In her first statement on the controversy surrounding comments she made to Sunday news shows days after the Benghazi attacks, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said she relied “solely and squarely on information provided by the intelligence community,” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported.
“I made clear that the information was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers,” Rice told reporters outside the U.N. Security Council Wednesday.
She said she agreed to a White House request to appear on the Sunday shows to talk about a range of issues, “which at that time were primarily and particularly the protests that were enveloping and threatening many diplomatic facilities, American diplomatic facilities around the world, and Iran’s nuclear program.”
Rice has been under fire from the right, most vocally from Senator John McCain, who charged Rice with misleading the American people about the nature of the attacks. She attributed the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benhazi to protests over an anti-Muslim YouTube video on that week’s Sunday shows. Intelligence later confirmed that the siege, which killed four Americans, was a planned act.
Rice said that while she respects Senator McCain, “some of the statements he’s made about me have been unfounded, but I look forward to having the opportunity at the appropriate time to discuss all of this with him.” She ignored a question about succeeding Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.
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