Obama: Attacks on Susan Rice "outrageous"

President Obama on Wednesday issued a strong defense of America's U.N. ambassador Susan Rice over comments she made about recent violence in Benghazi, calling recent Republican attacks on her reputation "outrageous" and promising that they won't deter him from tapping her to be Secretary of State if he chooses.

Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters in the first press conference since his re-election, praised Rice for serving U.S. interests in the U.N. with "toughness and grace," and argued forcefully that her reputation has been unfairly "besmirched" by the right.

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Obama on Susan Rice: "She has done exemplary work"

"Let me say specifically about Susan Rice: She has done exemplary work. She has represented the U.S. and our interests in the U.N. with skill and professionalism and toughness and grace," said Mr. Obama. "If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. 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? To besmirch her reputation is outrageous."

His remarks were a direct response to comments made earlier in the day by Sens. McCain, R-Ariz., and Graham, R-S.C., who accused Rice of misleading the American people about events surrounding the September 11 attacks in Libya, and pledged to do everything in their power to block the nomination.

• Graham: Susan Rice "disconnected from reality"; doesn't "deserve" promotion
• Obama: No evidence classified info compromised in Petraeus scandal

"Somebody has got to start paying a price around this place," said Graham, in a press conference in the U.S. Capitol. "I don't think she deserves to be promoted. There are a lot of qualified people in this country the president could pick, but I am dead-set on making sure we don't promote anybody that was an essential player in the Benghazi debacle."

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McCain sharply criticizes Susan Rice, Obama for Libya response

On "CBS This Morning" today, McCain said flat out that Rice is "not qualified."

"We're all responsible for what we say and what we do. I'm responsible to my voters. She is responsible to the Senate of the United States," said McCain. "If you're going to tell the American people something you better make damn sure it's true."

Shortly following the September attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, Rice appeared on CBS News' "Face the Nation" and suggested there was no evidence that the incident was an act of terrorism. Instead, she said, the violence appeared to be prompted by an inflammatory anti-Muslim video that had led to protests in Egypt. Since then, Rice's characterization has been proven inaccurate, although her statements were supported by talking points the CIA reportedly gave her at the time.

Mr. Obama stressed that "it is important for us to find out exactly what happened in Benghazi and I'm happy to cooperate in any ways that Congress wants."

But, he added, when but Republicans "go after the U.N. ambassador -- apparently because they think she's an easy target -- then they've got a problem with me."

"If I think that she would be the best person to serve America in the capacity of the State Department then I will nominate her," added Mr. Obama. "That's not a determination that I've made yet."

[verifabletruthmatters]

EVERY TIME AMERICAN PEOPLE TURN AROUND GOP TRYING TO CREATE ANOTHER SCANDAL, WHERE NONE EXISTS

First, GOP tried to make a scandal out of Solyndra; there was none. China poured BIL into their thin-film solar products, driving down costs 30%. Then they dumped those same lower-cost, thin-film solar products onto the US Market. Solyndra had a better product, trying to get to "economy of scales", when they were so drastically undercut and sabotaged. GOP are willing to give the 4 top oil companies, making BIL/quarter, $34 BIL in tax cut subsidies. Plus dirty fossil fuels gets at least another $10 BIL in corporate welfare, but Renewable Energy isn't allowed to get to "economies of scale", so 7 BILLION humans get a Sustainable Future? Three decades of lies about Global Warming, now has the planet on a trajectory to become uninhabitable. In short, THE DAMAGE REPORT is in: "the GOP, corrupt corporation who own them, uninformed Conservatives who support this corruption are now responsible for the murder of TENS of MIL from sea level rise, severe weather events, & especially food crop failures." 600 MILLION people have been affected, since 2010. Of that 600 MILLION, 200 MILLION children are dying of starvation & malnutrition, thanks to the GOP.

The 2nd scandal the GOP tried to create was a nonexistent cover-up with FAST AND FURIOUS, started under the Bush Administration. 70,000 documents were turned over to Darrel Issa . 1000 e-mails were kept because they were connected to "PENDING CASES". There was no cover-up as the investigation came to show.

NOW the sick, dysfunctional, psychotic, pathological liars, are trying to create yet another SCANDAL out of Benghazi, where none exists. Petraeus has testified there were two sets of "TALKING POINTS", one CLASSIFIED, one NOT CLASSIFIED. Why would RICE go out & expose "Classified Information", when those weren't the talking points the INTEL Community gave her ? They didn't want al-Qaeda to know they were onto them. An investigative reporter talking to, TALK of the Nation 11-13-12 went through a play-by-play. Ambassador Hill also described at length how an Embassey or Consulate works. There was a crowd of 200 people at Benghazi 3 hours after Egypt, just like crowds in Egypt, except in Egypt they weren't armed. There's many armed militias running around Libya because of the ground war. Egypt had a peaceful transition & a military that looked after things for over a year. Libya does NOT have that. Aren't the GOP, the cut and gut mentality, that think that's the solution to everything? If there's no funds available then, there isn't tons of beefed up security.

