Washington D.C. – House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member, Congressman Adam Smith, made the following statement regarding Republican attacks on Ambassador Susan Rice:   

“The hyperpartisan Republican approach to foreign policy has reached absurd levels.  Calling for the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, to resign is ridiculous.  She has been an outstanding Ambassador to the U.N. on countless issues, from leading efforts to secure the toughest sanctions against Iran and North Korea to date to building international support to end Muahamar Qadafi's brutal reign in Libya and strongly condemning Russia's unwillingness to denounce Assad's regime in Syria, she has been an outstanding diplomat and a forceful advocate for our interests abroad. 

"But the Republicans are desperate to score political points.  They want to rush to conclusions and blame the Obama administration for everything that goes wrong in the world.  Rather than jump to conclusions, Ambassador Rice based her comments on the information provided by the intelligence community at the time.  She underscored that this information was preliminary and that the FBI would provide the final account of what took place in Benghazi.  She wanted to know what happened before reaching definitive conclusions.  This is the proper approach - in the clearest of terms, it is the difference between governing and campaigning.

“There should not be calls for her resignation but rather calls for more leaders like her who comment and govern based on accurate information.  As more information has come to light, Ambassador Rice and the rest of Obama administration have been open and transparent in sharing that information with the public.  It now appears likely that the assault in Benghazi was a deliberate and organized attack, but it is not clear exactly what happened.

“We need to let the investigation conclude, find out who did this, bring them to justice, and take whatever steps are necessary to make sure those that threaten the U.S. are neutralized.  Cheap partisan, election year politics from the Republicans do not help achieve this."