Susan Rice: Why Republicans Will Block the Leading Hillary Clinton Replacement

Impact

UN Ambassador Susan Rice, President Obama's rumored favorite candidate to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, continues to be under Republican fire for the inaccurate accounts she gave after the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans — including Ambassador Chris Stevens — were killed. 

Rice appeared on the Sunday TV shows, following the tragedy, to say that the Libya attack had been spontaneous and that it had been caused by a mob angered at the anti-Islam YouTube film The Innocence of Muslims.

However, subsequent intelligence surfaced confirming the Benghazi attack had been indeed premeditated and carried out by an Al-Qaeda affiliate. Former CIA Director David Petraeus, who recently resigned from his post citing an extra marital affair, confirmed the information during his congressional hearing regarding the Benghazi attack. 

That's why Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, said Ambassador Rice was "not qualified" to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton because of what the GOP thinks are the misleading statements she delivered after the Benghazi attack. 

And President Obama is pushing back on his opponents by claiming that, even though he still hasn't made any decisions regarding new members of his cabinet, he wouldn't think twice about nominating Rice — even in the face of Republican opposition. 

The sentiment is shared by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the Chairwoman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, who defended Rice by saying, “we have seen wrong intelligence before, and it all surrounded our going into Iraq, and a lot of people were killed based on bad intelligence. And I don’t think that’s fair game. I think mistakes get made – you don’t pillory the person.”