them, house democrats came out to report the agency threw a lifeline, if you will, to embattled obama u.nbassador susan rice, corroborating ambassador rice's account of what she knew and when she knew it, even though we know now that what she was told and what she repeated was wrong about benghazi. libya remains highly political, partisan and even personal. libya's become a battle between president obama and republican senator ginnie mae who insisted again today the administration knew quickly that al qaeda had attacked. >> and for the president of the united states for two weeks afterwards to deny that that was the case is either a cover-up or it is incompetence. >> reporter: obama u.n. ambassador susan rice denied it, infuriating republicans. mike morrell on the hill today briefed some lawmakers on libya. one, a democrat said the account backed rice, that u.s. intelligence did give her the incorrect account that she passed on. >> this was a spontaneous protest that evolved into something militant, that was the best information they said they had at the time. >> reporter: there had been

two closed-door sessions here up on the hill, the cia threw a politically important lifeline to obama, u.n. ambassador dr. susan rice. but the overall issue remains highly political, highly partisan. even personal. libya's become a battle between president obama and republican senator john mccain, who insisted again today the administration knew quickly that al qaeda had attacked. >> and for the president of the united states, for two weeks afterwards, to deny that that was the case, is either a cover-up or it is incompetence. >> reporter: susan rice denied it, infuriating republicans. acting cia director mike morerel on the hill today briefed some lawmakers on libya. one, a democrat said the account backed rice, that u.s. intelligence did give her the incorrect account that she passed on. >> that this was a spontaneous protest that involved something militant. that was the best information. they said they had at the time. >> reporter: there had been earlier attacks in benghazi. house republicans hammered the administration reaction. >> the people back here in washington continue to deny a

ambassador, obama u.n. a.m.as door susan rice, said or did not say five days after the tragedy when she went on the sunday talk shows. nbc's "meet the press" specifically, and denied there was al qaeda involvement saying the earlier stories that there had been a riot gone wrong is what u.s. intelligence still believed was the case in libya. petraeus testified, according to those who heard his testimony, that the cia, in fact, believed immediately that al qaeda and another terrorist group was involved and wrote for public consumption some bullet points, which included that assumption by the cia. they went to other agencies quickly so they could get out publicly. five days later, rice denied al qaeda involvement. peter king, the republican from new york, said somebody took out the reference to al qaeda, which had been dumbed down, if you will, to the word extremist and then virtually eliminated from this public, nonclassified report. so, bill, the controversy continues. did susan rice say something publicly that s

and president obama fiercely defends his u.n. ambassador today after republicans threaten to block her possible nomination for secretary of state. rand paul joins us. tonight, we have late breaking developments in the petraeus scandal. first, we are just learning the name of the fbi agent who helped start the investigation that eventually led to the resignation of the nation's top spy. the name of the agent is frederick w. humphries ii. he's 47 years old. he was the investigator who first learned of a complaint from jill kelley that she received harassing e-mails. the government has taken away for now, the top security clearance of paula broadwell, the former mistress of david petraeus. this is after investigators found substantial classified information on her computer and the glaering question tonight is did broadwell's relationship with david petraeus give her access to these classified documents? "outfront" tonight, cnn national security contributor, fran townsend. she's also a member of the cia external add voizry committee

u.n. ambassador, susan rice. in his first full press conference since march president obama was asked about the criticism of u.n. ambassador susan rice. his likely choice to replace hillary clinton as secretary of state. >> besmerch her reputation is outrageous. >> reporter: rice has come under fire for stating that the september attack on an american consulate in libya appeared to be the result of a spontaneous demonstration. >> as i've said before, she made an appearance at the request of the white house in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provide to her. if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> reporter: and that's just what senator john mccain did a short time later. he has been one of rice fiercest critics. >> first and foremost the president and commander-in-chief is most responsible and i hope the president has no illusions about our view of his responsibility. >> reporter: the president was asked about the calf. >> what i'm not going to do is to extend bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% that we can't aff

>>> this morning on "early today," tempers in washington are flaring as president obama stands up for his u.n. secretary against scathing criticism from republicans. >>> all that while embattled former cia director david petraeus will testify on capital hill today. >>> breaking news from the middle east as rockets are fired between the israelis and palestinians. this morning three israelis are killed. a live report coming up. >> announcer: this is "early today" for thursday, november 15th, 2012. >>> good morning,er one. i'm lynn berry. and today one scandal will give way to another in washington. former cia director david petraeus is expected to testify in a closed door senate intelligence committee hearing. general petraeus is not expected to discuss his personal indiscretions that ended his career last week. instead, he'll be talking about details on the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. the controversy over u.n. ambassador san rice calling the assault spontaneous back in september has reached a boiling point. yesterday president obama in his first news conference sinc

