that he heard from susan rice in public. have here is a situation where it's become highly politicized. no doubt about that. political effort that obama reacted to strongly in the press conference when he said why take on susan rice. if you want to come after somebody, come after me. that proted senator mccain to say you have culpability here. >> chris: it may be politicized but it doesn't mean something didn't go wrong. >> we shouldn't be under illusion there weren't elements of the government that didn't understand this was a terrorist attack. you had mike ronallers on the morning of september 12, chairman of the house intelligence committee who had been briefed by c.i.a. earlier that morning come out on the morning of september 19 and say this was a military style commander doe assault on u.s. compound. the station chief in libya send a cable saying man on the ground. this was a terrorist attack. pentagon saying on day one this was a terrorist attack. >> chris: how do you explain james clapper the director of internationa

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ambassador susan rice. he wasn't the only senator attacking susan rice today, but he told a provable lie that is something even joe mccarthy would have been reluctant to say. and that's tonight. aspirin, really? i haven't thought about aspirin for years. aspirin wouldn't really help my headache, i don't think. aspirin is just old school. people have doubts about taking aspirin for pain. but they haven't experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. in fact, in a recent survey, 95% of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. what's different? it has micro-particles. enters the bloodstream fast and rushes relief to the site of pain. visit fastreliefchallenge.com today for a special trial offer. ♪ in a world where ♪ there is so much to see ♪ there's still no other place ♪ that i would rather, rather ♪ rather, rather be ♪ [ male announcer ] dip into sabra hummus and discover a little taste of the world. enjoy sabra dips. adventure awaits. >>> republicans are doing everything they ca

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in the editorial as doug mentioned, while senators graham, ayotte and mccain are focused on what susan rice, ambassador rice said on the sunday talk shows, they are not asking any questions at all about the real questions about security there at the consulate in benghazi. that's where their interest and focus and ire should be pointed. not at a u.n. ambassador who went on the sunday talk shows as a spokesperson for the administration giving, imparting the information she was given by the intelligence community. >> and susan, for those just joining us. this happened moments ago in the last hour. i want to remind everyone what the three senators had to say. take a look. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. >> bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before that the 16 september explanation about how four americans died in benghazi, libya, by ambassador rice, i think, does not do justice to the reality at the time. >> clearly the impression that was given, the information given to the american people was wrong, in fact, ambassad

outrageous. >> that began with south carolina senator lindsey graham giving his view of ambassador susan riceer role in the administration spin on the benghazi terror attacks and the president's reactions to those statements at his first news conference since being reelected. mr. obama, defending ms. rice, but his defense has actually added more to the controversy. senator graham reacted to the president by saying, mr. president, don't think for one minute i don't hold you responsible for benghazi, i think you failed as commander-in-chief before, during and after the attack. so much to get to first on this, jim, the showdown between the two senators, graham and mccain and the president. abc's terry moran called it an obama smackdown. "the washington post" john mccain's benghazi, and some say it's about mccain being bitter about losing to obama four years ago. >> i think five names and a conflagration, and number one petraeus and broadwell and number two, benghazi, benghazi, petraeus, broadwell, military ethics, mccain obama reduction, and fifth, the susan rice story, which life imitates art.

you have mccain and graham backing away of some of their sharper criticisms of susan rice. that there are also people that are skeptical that senator kerry shares that vision. >> he's more dovish than rice. >> exactly. and susan rice might be more hawkish to open leaning forward policy. >> a lot of folks including bill krystol who actually care about these things, are saying wait a second, republicans, susan rice might be a better pick than john kerr e. >> he was very careful and he's been careful to not say he's for or against susan rice but he did have a warning for the president. here he is. >> i would just ask that the president step away from all the buzz around this particular situation and take a deep breath and decide who is the best secretary of state for our country, at this time when we have so many issues to deal with. >> i don't know whether that was a veiled reference to pick someone else or not. but the question, tim, is does the administration need to have a fight about this right now? >> look, i think senator corker was exactly right that the president shoul

