State Dept. officials thought Susan Rice was ‘off the reservation’ after Benghazi: ‘my jaw hit the floor’

Some officials never got the memo that Susan Rice was about to get on national television and lie like a rug. They were shocked.

As the House Benghazi Committee delivers its report on the failings of the Obama administration to properly respond to the 2012 terror attacks on our facility in Libya, it is becoming clear that officials in the State Department thought that U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice was “off the reservation” by telling the world that the attacks were due to a Youtube video and not an act of terror.

It seems clear from a series of now revealed emails sent by various members of the Department of State that they were shocked that the Obama administration was out claiming that the Benghazi attacks were caused by a video and they felt it was simply a false statement. They all knew the attacks were terrorism and had nothing whatever to do with any Youtube video.

The batch of emails center around the aftermath of Susan Rice’s tour of the Sunday political shows immediately after the attack that killed Chris Stevens, our U.S. Ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans. Appearing on five separate TV shows that morning Rice insisted that the attacks were spurred by an anti-Muslim video posted to Youtube.

The emails cited in the round of communications about Rice’s appearance were from officials from the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) and they show that her contentions about the video was roundly criticized.

As Daily Caller reported, in one message a member of the NEA was discouraged over Rice’s Youtube claim saying, “The horse has left the barn on this, don’t you think? Rice was on FIVE Sunday Morning shows yesterday saying this. Tough to walk back.”

Another insisted that the administration should not “go on the record” with this outlandish claim that the terror attack was a result of a video.

Another official wrote, “I think Rice was off the reservation on this one.”

Business Insider also reported that members of our diplomatic professionals were aghast at Rice’s video claims.

Gregory Hicks, who was the deputy chief of mission in Tripoli, Libya, told the committee that Rice’s comments contradicted those of Libyan officials who pointed to terrorist links to the attack.

“My jaw hit the floor as I watched this,” Hicks said, referring to Rice’s television appearances. “I have been a professional diplomat for 22 years. I have never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career, as on that day. There have been other times when I’ve been embarrassed, but that’s the most embarrassing moment of my career.”

The deputy director for the State Department’s Office of Maghreb Affairs also noted in the email chain that Rice’s appearance on the Sunday shows was a disaster.

“I was surprised in the way that they were described in the press clips, that there was an indication that there was some connection to the anti-Muslim video of concern that had been circulating online, that there was some connection to that.” she wrote.

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