Former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) often sparred in the wake of the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans. Graham repeatedly blasted the Obama administration's inaction and misleading narrative about the attack.
Rice recalled all the tension during an interview on the "Pod Save the World" podcast with former Obama adviser Tommy Vietor this week, when the two compared Sen. Graham to excrement and accused him of "lying" and "raising money off the death of four Americans."
"He's a piece of shit." — @AmbassadorRice on Lindsey Graham
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) October 22, 2019
Hear the rest of her interview on tomorrow's #PodSaveTheWorld pic.twitter.com/9GQITwlSlg
“He’s been a piece of s**t,” Rice chimed in. “I said it! I said it, dammit. Finally. He’s a piece of s**t."
Rice's and Vietor's stark assessment of Graham is one thing, but I was more interested in Rice’s perspective of the Benghazi scandal that made her one of the most infamous figures in politics. Back in 2012, Rice spoke for the Obama administration on several different news shows claiming that the terror attack on the U.S. consulate was sparked by spontaneous demonstrations in Cairo as a result of a "hateful" YouTube video. In reality, it was a premeditated attack. Fox News was one of several networks to expose Rice's misleading take. Yet she claims that the news outlet was just trying to peg her as a villain.
"It knows how to energize and rile up its viewers," Rice said of Fox. "Making them angry is how they get ratings. And the way to make them angry is to create villains that they can target and vilify. And you always need fresh villains."
Rice had given the network the “wherewithal” to be villainized, she mused.
“Because I had given them five different sets of video on these shows," she said. "And they could loop them, and they could turn me into a new villain."
“Now on Fox, many years later, they just need to say my name and it’s like people start twitching it’s like an automatic trigger point.”
Rice has a new memoir out in which she claims she was just repeating the talking points provided to her by the CIA.