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June 16, 2019

Smackdown: Ben Rhodes gets owned on Iran by Texas GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw

By Monica Showalter

Iran's mullah regime is acting up again, this time torpedoing tankers in the Persian Gulf, and who should turn up to cast doubt on its behavior but former Obama administration Deputy National Security Advisor, Iran Deal negotiator, and creative writing major Ben Rhodes.

Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw was waiting for him, and it didn't end well for Rhodes.

In the wake of the Iran news, Rhodes put out four dubious tweets:

First, his pinned one with an article dating from May:

 

 

Then these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crenshaw tweeted back and got him good:

 

 

 

 

Smackdown.

Crenshaw hits so many points as to what these Rhodes tweets are really about he came off as a pool player who rolled balls into all four holes with just one precise cue shot.

First, Rhodes's pinned tweet laid out his ongoing "narrative," spreading well into his media "echo chamber," that Trump is making up the whole problem with Iran, manufacturing a crisis.

The torpedo incident is a hard one to call a manufactured crisis...

But no matter. Rhodes wants to get the word out with the old and now-errant forecast that the U.S. is just makin' it up and the torpedos are firing themselves.

That would be consistent with the kind of articles that are running in the New Yorker, which has got to be creative writing major Rhodes' favorite magazine - a recent one put out this title in its SEO: "The U.S. Has a Long History of Provoking Wars. Could Iran Be Next?" The photo shows President Trump holding his arm up in what the New Yorker would like you to think is a sort of Nazi salute, the better to paint Trump as a warmonger worse than any of the others.

It's a strange reading of things, given that the Trump administration has actually been arguably too constrained about dealing with Iran (and Venezuela). Crenshaw points out that Trump is right to "strengthen our regional presence as a deterrence," which on the whole, is kind of mild, given what Iran just did, but O.K. 

Far from being a warmonger as Rhodes is trying to drum out there, President Trump actually is a critic of the U.S.'s non-stop wars and nation-buildings from past administrations, and most certainly does not want some war with Iran (or even much nearer and equally vile and problematic Venezuela) at a time when he's trying to focus on an actual security crisis at the U.S. border.

Naturally, Rhodes seeks the calling of an international commission about what Iran did, as if the U.S. intelligence community -- the one that called out the Obama administration for censoring war reports -- couldn't possibly be trusted.

As Crenshaw points out: "So do  or don't believe the intelligence community?" (Same intelligence community that has been caught waist deep in attempting to topple President Trump? Rhodes looks even more foolish).

Crenshaw also points out what this is really about - that Rhodes is the naive author of the Iran deal and his forking over of billions to the mullahs is exactly what has enabled them to have lots of money to buy torpedos. That's a credibility killer for Rhodes and makes him look like a boob. Rhodes sold a false "narrative" about Iran having a moderating regime, something the torpedo attack pretty well took out along with the burning ships.

It's an important takedown because Rhodes is trying to save his skin and "legacy" not respond to new events. Democrats these days are all trying to save the now-scuppered Iran deal, with John Kerry and Dianne Feinstein meeting with the mullahs and reassuring them that Trump will soon be over so pay no attention to anything he does, ultimately causing the problems we see now. 

Now we have Crenshaw, firing his precision shots to end Rhodes's self-serving bid to preserve his continuous "narrative" that is falling apart fast. 

Thanks, Dan.

 

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