house is denying claims there was an attempt to hide the information to help president obama's re-election campaign. u.n. ambassador susan rice has come under fire for saying the attack was a reaction to anti-islamic video. officials say they intentionally kept ambassador rice's talking points vague to avoid compromising future legal proceedings. while they knew terrorism was involved they didn't know if the attacks were planned in advance and they didn't have the suspects' identities. still am house republicans are blaming ambassador rice, saying she's unfit to succeed secretary hillary clinton at the state department should president obama decide to nominate her for the post. nearly 100 republican congressmen sent a letter to president obama saying ambassador rice's statements on benghazi have, quote, caused irreparable damage to her credibility both at home and around the world. senator john mccain said he would work to block her nomination. >> she should have known better because we now know there was information from classified sources, which clearly indicated that this was an al qaeda-affiliated a

eliot: without question the most talked about moment from president obama's press conference was his full throated defense of the u.nbassador susan rice who had been attacked from the right specific specifically senators john mccain and lindsay graham over comments about the benghazi attack. >> obama: 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. 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. >> eliot: an hour after the president's comments mccain and graham were on the senate floor doubling down on their call for investigation into rice's comments. >> this president and this administration has either been guilty of colossal incompetence or engageed in cover up, and if someone carried a message to the american people that was totally and utterly false with no basis in fact, then that person has to be held accountable as well. >> for more on the president's defense of susan rice a

listen to romney's conference call about obama's gifts and mccain's complaints about obama ally u.n.mbassador susan rice. >> what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressive to turn them out to vote. >> susan rice should have known better, and if she didn't know better, she's not qualified. she should have known better. i will do everything in my power to block her from being the united states secretary of state. >> joy reid, let's go after romney first and the way he's calculating how he lost. now, you can give all kinds of reasons for losing and, fair enough, that's what you do in your head. but when you spout the argument that the other guy bought all the interest groups, all the categories of citizens and that's -- that seems to diminish not just the purchaser but the purchase. you're basically saying these people were up for grabs, just buy them. you're never going to get them ever again if you talk about people that way it seems. >> exactly. and talkin

listen to romney's conference call about obama's gifts and mccain's complaints about obama ally u.n.mbassador susan rice. >> what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressive to turn them out to vote. >> susan rice should have known better, and if she didn't know better, she's not qualified. she should have known better. i will do everything in my power to block her from being the united states secretary of state. >> joy reid, let's go after romney first and the way he's calculating how he lost. now, you can give all kinds of reasons for losing and, fair enough, that's what you do in your head. but when you spout the argument that the other guy bought all the interest groups, all the categories of citizens and that's -- that seems to diminish not just the purchaser but the purchase. you're basically saying these people were up for grabs, just buy them. you're never going to get them ever again if you talk about people that way it seems. >> exactly. and talkin

obama was not a great friend of netanyahu but it is same time he was very generous to israel when it came to supply of weapons and defending israel at the u.n. so obama and i'm always white line by netanyahu to bring weapons to bring weapons into israel as we know it's no secret all the that obama and netanyahu have not been the best their friend certainly since obama came into the white house if i may briefly i've got a very running very long time here at the iranian nuclear issue certainly and no doubt is going to be one of the core issues to be discussed do you think with a republican at the helm of the white house that a peaceful solution can be found with iran. i believe that here again the rhetoric's was a little bit different but at the end if you listen carefully to what romney said in the third debate he was not very enthusiastic about both israeli attack independent attack or american attack i think the last thing that he would like to do is to follow a president bush mistake getting into the iraqi. swamp so i don't see any difference maybe there will be more chemistry between president romney if he becomes president and prime min

are simmering over details surrounding the 9/11 terror attack in benghazi as president obama stands up for his u.n. secretary against scathing criticism from republicans. all that while embattled former cia director david petraeus prepares to testify on capitol hill today. and breaking news from the middle east. as rockets are fired between the israelis and palestinians, this morning three israelis are killed. we'll have a live report coming up. first, good morning, everyone. i'm lynn berry. today, one scandal will give way to another in washington. david petraeus expected to testify in a closed door senate intelligence committee hearing. general petraeus is not expected to talk about his personal indiscretions that ended his cia career last week. instead, he'll be discussing details in the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya that resulted in the death of christopher stevens and three others. >>> also, the controversy over u.n. ambassador susan rice calling the assault spontaneous in september reached a boiling point. yesterday president obama and his first news conference since

