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Subscribe to RSSJust-resigned CIA Director David Petraeus says he will testify this week at congressional hearings looking into the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as new details emerge about the emails that helped end his career. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
Updated at 4:44 p.m. ET: President Barack Obama on Wednesday spiritedly defended U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice over her response to the September attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, assailing Republican criticism of her as "outrageous."
At his first news conference since winning re-election, the president said Rice has done “exemplary work” and accused GOP critics of trying to “besmirch” her reputation.
President Obama defends U.N. ambassador Susan Rice against criticism from Sen. John McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham over the Benghazi attacks in Libya.
“I don’t think there’s any debate in this country that when you have four Americans killed, that’s a problem, and we’ve got to get to the bottom of it and there needs to be accountability. We’ve got to bring those who carried it out to justice. They won’t get any debate from me on that,” Obama said sternly.
“But when they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she’s an easy target, then they’ve got a problem with me.”
Two of Rice’s main GOP critics refused to back down.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) discusses the Obama administration's handling of the aftermath of the Benghazi attack, accusing the president of "either a cover-up or incompetence." McCain also vowed to block any nomination of UN Ambassador Susan Rice for secretary of state to replace Hillary Clinton.
Sen. Lindsey Graham said shortly after Obama’s news conference that he had “no intention of promoting anyone who is up to their eyeballs in the Benghazi debacle.” Sen. John McCain added: "We owe the American people and the families of the murdered Americans a full and complete explanation, which for two months the President has failed to deliver.”
Bebeto Matthews / AP file
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice speaks during a meeting on Syria in the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 30.
Rice has been mentioned as a possible successor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has said she will not continue to serve in Obama's second term beginning in January.
Senior Republican senators vowed earlier on Wednesday to block any future promotion of Rice, questioning her initial description of the Sept. 11 violence on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi as a spontaneous outburst rather than a planned attack as unfathomable. Killed in the violence were U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials.
“My judgment at this time is that four Americans were killed, and the information that our U.N. ambassador conveyed was clearly false," McCain, R-Ariz., the top GOP senator on the Armed Services Committee, told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference. "There was overwhelming evidence that it was completely false. And she should have known what the situation and circumstances were and not tell the world on all Sunday morning talk shows.”
Graham, of South Carolina, supported that stance at the same news conference, saying of Rice, "I don't trust her. And the reason I don't trust her is because I think she knew better, and if she didn't know better, she shouldn't be the voice of America.”
The two lawmakers along with Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire are pressing for a special, Watergate-style select Senate committee to investigate the Benghazi attack. They complained that separate inquiries by various Senate panels will fail to get to the bottom of the deadly incident.
Sen. John McCain took to the Senate floor to protest the potential appointment of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. At issue are Rice's comments that Benghazi was triggered by a video maligning the Prophet Mohammad. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.
Rice has been the focal point of accusations that the Obama administration misled the public about the nature of the Benghazi attack. Five days after the attack, she appeared on several news talk programs and said the attack stemmed from outrage in the Arab world over an anti-Muslim video, not an act of terrorism. The White House later corrected that claim.
Obama wouldn’t comment on whether he’d nominate Rice to replace Clinton on his Cabinet. But he said of Rice: “She has done exemplary work.”
“She made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence (on Benghazi) that had been provided to her. If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me – and I’m happy to have that discussion with them," he said animatedly.
“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.”
Shortly after the president’s remarks, Graham issued the following statement:
“Mr. President, don’t think for one minute I don’t hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi. I think you failed as Commander in Chief before, during, and after the attack.
We owe it to the American people and the victims of this attack to have full, fair hearings and accountability be assigned where appropriate. Given what I know now, I have no intention of promoting anyone who is up to their eyeballs in the Benghazi debacle.”
McCain said initial Obama administration statements the the Benghazi attack was triggered by a spontaneous demonstration and a hateful video “clearly did not comport with the facts on the ground.“
In a statement issued after Obama’s news conference, McCain repeated his call for a select committee to be appointed “to obtain a full and complete accounting which would be credible with the American people."
