Susan Rice withdraws name from running for secretary of State
WASHINGTON — President Obama dropped embattled United Nations envoy Susan Rice from consideration as his next secretary of State, signaling the start of a broad reshuffling of his Cabinet and senior staff.
Bowing to a barrage of criticism by Republican members of Congress over Rice’s response after armed militants overran a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, Obama said Thursday he had agreed to her request to withdraw her name from consideration.
Obama said he deeply regretted “the unfair and misleading attacks” on Rice, and he praised his ambassador to the U.N. as “an extraordinarily capable, patriotic and passionate public servant.”
The decision marked a personal defeat for Obama, who had defended Rice repeatedly in recent weeks and is locked in tense negotiations with Republican leaders in the House over the fiscal crisis. Rice has been a pillar of Obama’s inner circle since she joined his 2008 presidential campaign.
At his first postelection news conference, Obama had directly challenged her Republican critics. “When they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she’s an easy target, then they’ve got a problem with me,” he said.
But Rice faced waning political support on Capitol Hill, and Obama’s aides weighed whether contentious confirmation hearings would undercut other priorities at the start of his second term. Although it appeared the White House had the votes to cut off a filibuster in the Senate and win her confirmation, the fight could have dragged on for weeks, and could have damaged her effectiveness as secretary of State.
The decision leaves Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the leading contender to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of State after she steps down early next year. That, in turn, would require a special election in Massachusetts and likely give Scott Brown, a moderate Republican who lost his Senate seat to Democrat Elizabeth Warren in November, another chance to run.
White House aides said the president was considering three possibilities to replace Leon E. Panetta as secretary of Defense.
They include Chuck Hagel, a Republican former U.S. senator from Nebraska, deputy Defense secretary Ashton Carter, and Michelle Flournoy, who was the highest-ranking woman at the Pentagon for most of Obama’s first term.
If nominated, Flournoy would be the first woman to run the Defense Department. She grew up in the Los Angeles area, where her father worked as a TV cinematographer at Paramount Studios, and she graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1979.
In a letter to Obama, Rice explained her decision by noting that confirmation hearings “would be lengthy, disruptive and costly — to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities. That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country.”
One former administration official said Rice was in direct communication with Obama staffers, but was not forced to pull out by the White House.
“She made this decision on her own over the past couple of days,” said a second source, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations. “It became clear this was not going away.”
Rice drew heavy flak from Republican lawmakers after she appeared on several Sunday TV talk shows five days after armed militants stormed the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi in eastern Libya on Sept. 11, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Although Rice relied on so-called talking points given to her by the CIA, a growing number of Republicans said she had falsely described the attacks as spontaneous protests and not a calculated act of terrorism by Libyan extremists. Critics said she had tried to downplay the nature of the attacks to protect Obama during his reelection campaign.
Rice later agreed that her statements were incorrect, but blamed misinformation given to her by the intelligence community. It did little to stanch the criticism, however.
The Republican reaction was unrelenting when the White House circulated Rice’s name as a possible candidate last month. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and others said they would work actively against her candidacy because of the Benghazi episode. Other questions were raised about her investments overseas.
Aides said the White House at first hoped it could wait out the furor. But as weeks passed and it did not subside, they began to worry that they needed to start filling other national security posts without much more delay.
Kerry, known to be very interested in the State Department job, has been a reliable ally of Obama during his first term, helping the administration in overseas missions to Syria, Afghanistan and other trouble spots.
Hagel, who has reportedly visited the White House in recent days, may be a more controversial choice. Some Republicans quickly began taking aim at Hagel for statements that they consider show a weak commitment to Israel and a reluctance to go to war with Iran over its nuclear program.
William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, told a publication of the conservative Center for American Freedom that if Hagel were chosen, “Iran will get nuclear weapons and Israel will be thrown under the bus.”
A senior Republican Senate aide predicted that “with Rice out of the way and a Hagel nomination likely, all fire will be redirected against Hagel now. Given Hagel’s outrageous positions on Israel and Iran, a vote on Hagel will become a litmus test of American foreign policy for both Democrats and Republicans … and I think 60 votes will be in doubt.”
Rice’s supporters were furious at what happened to her.
One former administration official described the attacks as an orchestrated partisan effort that set a damaging precedent.
“This is not about foreign policy; it’s about politics,” he said. “And we are all in for serious trouble if partisan politics is going to prevent the commander in chief from being able to surround himself with the team that he believes he needs.”
Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and longtime aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said McCain and Graham had “played politics to the hilt on this, caring nothing about the truth.” But “since she had not been nominated, there wasn’t much that the administration could do to defend her.”
Graham said in a statement that he respected Rice’s decision. He then pivoted to Benghazi, pledging to keep close scrutiny on the security breakdown even with Rice out of the spotlight.
“The story of Benghazi is a story of national security failure, and we must work to prevent it from every happening again,” he said.
Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio), incoming chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said opponents to Rice had “no reason to celebrate,” adding: “Ambassador Rice’s withdrawal from consideration is a loss to the United States and to nations around the world.”
Obama needs to make other changes in his national security team as he enters his second term.
Following David H. Petraeus’ resignation as head of the CIA because of a sex scandal, Obama is looking for a new CIA chief in his current circle of trusted advisors.
Aides believe the job will go to John Brennan, Obama’s counter-terrorism expert, if he wants it.
Thomas Donilon, Obama’s national security advisor, is expected to remain at that post, an administration official said.
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