The Washington Post recently suggested that Susan Rice just stop giving interviews. We think they’re right.
Rice is famous for explaining that Benghazi was caused not by a pre-planned terrorist attack, but by a spontaneous protest-gone-wild about an Internet movie criticizing Muslims. Benghazi became Obama’s albatross when emails later revealed that the administration knew all along the terrorist nature of the attacks; some emails characterize State Department officials as “literally stunned” to see Rice on the Sunday talk show circuit spewing her message. The lies likely cost Rice the Secretary of State job vacated by Clinton. Later, Rice explains Benghazi as, “I regret the information I was provided was wrong, but that doesn’t make me a liar. That makes me a public servant trying to say what we knew at the time.” About a year later, Obama promoted her to National Security Advisor.
Rice, virtually unknown in the foreign policy world, was appointed by Obama. The former Rhodes Scholar was the youngest person to serve as Assistant Secretary of State, and the first African-American Ambassador to the United Nations. Strangely, she just signed on with a talent agency, Creative Arts Agency. Joe and Jill Biden and Valerie Jarrett are also members, and the agency has clients like Peyton Manning and Matthew McConaughey.
Her latest debacle involves releasing actual names of Trump transition team members who were “inadvertently” wiretapped in Trump Tower. Federal law requires the masking of identities of people who turn up incidentally on a surveillance tape, but multiple sources say that Rice both asked for the Trump team names and pushed for their public release. While Rice certainly had the authority to unmask the names, the information is only supposed to be used for national security purposes, leading many in Washington to accuse her of abuse of power for political motivations. Previously, Rice claimed to know nothing of Trump transition officials and Russian surveillance, and stated as much in a PBS interview. Once again, she’s been caught in another lie.
In 2014, Rice angered many for applauding Bowe Bergdahl for serving the US military with honor and distinction. She persisted in defending him. Bergdahl was the Army deserter who sought out the enemy; the US eventually traded five Taliban prisoners for his release.
Her latest gaff may be the biggest whopper of all. In an NPR interview, Rice touted the Obama administration for successfully convincing Syria to voluntarily and verifiably give up its chemical weapons. Three months later, Assad used chemical weapons on his own people. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a memo to Obama less than two weeks before the Rice interview, noting that other undeclared chemical weapons like sarin gas and VX nerve agent still existed and were still being used on the Syrian people.
Is Rice clueless or complicit? Either way, she’s incompetent.
