Skip to footer

Why Susan Rice is being targeted by Republicans

Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the UN, is on the short list to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But Sen. John McCain is leading a charge to keep Susan Rice from being nominated.

|
REUTERS/Allison Joyce/Files
US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice at U.N. headquarters in New York. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that it was "outrageous" for Republican senators to target Susan Rice over her response to the attack on the U.S. mission in Libya that left four Americans dead.
  • By Donna Cassata Associated Press

| Washington

President Barack Obama lashed out at senior Republican senators Wednesday over their criticism of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice in the aftermath of the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Libya, saying they should "go after me" and not her.

Sen. John McCain had vowed shortly before Obama's remarks that he would take all steps necessary to block Rice's nomination if the president chooses her to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who plans to step down.

At issue are Rice's statements five days after the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. She attributed the incident to the outrage in the Arab world over an anti-Muslim video produced in the U.S., not terrorism.

The CIA-provided talking points that Rice drew from are posted on CBS News, including the following:

  • "The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US diplomatic post in Benghazi and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who joined McCain at a news conference, said he didn't trust Rice.

RECOMMENDED: Could you be a US diplomat? Take the foreign service quiz

A feisty Obama defended his U.N. ambassador. "If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me," Obama told reporters at his first White House news conference since last week's election. "And I'm happy to have that discussion with them. But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador, who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous."

Within minutes, Graham's response made clear he wouldn't back down.

"Mr. President, don't think for one minute I don't hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi," the he said in a statement. "I think you failed as commander in chief before, during and after the attack.

The senators pressed for a special Senate committee to investigate the attack, saying that separate inquiries by various Senate panels will fail to get to the truth and that a comprehensive probe "up to and including the president of the United States" was warranted.

They introduced a Senate resolution calling for the special committee on Wednesday afternoon, drawing immediate Democratic opposition and doubts from some Republicans.

The senators argued that numerous questions about the attack remain unanswered, among them what Obama's national security team had told him about security in Libya, what steps were taken by Clinton and the role of the U.S. military.

"This administration has either been guilty of colossal incompetence or engaged in a cover-up," McCain said on the Senate floor shortly after introducing the resolution.

Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe, who is poised to replace McCain as the top Republican on the Armed Services committee, said in a statement that Rice "would not be a fitting replacement at the State Department should Secretary Clinton step down."

"During her time as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Rice has been the Obama administration's point person in pursuing liberal causes that threaten U.S. sovereignty," Inhofe said.

Another name mentioned as a possible candidate for secretary of state is Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Democrat who has taken on envoy roles for the administration in Afghanistan and had been mentioned for the post when Obama was first elected.

Senior Senate aides and lawmakers have said Kerry would have no problem winning Senate confirmation and see him as a far better fit than Rice, who has had little contact with members of Congress. But the selection of Kerry would create an opening for the Senate seat in Massachusetts, and Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who lost re-election last week, would be a heavy favorite to win the seat.

That would weaken the grip the Democrats have on the Senate.

RECOMMENDED: Could you be a US diplomat? Take the foreign service quiz

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Why Susan Rice is being targeted by Republicans
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1115/Why-Susan-Rice-is-being-targeted-by-Republicans
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe