Following her meeting with Republican Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte in a closed-door session on Tuesday, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said that the administration didn’t intend to “mislead the American people at any stage in this process,” maintaining that the initial intelligence assessment following the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya was incorrect.
“In the course of the meeting, we explained that the talking points provided by the intelligence community, and the initial assessment upon which they were based, were incorrect in a key respect: there was no protest or demonstration in Benghazi,” Rice said via a statement from the State Department. “While we certainly wish that we had had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case, the intelligence assessment has evolved. We stressed that neither I nor anyone else in the Administration intended to mislead the American people at any stage in this process, and the Administration updated Congress and the American people as our assessments evolved.”
The Republicans emerged from the meeting appearing even more troubled about the administration’s response, with Sen. Graham saying he was “more disturbed now” than ever before.
