of an Episcopal priest from Texas and a Jewish mother from New York. He attended the Collegiate School in New York until 1996. Rhodes then attended Rice University in Houston , Texas , and graduated in 2000 with major bachelors in English and political science . He went back to New York, attended New York University , from which he graduated in 2002 with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in creative writing .

He is married to Ann Norris, Senator Barbara Boxer's chief foreign policy advisor . His brother David is the chairman of CBS News .

During his studies, he volunteered in the summer of 1997 in Rudy Giuliani's campaign for his re-election as Mayor of New York City. In the summer of 2001, he worked for Diana Reyna in her campaign for the election of the New York City Council .

In 2002 Lee Hamilton , former House member and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, sought a speechwriter. James Gibney , editor of Foreign Policy , introduced him to Rhodes and Rhodes worked for five years as Hamilton's assistant, assisting, among other things, with the drafting of the Iraq Study Group Report and the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission .

In late 2006, Rhodes worked for a few months as a speechwriter for Mark Warner , the former governor of Virginia , while he was preparing for his possible presidential candidacy. After Warner unexpectedly renounced his candidacy in October 2006, Rhodes tried to switch to Obama's team, which was just beginning to prepare for his own candidacy.

politics

Rhodes started out on Obama's campaign team as a volunteer - a foreign policy advisor. He was there when a speechwriter was needed, moved to Chicago, and joined the team full-time. Since then it has been an integral part of the Obama for America campaign. In this capacity he wrote the speech that Barack Obama gave as a presidential candidate in the summer of 2008 at the Berlin Victory Column .

President Barack Obama , Denis McDonough and Rhodes are working on the A New Beginning (2009) speech .

After Obama's election as US President, he became White House Assistant Director for Speechwriting. Rhodes, described by the Washington Post as a realist, wrote the highly acclaimed 2009 speech “ A New Beginning, ” which Obama gave in Cairo . Rhodes was the counselor who recommended Obama end support for Hosni Mubarak . He became Obama's main adviser during the 2011 Arab Spring .

In March 2013, Rhodes declined to describe his role in the Obama administration's policy making: "My main job, which has always been my job, is to be the person who represents the president's view on these issues." "My main job, which has always been my job, is to be the person who represents the president's view of these things.")

On March 20, 2014, Russia imposed entry bans on Rhodes and 8 other Americans as a countermeasure to the US sanctions in the context of the Ukraine crisis .

Benghazi attacks (Libya, 2012)

On September 11, 2012 (a few weeks before the US presidential election in 2012 ) an attack on the US Consulate General in was Benghazi ( Libya ) committed, in which the US ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens and a consulate employees were killed. In the early hours of the following day, another attack was carried out on a CIA branch approximately 1 mile away, killing two CIA agents.

The Obama administration quickly and consistently decided to derive the attacks from spontaneous protests against the Islamophobic video Innocence of Muslims , which led to prolonged domestic political tensions.

On April 18, 2014, the conservative group Judicial Watch published several hundred pages of government documents that it had fought for in FOIA proceedings . An email dated September 14, 2012 with the title “RE: PREP CALL with Susan” came from Rhodes, in which he wrote, among other things: “Goals:… To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy ... "(German:" Goal ... to underline that these protests are based on an internet video and do not represent a broad policy failure ... ")

Guy Taylor of the Washington Times interpreted this email as preparation of the then US envoy to the United Nations , Susan Rice , for her marathon two days later through the Sunday political shows on US American television, to “reinforce the point of view of Obama's administration on the Benghazi attacks ”. Slate's John Dickerson saw the email as broadly related to global protests following the Innocence of Muslims video and not directly related to the Benghazi attacks.

Awards and honors

  • In 2011, Rhodes was named Time magazine's "40 under 40" list of the Most Powerful and Prominent Young Professionals, while in the same year his brother David was named 17th on Fortune 's 40 under 40 as chairman of CBS News .
  • While his brother was ranked 9th on the Fortune list in 2012, Ben Rhodes was ranked 13th by Fortune in 2014.

Works

  • Thomas H. Kean, Lee H. Hamilton, Benjamin Rhodes: Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission . Vintage Books, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-307-27663-6 .
  • Ben Rhodes: The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House . Random House, New York 2018, ISBN 978-0-525-50935-6 .
    • Ben Rhodes: In the White House. The years with Barack Obama . CH Beck, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-406-73507-3 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Ben Rhodes  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Editor: White House Author ( English ) In: The White House Blog . White House. Archived from the original on June 17, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  2. ^ A b c Mark Landler: Benjamin Rhodes, Obama's Voice, Helps Shape Policy ( English ) In: The New York Times . March 15, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c d Editor: Election 2008: Ben Rhodes '96, Speechwriter and Advisor to Barack Obama ( English ) In: collegiateschool.org . Collegiate School. October 27, 2008. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b c Jason Horowitz: Obama speechwriter Ben Rhodes is penning a different script for the world stage ( English ) In: The Washington Post . January 12, 2010. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  5. ^ Brian Steinberg: David Rhodes To Take Over CBS News As Jeff Fager Steps Down ( English ) In: Variety . November 20, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  6. ↑ Washington Post: Ben Rhodes . In: The Washington Post . Archived from the original on April 2, 2012. Retrieved on April 9, 2012.
  7. ↑ Laurence Jarvik: Who Wrote Obama's Cairo Speech? ( English ) In: laurencejarvikonline.blogspot.de . Laurence Jarvik. June 5, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  8. ^ Sabine Kricke, Uwe Felten: Crimean crisis Ukraine: Russia imposes entry ban on US politicians . In: RP Online . March 20, 2014. Accessed June 12, 2015.
  9. ↑ Editor: Judicial Watch: Benghazi Documents Point to White House on Misleading Talking Points ( English ) In: judicialwatch.org . Judicial Watch. April 29, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  10. ↑ Jay Sekulow: Benghazi emails: Proof Obama White House put politics ahead of truth ( English , Video 22m33s) In: FOXNews . June 15, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  11. ↑ Benjamin J. Rhodes: RE: REP CALL with Susan ( English , PDF 15.2 MB) In: judicialwatch.org . Judical Watch. September 14, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  12. ↑ Guy Taylor: Emails on Benghazi show aides' effort to make Obama look 'statesmanlike' ( English ) In: The Washington Times . April 29, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  13. ↑ John Dickerson: Benghazi White House emails: Did the Obama administration engage in a cover up or self-deception? ( English ) In: Slate . April 30, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  14. ↑ Time: Complete List - 40 Under 40 (2011) ( English ) In: Time Magazin . Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  15. ↑ Time: Ben Rhodes - 40 Under 40 (2011) ( English ) In: Time Magazin . Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  16. ↑ Fortune: 40 under 40 (2011): Business's hottest rising stars ( English ) In: Fortune Magazin . Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  17. ↑ Fortune: 40 under 40 (2011) - David Rhodes (17) ( English ) In: Fortune Magazin . October 25, 2011. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  18. ↑ Fortune: 40 under 40 (2012) - David Rhodes (9) ( English ) In: Fortune Magazin . June 15, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  19. ↑ Fortune: 40 Under 40 (2014) - Complete List ( English ) In: Fortune Magazin . Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  20. ↑ Fortune: 40 under 40 (2014) - Ben Rhodes (13) ( English ) In: Fortune Magazin . Retrieved June 15, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Rhodes, Ben
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rhodes, Benjamin J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American speechwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , United States