Not all Republican senators agree with the the need for a special select committee.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she did not “see the benefit” of such an approach, noting the Homeland Security Committee has governmentwide jurisdiction and “a history of producing comprehensive bipartisan reports.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn, said assigning the matter to a select committee at this point would be “premature.”
David Petraeus, who stepped down as CIA director last week after acknowledging an extramarital affair, has agreed to testify before Congress on the Benghazi attack. He'll go before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday and the House committee on Friday.
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that he would like to hear from Petraeus but has yet to formally request a meeting with him.
NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Kelly O’Donnell and NBC News Associate Producer Catherine Chomiak contributed to this report.
More from the news conference:
- Obama: 'No evidence' of national security harm in Petraeus scandal
- Obama: 'Seize the moment' on immigration
- Obama claims mandate on taxes
President Barack Obama holds his first press conference at the White House since being re-elected to a second term.
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Leave a Comment:
Shoot the messenger like the did with the pollsters. They never learn.
When one elects a dishonest man, one must expect the dishonest man to be dishonest.
You are absolutely right. That is why Romney and Ryan lost.
Am I the only one who cares more about finding the people responsible than slinging mud? Clue: They're not hiding in Washington D.C.
Barack Insane Obama.. and the media will spin it for him again. Thank goodness for Youtube soe we can always se the orignal comment beore the PC Police try and change the evidence.
For two weeks this lie was perpetrated, for months this administration has tried to cover it up and with the help of "The View", Letterman and Stewart the attacks on anyone who questions the Anointed One will begin. The crew at the National Barack Channel will go back to their creative editing to show obama never lies and Hollywood will develop a movie showing GW Bush led the attack against the Consulate funded by the Koch Brothers.
Yep can't wait. Let games begin
Wasn't it the right-wing crazies who thought 9/11 was an inside job?
I wouldn't be surprised. After seeing how those hacks faked the moon landing all bets are off.
Steve in CO.. guess you are taking advantage of the new new Marijuana Laws. Charlie Sheen, Rosie O'Donnell and Keith Olbermann are hardly right wing but they are crazy
Well folks, understand the trolls and Republicans have to make something big out the attack on what appears to be a CIA encampment, including Graham and McCain, since they said nothing at the time Bush did not pay attention to more than one warning about a terrorist attack on our land. Plus, Bush got us into war on the lie Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. The consequences of his negligence and lie, you recall, resulted in thousands of deaths to our civilians and service personnel as well as thousands of deaths to Iraqi civilians. While no event resulting in deaths is small, the deaths from the events of 9/11 and the Iraq War were big! Huge for that matter!
WaltD, thanks for your obama-style "nothing to see here, move along" blind support
Why did Queen Obama put Rice up as the Administration spokesperson if she had nothing to do with the analysis of the attack and didn't know anything? Is Obama a complete idiot and has the state run Liberal media forced America to reelect the empty chair? Yes! The keystone cops are more organized than Obama's sexual perverts! The WH is now the Whore House.
Graham and McCain have shown their true colors -- red. Red in the face from loosing the national election, Red in the face from stamping their feet so hard --
but they are not red-white-blue, as in true patriotic Americans. Their behaviour is despicable.
They have no interest in finding out the truth about anything -- are only looking to sling political arrows.
They take a tragic event (the loss of those lives) and try to gain some political advantage with it... demonstrating their lack of leadership.
They should tender their resignation immediately as they have demonstrated their lack of fitness to serve this country.
(Does the above statement seem too extreme, over the top, out of proportion, inappropriate, etc? .... then .... perhaps everyone should just step away from the keyboards (and microphones) for a bit to let the investigation finish?)
Sounds no more unreasonable than the garbage coming from the other side.
Imperial leader, Obama seems to personally offended by many things lateley. Wonder if he believes that he is above the law now and can simply ignore criminal arrogance and corruption his admin. is making more evident as the days pass? To many screwups happening and doing it with the intent to coverup. six days pass before America is informed that Iran committed an act of war by firing on our drone; Lybiagate where no one can seem to get the story straight. DOE loans to donor corps that never intended to be profitable. We simply cannot accept four more years of third world dictatorship.
If you think this is a dictatorship, you've sure never lived under one.