. >>> cbs news has learned president obama will likely nominate u.n. ambassador susan rice to replace hillary clinton as secretary of state. rice may face a tough confirmation process, though. republicans have criticized her response to the september 11th assault in benghazi. rice said it was a spontaneous response to anti-american protests in cairo and not a coordinated attack. >>> congress returns today with an agenda dominated to avoid the so called fiscal cliff, the combination of tax expense increases and spending cuts. president obama meets with top ceos tomorrow to discuss the issue. on friday, mr. obama meets with congressional leaders. >>> new york governor andrew cuomo is ask asking the frovd for $30 billion in aid to help his state rebuild following hurricane sandy. two weeks after the storm, tens of thousands of customers remain without power in the hardest hit sections of new york and new jersey. some 55,000 of them on long island. cuomo says the long island power company was not prepared and failed to communicate. >> i'm going to do a tho

raises questions about it, just as senator obama at the time raised questions about president obama's pick for u.non. he vigorously opposed it. senator mccain has every right to do that as well. i do think it was -- i have been in that position as susan rice, i would have been buoyed by the fact that president obama defended me. loyalty goes both ways. i think they have a problem here. one of the reasons the story keeps at it is they are refusing to recognize that there are legitimate question questions. every day more facts are uncovered to make it look worse for them. >> eric: can i point something out? i don't like hillary clinton's politics or bill clinton's politics. but hillary clinton was a good secretary of state. >> andrea: why? >> eric: she was tough. >> andrea: on what? >> eric: she didn't back down and she had ideas, thought about things and she did it her way. my point, susan rice won't be hillary clinton. susan rice will be a mouthpiece for president obama and not the american people. >> bob: curious, check this out and see if mccain and graham had such problems did they vote for her

. >> president obama defends the u.n. ambassador to the u.n. he says he has determined whether he will nominate her for secretary of state. >>> the woman at the center of the petraeus scandal has had her security removed. she had high clearance. cbs news has learned the identity of the fbi agent who first brought the case to the bureau. frederick humphries is a friend of florida socialite jill kelley. she went to him when she started getting e-mails from paula broadwell. >>> three people are reportedly dead after a rocket attack on southern israel from the gaza strip. the attack comes after israel l a military operation this week on gaza which is governed by the palestinian militant group hamas. it began after previously rocket attacks on israel. palestinian officials say president mahmoud abbas has cut short a trip to europe to deal with the crisis. >>> two women home alone in marin county managed to fight off an armed prowler. officers say the suspect may have stab wounds in his chest. according to police, he broke into a san rafael apartment

temperatures rise in washington as president obama defends u.n. country star jason aldean talks about the highs of being on top of the charts and the lows of being tabloid fodder. >>> but first, here's a look at what's happening in the world and what we've been covering on "cbs this morning." >>> senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> reporter: the president came to the east room of the white house yesterday, eager to push his message on the fiscal cliff, but he was also peppered with questions about his handling of national security and foreign policy. >>> mitt romney yesterday had an analysis of the president. >> basically, their argument is the president did well with minorities, african-americans, hispanic voters and young voters because he systematically, basically bought them off. >>> petraeus is set to testify before the house intelligence committee tomorrow morning in washington over the attacks on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. >> this fbi agent number one, the whistle-blower,

yesterday, president obama intensely defended u.n. ambassador susan rice who was under fire for saying the attack was a protest gone out of control, rather that a terrorist incident. today, democrats and republicans went after each other for trying to politicize ben ghazi. >> what is clear is that this administration, including the president himself, has intentionally misinformed, lied to the american people in the aftermath of the tragedy. >> if you want an honest investigation of this tragedy, we will join you. but if you want to persist in trying somehow to put this, lay this at the doorstep of the president or the secretary of state or the united nations ambassador, you will find us ready and willing photoresist to the teeth. -- willing to resist to the teeth. >> reporter: david petraeus was a concern among some committee members today who want to know exactly what is in the report compiled by petraeus following his visit to libya. petraeus resigned last week after admitting to an affair and the fbi is investigating if classified

president obama defended u.n.sador susan rice's explanation for the benghazi. >> for them to go after the u.n. ambassador who had nothing do with benghazi, and making a presentation based on intelligence she had received and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous, should i choose, if i think that she would be the best person to serve america, in the capacity, the state department, then i will nominate her, that's not a determination that i've made yet. stuart: however, republicans are questioning why ambassador rice was even involved in the first place. here is congressman lindsey graham from yesterday. >> i can't believe the president said that we sent someone out to explain benghazi who had nothing to do with benghazi. that's pretty stunning. why did they pick her? if she had nothing to do with benghazi, she's not in charge of conflict security, she works in the u.n. why nobody from the state department? i believe she's a close political ally of the president ic . stuart: there's a controversy for you. another