ambassador, susan rice. john mccain also out with a statement moments ago, basically says clearly the facts as presented and the statements by susan rice on the sunday shows clearly did not comport with the facts on the ground. he's referring, of course, to benghazi. it was an extraordinary situation. the cia came to the defense of susan rice and as the president said, put out a statement saying, susan rice is relaying the information she got from the intelligence community, obviously, there was no intention to mislead as far as the administration is concerned, guys. >> all right. thanks for that, mike. >> okay. >> we have a big treat here today in the studio. former pennsylvania governor red rendell, taking krystal's seat. >> nice to be here. >> let's pick up on the point about susan. that was kind of a gripping, dramatic moment there, that defense by obama of susan rice. of course, the broader issue here is susan rice supposedly at the top of the white house's list to replace hillary clinton as secretary o

ambassador susan rice.op intelligence officials say they knew from the beginning that terrorism was involved in the attacks but kept rice's comments vague to avoid compromising future legal proceedings. they knew terrorism was involved but didn't know whether the attacks were planned in advance and they didn't have the suspect's identity. still, many house repub cans are saying he's unfit to succeed secretary clinton at the state department. >> i'm just curious. john heilman, first of all -- >> elizabeth warren. >> let's just say what happened, okay? the president's punch line was al qaeda is on the run, blah, blah, blah. they politicized intel. guess what, white houses do that. i'm not shocked, i'm not stunned. i wish they wouldn't have done it. but how do you protect americans in the future and what happened after the ambassador was already killed? but how long has susan rice been in public service, like since her 20s, right? >> a long time. >> so we actually have people on capitol hill that are going to

if that is true, why does susan rice go out three days later or petraeus go out 3 days later and rice go out 5 days later. candy crowley rescued him -- i said it was a terror attack from day 1. >> sean: why did she say it five days later? >> exactly! >> sean: jennifer, this seems to be an extension, anybody who is talking about this is shallow, ill-informed and political. if they want to say this is a war on women -- they are in campaign mode. fair analysis? >> this is the dying embers of feminism, that this is young put-upon woman. this is an ambassador to the u.n. either she is qualified to be there or she is not f. she is not qualified, fine. take her out. i think it is totally degrading to women and undercuts us all. >> sean: i don't want to get too lost in that. we heard from two congressmen in the room. a few things we learned. we corroborated, there were two tapes, one got there later, one tape in realtime. and the second thing that they are saying is that the intelligence community, which the white house and the president yesterday said, department mention al qaeda or terror.

susan rice would be a great candidate. but what the president said today was, if i choose susan rice, it's because i think she's the most qualified person for the job, and i'm not going to let your bs stand in the way of me nominating her for that. >> in terms of the tone that we're hearing from the president here, i am not one of those people who believes in like following body language as opposed to following policy fights, but it is striking that we saw the president at that debate with mitt romney, where it quickly spiralled into the false fact check and the please proceed and everything. we saw the president at that debate and we saw the president again today sort of bring the room to a halt, stop everybody, and look really pissed. i have not seen that very much in covering him as president. are there instances -- you've worked with and around him since going back to 2007. is there a pattern to when he gets mad about stuff? >> well, he has only a certain tolerance for some of the idiocy that the beltway gets itself en

susan rice, the u.s.he united nations, is sitting down with some of her more outspoken critics about comments she made over the attack in benghazi. congress has been demanding answers since ambassador chris stevens and three other americans were killed in libya on september 11. and there's no bigger critic of rice than senator john mccain. >> that was an act of terror. for 19 disagree with that fundamental fact i think is ignoring the facts. she continued to tell the world through all the talk shows that that -- that it was a "spontaneous demonstration sparked by a video." that's not competence in my view. >> rice is meeting now with senator john mccain of arizona and then will sit down with lindsay graham of south carolina and senator kelly ayotte from new hampshire. and we have more now from thrill. dana, tell us more. >> reporter: the meeting we believe is underway now. i say we believe because we have seen the senators go into the area where the meeting will take place. it is happening at a classified