Oh gawd--you don't 'spose that Clinton is resting up for another run at the WH do you?
Hope so.
I am not sure what the truth is but I am sure the truth will never be revealed to the American people.
It may be the right time to have the IRS audit some Republicans. Spaceman McCann with 6-10 houses, The Loon Norquest, The drinking Boehmer, Liar Ryan, Nutty McConnell, Wacky Graham, et al. At least six lost re-election with their fringe beliefs.
@riverboy21... Well stated. The Republicans will point to any shiny metal object to distract, complicate and try to confuse the public from their true agenda... which once again appears to be partisan politics, filibustering and gridlock. They just can't adjust to the fact they were recently neutered by the voting public. Always a couple of rogue steers that still want to act like they have their jewels. McCain has just simply lost his marbles.
I'm all for a complete and thorough investigation. I'm also all for telling the American people the truth. And Susan Rice lied. She did. If Obama wants to back her up, fine. But he can't whine about how "outrageous" the criticism of her is when we all know she lied about the video being the cause of the Benghazi attack. My gut feeling is that someone in the administration dropped the ball on security here and they don't want it to make them look bad. Just be honest with us, we can take it. If there was a failure somewhere along the way, correct it. Why is that so hard?
ok,assuming that everything has been brought out in the open about the attack next question.What is the U.S going to do about this and what can we do to prevent further attacks?I don't want to hear party drivel.I want to hear solutions.Action is what is needed,not just words.
The only thing Obama can slam is himself he should correct his problems before trying to slAM SENITORS.
Seattle Seahawk...you need to SLAM the SPELL CHECK BUTTON!
DOOFUS!
Let's see, McCain and Graham would be on which side of the 55-45 CHASM!
Republicans have to have something to argue about and show that they haven't stopped breathing. McCain is still bitter over the 2008 election and how he missed his turn at the presidency. Sen Graham has followed McCain's lead for many years and is under attack in his own state of South Carolina for not being hard left. He will face a hard reelection compaign and this noise over Benghazi is an attempt to show the home folks how tough he is.
McCain used to be such an honorable and likeable guy until he ran in 2007-08. The guy who came out the other side was barely recognizable.
if the democrats did'nt like argueing too you would'nt see their posts here too.argueing only happens when there are at least two parties participating.
We seen pictures of the Situation Room when the Navy Seals got OBL and during Hurricane Sandy but we have yet to see the Situation Room during the Benghazi terrorist attack.
That's because they didn't know of the attack until after it happened and it went on for maybe an hour? U think they all were gathered up in a room waiting for someplace to be attacked?
I just expect the President to do everything in his power to protect American lives. By the way the fighting lasted for 8 hours.
What you fail to realize is the point of having a cabinet and administration. The President himself never makes tactical decisions. That's left up to the leaders of the department of the military handling each situation.
The most the President can do is give a green light or red light.
I'm sure when this "investigation" (witch hunt) is over, it will shed no more light on what actually transpired and who was at fault than Fast and Furious. Is this acceptable? I would say that when you look at how the same people that vilify Obama and his administration and stay in a fruitless search for ways to bring him down for RELATIVELY small incidences (8 years in the Marines, I know more people are killed weekly in standard operations and small missions than in ANY of these events), would and never have thought of putting blame on a president and administration that LIED about a country and leader holding "weapons of mass destruction" and never acted on intel that CLEARLY stated how 9/11 was going to go down.
To this day, there hasn't been a real investigation into events that wasted TRILLIONS of dollars and THOUSANDS of lives.
Is this said to give President Obama a free pass? Of course not, the man in charge should ALWAYS have to answer for events gone wrong! BUT do NOT act like coverups are new! Do NOT act like you've turned a blind eye when others were in office! One has to think and wonder why THIS president is all of a sudden supposed to release secret documents and items of National Security and spill out all the details of a possible mess OR even have to EXPLAIN how or why things went wrong!
If you can say for one second this administration isn't held to a different standard, you are lying....mostly to yourself.
I just wish people were more interested in getting the bad guys than playing at politics. We've spent a decade knowingly sending soldiers to their deaths to accomplish... what? And, somehow, this is worse?
