GOP Senators grilled Victoria Nuland over Benghazi and her involvement in the alteration of talking points that erroneously characterized the terrorist attack as a spontaneous demonstration during her confirmation hearing on July 11.
Nuland has been nominated to the position of chief U.S. Envoy to Europe. As Senators questioned her for confirmation, they asked her why she altered Benghazi talking points–especially regarding how “sanitized” she left the final set of talking points, according to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).
Fox News reported that Johnson accused Nuland of being more interested of protecting “her bosses’ image” than telling the truth to the American people.
Nuland responded by saying she did not actually make any edits. Rather, “she objected to references to prior security warnings and incidents.” She said she worried members of Congress could use this information “to beat the State Department for not paying Attention to agency warnings.”
Johnson responded, “[So] you were more concerned with the State Department getting beat up by members of Congress than potentially getting the truth out to the American people.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had tough questions for Nuland as well, while Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made it clear they are going to support Nuland’s confirmation.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
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