Obama Warns McCain

Afrik Update

New/USA

POLITICS

By Olivier Knox

     Go after U.N. Ambassador Rice? ‘You have a problem with me’

                             

President Barack Obama bluntly told Sen. John McCain and other Republicans to lay off their attacks against U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice over the Benghazi assault, telling lawmakers that if they go after her "then you have a problem with me." And Obama, speaking at his first postelection press conference, vowed that Republican opposition would not dissuade him from nominating Rice to replace departing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"I don't think there's any debate in this country that when you have four Americans killed that's a problem," he told reporters in the East Room of the White House. "And we've got to get to the bottom of it, and there needs to be accountability. We've got to bring those who carried it out to justice—they won't get any debate from me on that.

"But 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," he warned.

McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other Republicans have signaled they will oppose Rice's confirmation if Obama nominates her. Their numbers thus far seem far short of the 40 needed to block it, and some Republican senators have signaled that she should get a fair hearing.

"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," Obama said.

"And should I choose, if I think that she would be the best person to serve America in the capacity of the State Department, then I will nominate her," he vowed. "That's not a determination that I've made yet."

Conservatives have assailed Rice, who is close to Obama, ever since she made the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows and said that American intelligence believed the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, which claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, grew out of demonstrations against an Internet video that ridicules Islam.

White House aides have said Rice was speaking based on the best available intelligence at the time.

"She made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence provided to her," Obama said Wednesday. "If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham want to go after somebody, they should go after me.

"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," he said.

"We're after an election now," he scolded. "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've got a full-blown investigation. And all that information will be disgorged to Congress."

McCain and Graham hit back quickly.

"I have always said that the buck stops with the President of the United States," the Arizona senator said in a written statement. McCain accused Obama of "contradictory statements" about the attack, labeling it an "act of terror" the day after it happened and then resisting the use of the word "terrorism" for roughly a week afterward.

"We owe the American people and the families of the murdered Americans a full and complete explanation, which for two months the President has failed to deliver," said McCain, who has called for Congress to create a "select committee" to investigate.

"Mr. President, don't think for one minute I don't hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi. I think you failed as commander in chief before, during and after the attack," Graham said in a statement released by his office.

"We owe it to the American people and the victims of this attack to have full, fair hearings and accountability be assigned where appropriate. Given what I know now, I have no intention of promoting anyone who is up to their eyeballs in the Benghazi debacle," Graham said.

Obama opened what was his first press conference in months with a vow to work with both parties in Congress to tackle the so-called fiscal cliff and revive the economy. He also said he had "no evidence" that the scandal that led David Petraeus to resign in disgrace from his job as CIA director had led to breaches in classified national security material.

Obama pledged to "try to make a push in the coming months to see if we can open up a dialogue between Iran and not just us but the international community, to see if we can get this thing resolved. ... I can't promise that Iran will walk through the door that they need to walk through, but that would be very much the preferable option" to military action, he said.

- On the possibility of working with Republican rival Mitt Romney:

Obama said that "we haven't scheduled something yet."

"I think everybody needs to catch their breath," he said. "I'm sure that Gov. Romney is spending some time with his family. And my hope is, before the end of the year, though, that we have a chance to sit down and talk."