Whoopi Goldberg On Hillary Clinton: The Bitch Is Back!

Co-Hosts of The View said they’d support Hillary is she ran for President.

Whoopi Goldberg got a little excited on Thursday’s The View when she applauded Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by calling her a "bitch," citing her performance before the Senate foreign affairs committee. Goldberg introduced a clip of Clinton answering a question from Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson regarding Benghazi.

“You know, Hillary Clinton has had a rough couple of months,” Goldberg said. “She hit her head. She got a concussion. She had a fever. She’s about like Barbara [Walters]. But she was not playing with those senators yesterday when they were talking about Benghazi. The bitch is back!”

The studio audience applauded the clip and co-hosts Joy Behar, Sherri Shepperd, and guest co-host Stacy London supported the notion of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2016. However, Elisabeth Hasselbeck wasn’t too happy about Clinton’s demeanor. “You had senators like McCain, who’s been in and out of politics and war, and I think he felt as though his questions were not answered,” she said. Goldberg responded that America rarely actually knows what goes on when something like this goes down. She said, “We always hear six or seven different stories before someone actually tells us the truth.” (The Daily Caller)

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Review Finds State Dept. at Fault in U.S. Deaths at Libya Consulate

Report blames 'systemic failure,' Hillary Clinton accepts recommendations for improvement

Three months after the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, an independent review panel is citing “systemic failures” and “management deficits” regarding the U.S. State Department's handling of security. Failures on the part of top State Department officials to provide adequate security at the consulate resulted in the Sept. 11, 2012, deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The report by the Accountability Review Board for Benghazi, released late Tuesday, also found that the attack on the U.S. consulate was the result of a planned terrorist attack as opposed to a spontaneous protest to an anti-Islam video as initially reported. The board did not find that any individual U.S. government employee to be engaged in misconduct. However, it noted that some senior officials at the State Department “demonstrated a lack of proactive leadership and management ability in their responses to security concerns posed by Special Mission Benghazi.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who heads the State Department, accepted all of the recommendations for improvement made by the independent panel. Clinton, who announced plans to step down from the post some time ago, has been thought to be a strong contender for the 2016 presidential race. Clinton has said she has no plans to run at this time. However, if she does decide to run, her handling of Benghazi will likely be a major talking point for Republicans. (Politico)

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Susan Rice and How Washington Works

Dirty politics stalls, but won't end, ambassador's career

It’s been a busy week for me here in Washington.  The week started off with an all-day session focused on protecting our democracy and the right to vote. The next day was spent focusing on the Michigan Right-To-Work legislation that was introduced, passed and signed into law in the blink of an eye.  Next up was a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the school to prison pipeline, which robs our communities of so many young, promising people who may just need a little help.  And yesterday, I spent the better part of my day visiting Senate offices along with some of the Black Women’s Roundtable, to discuss the treatment of Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice by Republicans.  Shortly thereafter and much to the dismay of many, she withdrew her name from consideration for nomination.  This was all in a week’s work.  It’s this work that I hope will allow me to continue to build a solid foundation here in Washington that will help me far surpass my wildest ambition.

No political news outlet worth its salt will let Ambassador Susan Rice’s self-removal from consideration for the position of Secretary of State slide under the radar.  Immediately after the 5 o’clock news yesterday, my father called me asking why she had “quit” as he put it.  In his mind, she all but had the position.  Like my father, many others thought that she would in fact be nominated.  But if she had been nominated, there would certainly have been some people who would have done everything in their power to make sure she was not confirmed.  Unfortunately for us all, they didn’t even wait until the nomination process began before starting the vetting process and putting her on trial, in some senses. 

Susan Rice’s Visit to Capitol Hill Didn’t Help

Senators who criticized her after terrorist attack may still block her cabinet nomination

United Nations ambassador Susan Rice’s outstretched hand to prominent GOP senators, who criticized her after the deadly attacks in Libya, has been slapped away. Rice’s meeting with Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire seemed to do little to stop their criticisms of her and the Obama administration’s public messaging after the September terrorist attacks on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Graham and Ayotte reaffirmed their pledges to block Rice’s likely nomination to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “Bottom line, I’m more disturbed than I was before,” Graham said after his closed-door meeting with Rice, whom he had previously said he could not “trust.” McCain told Fox News he would be “very hard-pressed” to support Rice’s nomination. Should President Obama go ahead and nominate Rice, her contentious meeting with the Republicans signals an ugly confirmation battle ahead. (New York Times)

[ALSO READ: Throwing Rice: GOP Hypocrisy On Intelligence]

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John McCain Backs Off His Susan Rice Attack

Former presidential candidate says he is open to having discussions with UN ambassador about Benghazi

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has softened his sharp critiques of President Barack Obama and United Nations Amb. Susan Rice, after spending more than a week pledging to block Rice's possible Secretary of State nomination. On Sunday, McCain told Fox News that he would no longer attempt to block Rice's nomination and is open to talks with Rice about her dissemination of incomplete intelligence on the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. View his remarks in the video above.

