Steve Ricchetti

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Please join us next time as I sit down with Steve Ricchetti, former counselor to President Joe Biden and chairman of the 2020 Biden presidential campaign, and former North Carolina Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry.

He's also a former speaker pro temp.

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... that Biden and, and these four men really ran the policy was not just insular, it was very often divorced from the advice of government lawyers, humanitarian experts, intelligence personnel, and there were all manner of factors for this, right? There's the extreme political sensitivity around discussions of Israel in American politics, particularly in an election year.

The fear among Biden and some of his domestic political advisers, people like Anita Dunn, uh, Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, that criticizing Israel in any way might cost him re-election.

There's also the, a really deep affinity between a lot of these advisers we're talking about, and of course President Biden himself, and the Israeli state and Israeli government apparatus.

They've worked closely with Israeli counterparts for years, right? They're treating this, uh, very much from a place of empathy for Israeli trauma after the atrocities of October seventh.

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Can his money help Republicans hold the seat? Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News Senior Washington Correspondent Hallie Jackson, former Biden White House Senior Advisor Steve Ricchetti, and Lonnie Chen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution.

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I think it really speaks to a very dated brain trust around Biden.

So figures like Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, Anita Dunn, Biden's core domestic political brain trust who were weighing in on his thinking around foreign policy, very much huge this idea of if we question Israel, we will be seen as weak.

We will lose crucial donors and voter blocks.

And importantly, you know, there's a sense of, of sometimes is this being driven by, by hardline pro-Israel supporters, pro-Israel donors.

... that immediate aftermath, he wasn't so crucial, but becomes really important later.

In that immediate aftermath also who's having an, an important role in decisions are the president's domestic political brain trust, people like Anita Dunn, Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, people who have been around Biden for decades and have a really solid view of how they think Israel works in American politics, which is if you question Israel, you are DOA.

It's not worth doing.

You'll lose voters.

And so Biden was their best shot.

And same with Anita Dunn, Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, his three top advisors.

They knew very well that their only chance at retaining their million-dollar jobs and gigs was Biden because under Harris or anybody else, they would not be able to preserve their money and power.

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