It's only worse because of who's in office.
If Obama's driver accidentally ran over a raccoon in the street there would be a congressional hearing on his treatment of wild animals...
You have absolutely lost your mind. Sorry...this "Well it's ok because other government officials in other administrations" get away with "coverups" doesn't hold water. The murder of four Americans including an Ambassador is not a "relatively small incident". It's not something to just pass off and equate to say Americans getting killed to small arms friendly fire. No sir.
The highest officials of this government for two weeks stood in front of the American people and the world (UN General Assembly) and patently lied. They were not misled, or given false information. They knew what the truth was virtually in real time. They knew what they were saying was categorically false.
Double standard? Bull crap. I don't care who or what administration ran this thing. There is something clearly foul here. And you know it.
David, I agree!!
My point is that of ALLLLL the B.S. and lies that have been pumped in our ears, out of all the scandals and of out of all the mistakes that led to lives being lost, there has NEVER been this much outrage.
We've had one law enforcement official killed and 4 ambassadors. That's nothing to shake a stick at, but it pales in comparison to the straight up lies that were just ACCEPTED by the same people that now want to act like this is all new. So far, the only difference between his slip-ups and cover-ups are the way they are being attacked by political opponents and the people who are all of a sudden outraged that a politician might not be telling the full truth.
To all of you who have never been in a raging combat battle, there is what is called the 'Roshomon effect'. For every person involved, there is a different take on the 'facts'.
Getting to the facts of combat after the event is to have to figure out, over time, how so many different stories of the same event, involving numerous people, dead and alive can add up to the mental coherency needed for fixing shortfalls and problems and moving forward.
Just Republican on-going strategy to try to legitimately rape the President.
I'm a member of SOG.
This is the "how dare you" defense. Misdirection from the facts. It works because people are stupid. It doesn't work if you have a shread of intelligence...
that is what Obama campaigned upon, that people in America are stupid, and he was correct.
Will someone in this administration just tell the truth? This "still under investigation" two months after the fact screams cover up. This is a simple duck and dodge and everyone with an ounce of intelligence regardless if your a D, R or I knows it.
Someone told the President, Vice President, SOS, Press Secretary, UN Ambassador to lie - who and why? And why after repeated warnings and calls for help were they denied? And who denied them?
None of it adds up and I thank god there are members of both parties in Congress that will not put up with this. Drag them all in kicking a and screaming if you have to. We deserve answers.
Just one more trumped up non-issue so Republicans can continue to do nothing about the economy. If you need a conspiracy theory, let's go after Bush and his buddies for 9/11/2001 ... lots of ignored intelligence, lots more dead people ... but no Republicans looking for a conspiracy.
you've got be kidding....or you are 10 years old, one or the other.
This administration has been buck passing and using propaganda to change history for the last four years. One must realize that it's not just this administration. They all do it and point the finger at the other. The Obama administration has worn out the Bushy made me do it finger and has to find new ways to make the population look the other direction when something goes wrong. Everyone involved in the foreign policy of this country is responsible for the failure in Libya and when all is said and done the president is the head mother in charge, just like the captain of a ship at sea. He is responsible for the actions of the officers he appoints. He put them where they are. So, in this respect Obama is absolutely correct. They should be stepping on his dinky as well as those who aided in the screw up that cost human lives. Everyone involved should get their fair share of the ration still to come down, including Rice. This is not one of those events that can be passed off with; “Oh well! @!$%# happens.” Enough said for now. Have to keep up on this story line and see where it goes.
Obama was emphatic, in the second debate, that he indeed did call the Benghazi attack a "terrorist act" in his September 12th rose garden speech. Today he states the white house sent Susan Rice out to the Sunday talk shows on September 16th, and she repeated the story she was told by that same white house, that there was an unruly protest that grew into violence caused by a you tube video and there was no evidence of a pre- planned attack. So why Mr. President did you tell her to appear and say lies?
Stating things that the White House told her to say 5 days after the attack was very likely what the White House believed was true AT THE TIME. If they found out later it wasn't accurate, that doesn't mean that Susan Rice was lying. The GOP is grasping at straws.