During a recent White House press briefing, Jay Carney uttered words he may soon regret
when responding to a question on the continued criticism of Ambassador
Rice’s September 16th Sunday talk show circuit.
Mr.
Carney stated “there are no unanswered
questions regarding Ambassador Rice’s appearance on Sunday Shows and the
talking points she used”. However, it seems Senators McCain, Graham and Ayotte
disagree.
According
to Brietbart news, the Senators
released the following statement after their closed door meeting with Ambassador
Rice:
We
respectfully disagree with the White House’s statement that
‘there are no unanswered questions’ about Ambassador Rice’s September 16
Sunday show appearances and the talking points she used.
Around
10:00 am this morning in a meeting requested by Ambassador Rice,
accompanied by acting CIA Director Mike Morell, we asked Mr. Morell who
changed the unclassified talking points to remove references to
Al Qaeda. In response, Mr. Morell said the FBI removed the references
and did so to prevent compromising an ongoing criminal investigation.
We were surprised by this revelation and the reasoning behind it.
However,
at approximately 4:00 this afternoon, CIA officials contacted us and
indicated that Acting Director Morell misspoke in our earlier meeting.
The CIA now says that it deleted the Al Qaeda references, not the FBI.
They were unable to give a reason as to why.
We
are disturbed by the Administration’s continued inability to answer
even the most basic questions about the Benghazi attack and the
Administration’s response.
Beyond
Ambassador Rice’s misstatements, we continue to have questions about
what happened in Benghazi before, during, and after the attack on our
consulate – as well as the President’s statements regarding the attack.
Perhaps
most important, we also need to understand why the U.S. military was
unable to respond within seven hours to save American lives in Benghazi
and why our consulate was left so unsecured despite a series of previous
attacks.
In
more than a dozen letters, we and other Senators have repeatedly
requested that the Administration provide answers to our questions.
Yet, today most of them remain unanswered. We eagerly await their
response.
During the same press briefing Mr. Carney went on to say “the questions that remain to be answered, and that the President insists
be answered have to do with what happened in Benghazi, who was
responsible for the deaths of 4 Americans, including our Ambassador.
And what steps we need to take to ensure something like that does not
happen again”.
Well
Mr. Carney, it seems on this point we agree. Let’s hope Senators
McCain, Graham and Ayotte give President Obama the opportunity to answer
those questions he insists
be answered. Let’s hope the Senators take the President seriously and
‘go after him.’ After all the President did say during his November 11th
presser he is “happy to have that {Benghazi} discussion with them”.
Mr. President, we’re waiting.
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