[ALSO READ: Rice Attacks Are GOP Hypocrisy]

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Suspected Benghazi Attackers Walk Freely in Libya

Reports say Libyan authorities are doing little to nothing

According to reports from the Associated Press, efforts to find and "bring to justice" men involved in the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya are failing miserably. The AP reports that gunmen seen participating in the attack have been seen walking freely in the streets two months after the attack.

[ALSO READ:Request for More Security in Libya Months Before Ambassador Death]

Key security commanders and witnesses say they haven't been questioned by Libyan authorities and no suspects have been named or detained. Libyan security forces hired to protect US diplomats in Benghazi are apparently afraid of  the extremist militiamen who were around when four Americans were killed on September 11.

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Throwing Rice: GOP Benghazi Beef Tasteless

Attack on Obama UN ambassador highlights rancor not shown an earlier Rice

The views expressed in this Op-Ed do not necessarily reflect those of Loop 21.

Two black women with the last name Rice walk into a bar… Okay, maybe that sounds like the beginnings of a really bad joke.

What’s not the least bit funny is the clear hypocrisy on the part of Republicans – still bitter and lying to themselves about the reasons President Barack Obama won reelection – in their criticism of United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice and her early and misleading intelligence on the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks at a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The aggressive critiques of Rice, which Obama rightly rapped in a White House press conference last week, are the polar opposite of the gentle handling afforded former Bush administration Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who disseminated flawed intelligence related to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and which led the U.S. into 12 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and eventually cost more than 6,000 U.S. lives at last count.

Susan Rice and Condi Rice are without doubt distinguished African American women and honorable public servants. Both disseminated the flawed information authorized by their respective White House administrations. But it seems Republicans view these two women’s mistakes through different lenses -- one serves under a beloved and maligned Democratic president and the other served under a tolerated and disgraced Republican president. With Susan Rice seemingly poised to assume the other Rice's old job -- if Obama chooses to nominate her to replace the exiting Hillary Clinton -- Susan Rice will have joined the “I’m a black woman being used as a scapegoat by white men for doing my job” club.

[ALSO READ: Obama Takes On Rice Critics]

GOP standard bearers like U.S. senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) say they found Susan Rice’s behavior unbecoming of a potential secretary of state. They’ve alleged Susan Rice knowingly disseminated incomplete information on the attacks so as to cover up what they say was the Obama administration’s inept response to security concerns at its foreign diplomatic mission in Libya. That reasoning reeks of hypocrisy, given their party’s record on intelligence failures in the Bush administration. On Thursday, McCain said Susan Rice was “not being very bright,” in spreading the anti-Islam video story to the American public. The day before, McCain questioned Susan Rice’s integrity and vowed to block her confirmation to head the State Department in the Senate, a nomination that has yet to even have been put forward. Graham said he would do the same because he “can’t trust her.”

Petraeus: CIA Knew Almost Immediately Terrorists Were Behind Libya Attacks

The general and former CIA head says intelligence agencies knew early who was to blame

Former CIA Director David Petraeus said intelligence agencies knew the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya was a terrorist ploy almost immediately, but the administration withheld the information to avoid tipping off suspected al-Qaida affiliates. Petraeus gave the testimony to Congress yesterday in a closed-door hearing and news was reported by the Associated Press, citing information from lawmakers who attended the hearings.

Petraeus also said it was not initially known whether the attackers had infiltrated a demonstration to cover their plot.

[ALSO READ:Obama Pushes Back On Susan Rice's Libya Critics]

Lawmakers who questioned the general said he testified that the CIA's first draft of talking points about the assault that killed four Americans called it as a terrorist attack. Petraeus said that reference was removed from the final version, but he wasn't sure which federal agency deleted it.

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CIA Director Quits

Petraeus cites extramarital affair in resignation letter presented to president

Gen. David Petraeus, the CIA director who prior to his appointment successfully commanded U.S. and NATO military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned Friday afternoon, citing his having had an extramarital affair.

The president has accepted his resignation, detailed in a letter obtained by MSNBC. The president did not ask Petraeus, who has been married to wife, Holly, for more than 37 years, to step down, MSNBC reported.

No mention was made about the Sept. 11, 2012, deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, which took place while he led the CIA. The Obama administration has faced criticism about what did it know and when when it comes to who and what led to the deadly attack.

[ALSO READ: Request for Extra Security Before Benghazi Attack]

The deputy CIA director will likely take Petraeus's place until a permanent appointment is made.

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Man Reportedly Linked to Attack on US Embassy in Libya Arrested

Tunisian Interior Ministry spokesman said the man's case is "in the hands of justice"

More than a month after Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack on a US embassy in Libya, government officials in Tunisia confirmed today they have arrested of a man reportedly linked to the attack.

The Tunisian government said it had 28-year-old Tunisian Ali Harzi in custody. The country's interior ministry spokesman, Tarrouch Khaled, said Harzi was in custody in Tunis, the country's capital city. Khaled told the Associated Press "his case is in the hands of justice," but did not elaborate beyond that statement.

[ALSO READ:Sarah Palin Says Obama Did A "Shuck and Jive" In Benghazi]

No one from the US State Department in Washington has yet given a comment.

[ALSO READ:Request for More Security in Libya Months Before Ambassador Death]

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the US had been looking into the arrests of two Tunisian men being detained in Turkey. 

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