. >> on september 25, obama went to the u.n. prophet muhammad and disgracing the prophet muhammad. you are telling me that obama saw it happening, thought it was a demonstration and sent out susabrice to lie about it. we find out it was an al qaeda-affiliated group! and we have dead americans! nobody died at watergate. i think it is similar to watergate. with these emails, we are beginning to unravel. i look sadly for impeachment. i would look for scandal and ugliness which we don't need in this country. >> sean: you think that could happen? >> yes! i do! >> first of all, calling susan rice is a liar, wrong and disrespectful and you should be ashame of yourself. you have no idea whether she lide or not. there will be an investigation. and send her an email and apologize to her. >> sean: she didn't tell the american people the truth, michael. >> you don't know that, sean. >> sean: we have plentee [overlapping dialogue] >> to call her a liar is unfair. and it's disrespectful. >> sean: i said what she said is not true. we have to g

and president obama defending u.n. ambassador susan rice by saying, quote, blame me not her nor the message confusion after the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya. up next senator lindsey graham joins us live to explain how he thinks the administration allowed our consulate in benghazi to become what he calls a death trap. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody they should go after me. and i'm happy to have that discussion with them. [ male announcer ] there are only so many foods that make kids happy. and even fewer that make moms happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. and i'm happy to have that discussion with them. but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador, who had nothing to do with benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based upon intelligence

you do not know about obama's speech before the u.n.. there's a lot of things you don't know. i cited the caliber of the liberals on fox news. they had a former vice presidential candidate on the democratic party. they have bob -- or bob, a blow hazard, but he ran mondale's campaign. susan ran decaucus' campaign. they are liberals, but they are as smart as they come. [laughter] they're the -- [applause] they're -- [laughter] it's the best liberalism they have to offer. [laughter] meanwhile, on msnbc, they have people i've never heard of, and they are functional retards representing the conservative arguments, and then i said in the prime time lineup, there's only one partisan host, sean hannity. they cite bill o'riley, middle of the road, believes in global warming, gun control, and loves the obama, and kopple got testing saying he's not opinionated? no, he's opinionated, it's that he's the best journalist in america. [laughter] he would agree with me on all of that. [laughter] okay, so then it runs, and they have a horrible clip of o'reilly screaming at a guest, the famous ba

joined now by the man leading the charge against the obama administration and u.n.n rice on the issue of benghazi. the senior senator from south carolina, republican lindsey graham. senator, let's get right into it. you just heard the chairs of the intelligence committees on benghazi. bottom line point, did director petraeus call this terrorism from the get go? they say yes. they don't understand why the administration didn't call it the same two days later. how do you react? >> well, i think one of the reasons that susan rice told the story she did, if the truth came out a few weeks before the election, that our consulate in benghazi, libya, had been overrun by an al qaeda-sponsored militia, that destroys the thinking that al qaeda is dead, bin laden is dead. she said i want to remind the american people this president promised to go after bin laden, refocus on al qaeda. he got bin laden. al qaeda has been dismantled. and the truth of the matter nothing could have been further from the truth, and the story she told reinforced a political narrative helpful to the pr

. >>> president obama challenges critic of the terror attack to "go after me," not u.n. ambassador susan rice. this is "special report." ♪ >> chris: good evening. i'm chris wallace in for bret president obama held his first news conference in eight months today. and the first question was not about the fiscal cliff, or the terror attack in libya. no. it was about the scandal involving two top officials, two women who are not their wives an whether there was a breach of national security. we have fox team coverage. national security correspondent jennifer griffin looks at whether the mistress of the former c.i.a. director had classified information on her home computer. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge tells us how some republican lawmakers are invoking washington's most famous scandal ever. but we begin with chief white house correspondent ed henry on the libya attack and who should get the blame. good evening. >> good evening, chris. temperature was raised today as the republicans said they want watergate style hearings in to benghazi. the president fi

u.n. human rights council, winning another three years. the obama administration has played an active role of the council after the bush administration refused to take part. on monday, u.n. ambassador susan rice said the u.s. is determined to reform the council, saying it's too biased against israel. >> the on it states is clearly of the the human -- the united states is clearly of the view there are many flaws and i highlighted many of them regarding israel. it is a body increasingly proving its by you and we been proud to contribute to some of what we think are the final moments of the human rights council approach to syria, sudan, its approach to the situation in libya with the commission of inquiry's. >> the human rights vote comes just as the united nations general assembly is set to approve its and a measure calling for into the u.s. embargo on cuba. the house is holding hearings today into the meningitis outbreak linked to steroid injections that have caused 32 deaths and hundreds of illnesses across the u.s. in a new report, the house energy

the hearings coming a day after president obama defended u.n. ambassador susan rice who was criticized for her remarks immediately following this attack. she is reportedly in contention to succeed hillary clinton as our secretary of state, take a listen. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. and i'm happy to have that discussion with them. 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 besmurch her reputation is outrageous. jenna: senator john cornyn of texas what's elected to be the senate's minority whip, a bit of a promotion if you will. thanks to have you back on the program. >> thank you, jenna, good to be with you. jenna: your reaction on what the president had to say yesterday in. >> i thought it was an overreaction to say the least. congress has a constitutional responsibility under our system of checks and balances to consider any nominations to an exe