my point, susan rice won't be hillary clinton.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 for-up? my guess is they probably did. >> greg: the u.n. loves her. the u.n. hated bolton which is why bolton was great. when u.n. loves you, they like someone to roll over. >> eric: they may have voted for her but that was prior to her lying to five different news organizations. >> bob: how can you accuse her of lying? the intelligence committee itself said that it was the same intelligence that the intelligence committee got the day before she testified. >> eric: be specific. >> bob: i will. senior member of the intelligence committee released the following statement. >> eric: you are always talking about who are the sources? who are they? name them. give us names. the "new york times" saying we talk about president obama's? talk about the sources. who are they? >> bob: this is adam -- he got the national intelligence briefin

that was clearly the message to-o susan rice. john mccain used to have a lot of respects from democrats, including myself. i think that has all but evaporated. john mccain happens to be wrong on the allegations he's making. the comments susan rice made four days after the benghazi attack were perfectly and entirely consistent with the intelligence that she was getting from the cia. when we believed that the attacks were a spontaneous protest and reaction to the video. what we've learned since then was that two things may have been happening. one, the spontaneous protests could have been occurring while an al qaeda-like organization was also planning an attack and trying to take advantage of the unrest that occurred as a result of the video. so, both things could have -- both things are likely to have been accurate. but the fact of the matter is that susan rice's comments were entirely consistent with the intelligence that she was getting from the cia at the time. and republicans tried to scandalize her on fast and furious. it tur

why was susan rice chosen it go out there if she knows about it. why was not mrs.nton tn or the deputies, either mo people who knew things didn't want to be on the record or read what she was given. >> she knew she was a loyal political operative and do exactly what-- >> where all of this leads to, whether it's general petraeus or hillary, there are questions whether people were being truthful or compromised in some ways and that's not good for us. >> paul: let's hope people keep digging. when we come back, could it be good news, the report that u.s. is on track to surpass saudi arabia as the world's largest oil producer, but will the obama administration regulate this boom until it goes bust? ♪ >> we thought we'd bring you some good news this week. the international energy agency reported monday that the the u.s. is likely to surpass saudi arabia as the world's largest oil producer as early as 20/20 and predicts that the u.s. will increase production to 11.1 million barrels a day by 2020, up to about 6.9 million barrels in 2008. that is if the obama administration

another roadblock for susan rice. a fresh round of criticism for the embattled ambassador to the united nations. this time from two moderate republican senators, susan collins and bob corker. both considered integral to rice's chances of becoming secretary of state if, in fact, she is nominated by the president. senator collins was the more critical of the two. she took the ambassador to task for using intelligence talking points in the aftermath of the attack in benghazi. >> i still have many questions that remain unanswered. i continue to be troubled by the fact that the u.n. ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of the contentious presidential election campaign by agreeing to go on the sunday shows to present the administration's position. >> senator corker declined to give deep details of the meeting but instead delivered a hit directed at the whole of washington. >> the whole issue of benghazi has been to me a tawdry affair. everything about it. i have found no heroes here

the republicans really think susan wright isn't rice isn't fit to be secretary of state or is the benghazi which brought about politics as usual was her panel what mccain and company are really up to in tonight's law and liberal rubble also even though as i was restrictive abortion ban is blocked from taking effect officials now state are still trying to prevent women from getting abortions and we're going to see an end to the conservatives war on women. you need to know this once there were three amigos. left. the tree you mean. they were the biggest stars of their day. soon. free. to come back on the. block. always three amigos please three amigos. they stick together through thick and thin from the queensland to the holy land from the ball field to the battlefield they are senators joseph lieberman lindsey graham and john mccain they've been called everything from the three amigos the three blind mice and the axis of error by the website downsize d.c. . org. those are the real three amigos big but because lieberman is leaving the senate the too many goes needed a new amigo and they chos

