Susan Rice Doubles Down on Benghazi Comments

On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice continued to defend the comments she made about Benghazi on Sept. 16.

In September, she countered U.S. intelligence by telling Jake Tapper the attack was a spontaneous one based on a YouTube video:

Our current best assessment, based on the information we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous–not a premeditated–response to what had transpired in Cairo. In Cairo, as you know, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated.

Now, more than two months removed from the those remarks, Rice continues to stand her ground:

When discussing the attacks on our facilities in Benghazi I relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. I made clear that the information provided to me was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definite answers.

At the time they were made on Sept. 16, Rice’s comments ran counter to the FBI’s assessment, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the personal opinion of then-CIA Director David Petraeus. Last Friday Petraeus said the intelligence community knew Al Qaeda was involved in the attack “almost immediately.”