John McCain to Meet With Susan Rice to Settle Benghazi Score [View all]

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast



Nov 26, 2012 5:00 PM EST

The senator has blasted Susan Rice for misleading Americans about the Benghazi attack. On Tuesday, the two will meet to hash it out. Eli Lake reports.

Three weeks after losing the presidential election, Republicans are still pursuing questions on Benghazi, the scandal they hoped would undermine President Obama’s claims to be strong on national security.

Now, one of their targets could soon be off the hook. On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain says he’ll sit down face to face in a secure room at the Capital with Susan Rice, the woman he had previously vowed to oppose if she’s nominated as the next secretary of state. In an interview, McCain told The Daily Beast that Rice herself requested the meeting after McCain made several statements suggesting she misled the American people about the Benghazi attacks when she went on several Sunday talk shows on September 16, five days after the assault. On those shows, Rice said U.S. intelligence believed the Benghazi attack was not a planned act of terror, but instead a demonstration that got out of hand.

“If someone wants to come and see me, it would be improper for me to say, ‘No, I won’t meet with you,’” McCain said in an interview. “I will meet with you and hear your version of events why you went out and told the American people false information.’”

Rice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Regarding her initial statements about the attack, Rice has said she was relying “solely and squarely” on unclassified talking points prepared by the U.S. intelligence community. Those talking points didn’t include references to groups with al Qaeda links, even though such groups were mentioned in classified intelligence at the time. McCain said he plans to ask Rice if she had seen the classified intelligence before she went on the September 16 talk shows.




Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/26/john-mccain-to-meet-with-susan-rice-to-settle-benghazi-score.html