200 MIL Americans get that the Right Wing are engaged in a Campaign of DECEIT that is now entering its 4th decade. MOTTO: "FIX THE DATA TO PUSH THE HIDDEN AGENDAS--LIE, DECEIVE, FABRICATE". GOP POLICIES = "DEATH SPIRALS". Keystone XL PIPELINE="DEATH SPIRAL". Three decades of lies about deregulation allowed derivatives stuffed with junk to damage the economy for the 3rd time in Sept 2008. $11 TRIL dollars in assets trashed, millions put out of work, millions of foreclosures from those job losses, & 16 million children homeless living on the streets with their families. Cut and Gut Budget = "DEATH SPIRAL". Forced on Roosevelt in 1937 caused a "double-dip" GREAT DEPRESSION, drove unemployment above 15%; exactly what we see going on in Iceland (15%), Portugal & Spain, (21-25%), Greece (25%-50%). Most dangerous "DEATH SPIRAL" = Global Warming. Planet on a trajectory to become uninhabitable; goes over an irreversible cliff 2015 from Keystone XL Pipeline spewing 70% more pollution. BIL in damages in 2012 = TRIL 2015-2020 from sea level rise, severe weather events, & food crop failures. They've murdered TENS of MILLIONS. We get that they're a bunch of sick, dysfunctional, psychotic, pathological liars & now murderers; they don't have to keep proving it to us by trying to concoct "SCANDALS WHERE NONE EXIST". They should worry about their own Campaign of DECEIT. GOP POLICIES= "DEATH SPIRALS". As absolute butchers of verifiable Truths, they're HUGE VIOLATORS of the Universal LAWS running the show, therefore HUGE VIOLATORS of God's World. People as sick, dysfunctional, psychotic, incessant bald-faced liars, that 95% of the GOP are, have no business being in positions of power at any level of government. They destroy everything they touch. The American People need to "CLEAN OUT" the US HOUSE of 234 GOP DECEIT & SENATE of another 40, 2014, so that we have a government that can actually govern, instead of the incessant lies & sabotage.

We could be growing GDP by 158%, with MILLIONS of Green and Infrastructure Jobs, leave THE DEBT in the dust, & get a Sustainable Future. The GOP have done nothing but sabotage that option, because they're owned by BIG OIL. (REINVENTING FIRE by rmi.org)

[Dee Dee Mao]

Aw come on....Poor Susan Rice. She didn't do nuthin wrong, and she didn't know nuthin, she just said what someone told her to say and she don't even know who that someone was, and nobody knows who that was, 'cause nobody in this administration knows nuthin, not even the president! He didn't know nuthin for a couple of weeks! And even after that, he still didn't know nuthin and he still don't!

So come on! give the broad a break already! When Hillary gets back from wine-tasting in Australia, she'll think of a good story about how she didn't know nuthin neither.

[mijoka]

Wait ! Wait ! The Man that was bind the "Keating Five " criticize the Ambassador and the President , you shoved Millions of dollars under the carpet and for your own use , you say you are responsible for what you say and do , "keating five aside" can you pay the bills you own to small business for the last 4 years . The least you can do is being honest . You might get more credibility . Sour looser .....
Plus Why did not you attend the Briefing on Benghazi too buzzy

[mijoka]

Wait ! Wait ! The Man that was bind the "Keating Five " criticize the Ambassador and the President , you shoved Millions of dollars under the carpet and for your own use , you say you are responsible for what you say and do , "keating five aside" can you pay the bills you own to small business for the last 4 years . The least you can do is being honest . You might get more credibility . Sour looser .....

[exbiolprof]

Remember the cartoon character POGO? His most famous quote is: "we have met the enemy and he is us" Say it ain't so.

[DOGGYPANTS]

Why did Obama fly to party in Vegas after these four white men were murdered? If these were four black men or four gays, then he would have cancelled his campaign. Looks to me like Rice is getting paid off for lying to the public. Military deaths in Afghanistan have doubled since Obama took office, and he doesn't even care, except for a selfish photo-op. Rice and Hillary were both unfit for their jobs, but Obama believes that ancestry and not accomplishment is a job qualification. But then again , what does Obama know? Obama showed his complete ignorance of world history by making a callous statement about "Polish Death Camps" because he understand nothing about the world.

[spatch1]

I would like to see Obama more outraged at the deaths of four Americans who called for help and were abandoned than a UN and administration lacky that mearly puppeted the line fed her. His comments that she just repeated what was told her is a poor qualification for a critical position in the State department or at the UN. And why was she talking about something she had no knowledge of.

A persistant pattern of incompetence and dishonesty in this White House!!!

[cleric77]

For the record: beside her lying to our nation, five different times on 5 different national media outlets.
Rice has been consistently silent on other important issues and ineffective when she does engage. She skipped Security Council meetings when Israel needed defending and even failed to show up for the emergency session on the Gaza Flotilla incident.
Susan Rice has a miserable UN record...she is far from being a Jean Kirkpatrick.

[DOGGYPANTS]

Yes, I pretty much agree with your assessment Rice is an embarrassment; she earned her job the old fashion way - by lying and by being an affirmative action appointee who earned

[MamaMia325]

CBS- I implore you to ask what other information was out there besides this one talking point from the CIA. For instance, the information from the CIA station chief in Libya who stated 24 hours after the attack that this WAS a terrorist attack.

[achmadikajob]

Obama is just playing by the leftist playbook. When leftists like him can't give a straight answer because it exposes them to be lying corrupt frauds, they must always demonize those that are asking tough questions and feign outrage over non issues so they can deflect, dodge and hide from the truth.

[Rafterman11]

So, that's only the leftist playbook, huh? The "rightist" playbook doesn't have any plays like that? Uh huh. Of course the right doesn't demonize and blame the media to avoid responsibility for every single thing that 'cons do wrong, now do you?

You 'cons create your own reality, don't you? LOL.

[amskeptic]

How 'bout that John McCain singing Condoleeza Rice's praises when she was nominated to be Secretary of State after talking up WMDs and mushroom clouds (lies) as Bush's National Security Advisor. Four dead Americans from a consulate attack is a crime against us, yet McCain seems to think that we are the crime. What about the tens of thousands of deaths and lost treasure and lost prestige in the world from the deceitful lead-up to the Iraq War? Where was your outrage? I smell the stench of cheap partisan hypocrisy.