were you surprised susan collins went into a new line of attacks specifically indicting susan rice in kenyan embassy attacks in the late '90 snz. >> yes. it was surprising. from folks i spoke to on capitol hill involved in national security issues did not see susan collins going into that direction. susan collins is a moderate republican, not one to be known to be an obstructionist in any capacity. she was one of the primary sponsors of don't ask, don't tell repeal when that went through last year. so it's interesting to see susan colin goss on this line of attack saying she doesn't want to see the u.n. ambassador be a political spokesperson like susan rice was on the sunday shows. also opening up the new line of attacks when susan rice was in charge during the attacks in africa. that is something to a chill observer seems like okay, susan collins has done her research, that would be brought up in a confirmation hearing specifically saying why did you fail the country supposedly back in the '90s. the most interesting thing here, though, alex, was susan collins basically endorsing john

ambassador susan rice. yet, the smear campaign against susan rice continues as more republicans pile on. rice had another tough day on capitol hill today. now, senate republicans are blaming rice for yet another security failure. the u.s. embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania 14 years ago. >> it troubles me so much is the benghazi attack in many ways echos the attacks of those embassies in 1998 when susan rice was head of the african region for our state department. >> senator bob corker in tennessee had a warning for the president. >> i would just ask the president to step back for a moment and realize that all of us here hold the secretary of state to a very different standard than most cabinet members. >> while republicans say they are concerned about susan rice advancing bad intel, they didn't think twice about confirming condoleezza rice as secretary of state. susan collins, lindsey graham and john mccain all voted to confirm condoleezza rice. who would support as the next secretary of state? >> i thi

but one thing she did say is that she wouldn't necessarily supporters blocking susan rice. ve to give administration officials the space to do their jobs and in this case, ambassador rice was doing her job in talking about the i tacks. >> let me ask you ryan about something that senator collins said, that she did not come out and actually say, i'm going to block susan rice's nomination. she did say that john kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed. tell us why that might not quite be what republicans think it is. >> one issue is that it's senator john kerry becomes secretary of state john kerry and suddenly there's a special election in new jersey and some people were thinking about the opportunity for republicans. >> scott brown. >> scott brown is very popular and that's one angle. conservatives also have policy priorities, and one thing we have noticed is that while senator collins has gone one way, criticizing susan rice. i suspect that there are also people that are skeptical that senator kerry shares that position. >> he's more dovish than

and that may be a piece of what susan rice, we'll have to have a hard time keeping our rices straight here, that may be a piece of what she's paying. >> indeed. look forward to that column tomorrow. >> i'm looking forward to finishing it. >> thanks for being here first. and cykristin welker, thank you >>> george herbert walker bush, bush 41's office confirmed the former president has been hospitalized in houston for a week suffering from complications related to bronchitis sway longstanding cough. president bush has been in and out of hospital for several weeks. they say it's not pneumonia, it's not life threatening, and the 88-year-old is expected to be released within the next 72 hours, which is good news indeed. the u.n. vote today to grant palestinians unofficial membership that the general assembly's expected to pass overwhelmingly this afternoon poenl the united states and israel will be voting no. great britain is planning to abstain. nbc's martin fletcher join me, after covering celebrations that began early in ramallah. quite a lot of celebrating among the palestinians. we sh

susan rice is a bit player here.ed of the june attack on our consulate where they blew a hole -- where 40 people could go through? was he aware of the august 15 cable where stevens was saying we can't withstand a coordinated al qaeda attack? there are 10 militia groups all over benghazi. i blame the president for making this a death trap. i blame the president for not having assets available to help these people for eight hours. we need a select committee not only to look at intelligence failure, but how could the department of defense not help these people for over eight hours? and why did the department of state for months ignore pleas for help? we need to get this under one roof. >> can susan rice be confirmed of secretary of state if nominated by the approximate president? >> i don't know. i'm deferential to the president's picks. i voted for kagan and sotomayor. senator obama voted gaps john bolton, alito and john roberts. he had a very high bar for confirmation. i have a very low bar. i'm going to listen to wha

