When This Blows Over

Obama official says he pushed a ‘narrative’ to
media to sell the Iran nuclear deal
Ben Rhodes speaks to the media during a daily White
House briefing in February. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
By Paul Farhi
May 6, 2016
One of President Obama’s top national security advisers
led journalists to believe a misleading timeline of U.S.
negotiations with Iran over a nuclear agreement and relied
on inexperienced reporters to create an “echo chamber”
that helped sway public opinion to seal the deal, according
to a lengthy magazine profile.
Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for
strategic communications, told the New York Times
magazine that he helped promote a “narrative” that the
administration started negotiations with Iran after the
supposedly moderate Hassan Rouhani was elected
president in 2013. In fact, the administration’s
negotiations actually began earlier, with the country’s