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Susan Rice Pulls Name From Consideration for Secretary of State

Dec 13, 2012  •  Post A Comment

Susan Rice, widely considered to be President Obama’s choice to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, has withdrawn her name from consideration for the post, NBC News reports.

The announcement comes after months of criticism aimed at Rice, the U.N. envoy, over her comments on Benghazi.

In a letter to Obama, Rice wrote: “If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly — to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities.”

Rice added: “That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country. … Therefore, I respectfully request that you no longer consider my candidacy at this time.”

NBC will feature an interview with Rice by Brian Williams on tonight’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams,” NBC News reports.

“She has been under intense fire from Republicans for initially characterizing the Sept. 11 assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as a spur-of-the-moment response to a crude anti-Muslim film,” the piece reports.

Five days after the attack, Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press: “What happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted, of course, by the video.

“Opportunistic extremist elements came to the consulate as this was unfolding. They came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are readily available in post-revolutionary Libya, and it escalated into a much more violent episode.”

The report adds: “As more details emerged suggesting it was a premeditated terrorist action, GOP critics accused Rice of misleading the public at the height of the presidential campaign.

“She countered that she went with the best information available about the attack, in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.”

Speaking at the United Nations on Nov. 21, Rice said: “I relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. I made clear that the information was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers.”

Obama has reportedly accepted her withdrawal from consideration.

4 Comments

  1. When the Bush administration used the “best information” defense for WMD misinformation, the Democrats balked. What goes around…

  2. The only angle on this story that anyone in the mainstream media is interested in talking about is how the Republicans and conservatives are “picking on a black woman,” rather than all the evidence points to the fact that Rice took the blame game ball — “it was the video” — and ran with it in order to protect Obama’s re-election hopes.
    You know, it’s Republicans’ fault that Rice seemingly meteoric rise has been laid low by her deliberate and calculated deceit. There’s nothing wrong with being a suck-up toady, but lying is another matter.
    Brian Williams, peacock-proud Obama water carrier, can be counted on providing more of the same Pravda-quality drivel as we’re used to seeing on this story.

  3. And this has to do with television… how?

  4. That’s all right John, our idiot savant has the memory of a gnat and is still holding a grudge after his team lost in November.
    He forgets that the previous Secretary Rice falsely led us to war with the “mushroom cloud” comments after toeing the line for Dick, Donald and George. He wants us to forget that those botched CIA operations have gotten 1000’s killed, among other things, and many of which have yet to develop.

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