Susan Rice was supposed to be meeting with Republican senators this morning to dispel concerns about her likely secretary of state nomination, but it sounds like she only made matters worse. In a press conference after the meeting, Sen. John McCain said he was “significantly troubled” by many of the answers Rice gave:
“We are significantly troubled by many of the answers we got, and some that we didn’t get, concerning evidence leading up to the attack on our consulate, the tragic deaths of four brave Americans, and whether Ambassador Rice was prepared or informed sufficiently in order to give the American people a correct depiction of the events that took place. It is clear that the information that she gave the American people was incorrect when she said it was a spontaneous demonstration triggered by a hateful video. It was not, and there was compelling evidence at the time that that was certainly not the case, including statements by Libyans as well as other Americans who are fully aware that people don’t bring mortars and rocket-propelled grenades to spontaneous demonstrations.”
Sources told CNN’s Dana Bash that Rice told the senators she was aware of classified information suggesting al-Qaeda involvement before her controversial Sunday show appearances. Bash also reports that Rice said she regrets using the CIA talking points.
If Rice had said she was speaking based on the intelligence she had at the time, Republicans would probably have let her off the hook. That was the standard line the State Department and other Obama administration officials have given when asked about Rice’s Sunday show comments. But few people will have sympathy for her if she admitted she knew the talking points were potentially inaccurate and misleading before she used them. I actually wonder if she planned to tell the senators that when she initiated the meeting, or if they somehow pulled the information out of her. It certainly doesn’t help her case for the secretary of state nomination, which was supposedly the entire point of the meeting.
