In an interview with NBC’s to be aired on Thursday night, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice explained that she was withdrawing her bid to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State because she didn’t want to impede upon President Obama’s second-term agenda.
“Today I made the decision that it was the best thing for our country, for the American people that I not continue to be considered by the president for nominatretary of state because I didn’t want to see a confirmation process that was very prolonged, very politicized, very distracting, and very disruptive because there are so many things we need to get done as a country, and the first several months of a second-term president’s agenda is really the opportunity to get the crucial things done,” Rice told NBC’s Brian Williams. “We’re talking about comprehensive immigration reform, balanced deficit reduction, job creation, that’s what matters, and to the extent that my nomination could have delayed or distracted or deflected or maybe even some of these priorities impossible to achieve, I didn’t want that and I’d much prefer to continue doing what I’m doing, which is a job I love at the United Nations.”
