Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press for the first time since her 2012 post-Benghazi round on the Sunday shows, National Security Advisor Susan Rice acknowledged that the information she delivered back then wasn’t completely true.
Host David Gregory asked if she had any regrets about that appearance, in which she said the attack was attributed to an anti-Muhummad YouTube video.
“No, because what I said to you that morning and what I did every day since was to share the best information that we had at the time. The information I provided, which I explained to you, was what we had at the moment,” Rice said. “It could change. I commented that this was based on what we knew on that morning was provided to me and my colleagues and indeed to Congress by the intelligence community and that’s been well validated in many different ways since.”
“And that information turned out in some respects not to be 100 percent correct. But the notion that somehow I or anybody else in the administration misled the American people is patently false, and I think that that’s been amply demonstrated.”
The controversy over her news show appearances led to the withdrawal of her nomination as secretary of State. Instead, President Obama appointed Rice to a post that didn’t need Senate confirmation.
“What I do know is that I have a great job. It’s the greatest honor in the world to work for the president of the United States and on behalf of the American people. And I couldn’t ask for anything more,” she said.
Rice was asked if we’re any closer to finding those responsible for the murder of four Americans that night, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
“Yes, I think you’ve heard the attorney general speak to this. The investigation is ongoing and has indeed made progress. But the point is we will get the perpetrators. We will stay on it until this gets done. If you need any proof of that, recall the capture operation that occurred not long ago in Libya against somebody who attacked the United States many years ago in Africa,” she said.
Anas al-Libi, wanted in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, was captured 15 years later in Tripoli.
“The United States stays on the case. This president, our President Obama, has said that we do what will it takes to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Rice said of Benghazi. “And indeed, we will.”
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