does seem like a losing hand where she ends up in administration. >> mike morrell was there with susan rice. there's this notion that there's an obsession here. it seems as if, especially when it comes to senators mccain, graham and ayotte, there's a lot of their attention directed to ambassador rice, but not a real hard push when it comes to the intelligence. we heard, i guess, mccain back away a little bit, and you have graham now saying that that consulate should have never been open on the day of the attack, september 11th. even still, the focus heavily is on ambassador rice. is that appropriate, knowing that the talking points originated from the cia? >> well, i think it's interesting that, you know, we sort of woke up this morning thinking that the firestorm over susan rice specifically might be dying down based on things that mccain said on sunday and that others have said. it seemed like he was getting ready to ease off of her, getting ready to give her the benefit of the doubt, getting ready to broaden the focus to the president. something about this meeting they had seems to have

ambassador susan rice. will the president go with the 2004 presidential candidate or his apparent favorite? and a report from gaza and the latest on the fighting there that i think could lead to a war with iran. this might be the first stage of that war. talk about the gop's woman problem. in story county, nevada, a republican businessman who employs lots of women just got elected commissioner. the thing is he employs lots of women. it's a brothel. >>> another victory for a democrat in a close house race. ron barber, the successor to gabrielle giffords, has won his race in southern arizona. barber defeated martha mcsally. it's barber, the democrat, who has emerged victorious. he was a district director for congresswoman giffords, and he was actually injured during the shooting that nearly killed her. >>> an update from florida in that race between patrick murphy and allen west. murphy's lead over west has grown by nearly 300 votes after a recount in st. lucy county, but west is still, unbelievably, refusing

it turns out when you look at the traffic online, it's president's response to questions about susan rice and criticism leveled at her from lindsey gram, senator john mccain and susan collins. >> i can tell you i know this bhous is us from tralted with john mccain and lindsey graham on the benghazi issue for quite sometime and you can see the president was almost looking forward to that question, if you will. i know there's personal irritation if you will in the west wing over susan rice being used as a scapegoat, a lot of loyalty to susan rice around here, particularly the campaign 2008 veteran. she was a big part of the president's 2008 campaign and i think where the personal defense of street comes in with the president and susan rice. add in this just let's not pretend a great relationship. the president john mccain. john mccain has been not always come across as the most magnanimous with the president and i think now there's more becoming a two-way issue with the president and john mccain. maybe not surprising considering they were former rivals for the presidency but you can tell th

secondly, is susan rice qualified? she certainly is.cholar, as u.n. ambassador she's been the one that tightened the sanctions on libya, on north korea. she's articulate. she knows the issues. she's a very hard worker. that's the issue, reverend. and if the president wants to nominate her secretary of state, we should just put the politics aside. she didn't know about this benghazi issue. so -- >> that's what i want to get to. they are accusing her of giving bad information. but so has senator mccain and graham. watch this, governor. >> i believe that suddam hussein presents clear and present danger to acquire weapons of mass destruction and there's very little doubt that he would use them. we're going to find weapons of mass destruction and we're going to find incredible brew tal teas that this dictator has inflicted on the iraqi people. >> he has weapons of mass destruction. he is lying when he says he doesn't. >> now, this led up to the iraq war. both of them saying there were weapons of mass destruction that wasn't there. these are

but let me say specifically about susan rice, she has done exemplary work. she has represented the united states and our interests in the united nations with skill and professionalism and toughness and grace. as i 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 provided to her. 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 besmirch her reputation is outrageous. and you know, we're after an election now. i think it is important for us to find out exactly what happened in benghazi and i'm happy to cooperate in any ways that congress wants. we have provided every bit of information that we have. and we will continue to provide information and we have got a full blown investigation. and all that in

it's susan rice who a lot of republicans have decided lied to the public. they allege was executing some kind of intentional cover-up plot by the administration. i don't know how that would work or what the cover-up would be. be that as it may, that's what republicans are saying. you have john mccain and lindsey graham both saying if her nomination is put forward, they will filibuster it. are there any indications that that would become an official republican party position, because if the republicans unite, they would have the 40 votes to kill it by filibuster. >> there is a lot of opposition among republicans to a potential susan rice nomination. people are not actively talking about filibuster, although that's the obvious presumption if you talk about members trying to block something like this. in some was they are saying that she was schoezen bied white