She did the best she could with the best information she had at the time, UN Ambassador Susan Rice said yesterday, defending for the first time her early account of the attack that killed the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi.
“When discussing the attack against our facilities in Benghazi, I relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community,” she said, speaking to reporters outside the UN Security Council.
“I made clear that the information was preliminary, and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers.”
She said she respects Republican Sen. John McCain, who has been critical of her, but that her initial comments attributing the attacks to a mob enraged over an anti-Muslim video was based on the initial intelligence assessments.
“Some of the statements he’s made about me have been unfounded,” she said of McCain. “But I look forward to . . . discuss[ing] all of this with him.”