Politics

Susan Rice, US ambassador to the United Nations: ‘We’re quite popular in Libya’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
Font Size:

On this weekend’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week,” U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice defended the Obama administration’s response to last week’s violent Middle East uprisings and the death of four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Fill-in host Jake Tapper asked Rice if the unrest suggested a decline in U.S. popularity and power abroad.

“Jake, we are not impotent,” Rice said. “We’re not even less popular, to challenge that assessment. I don’t know [on] what basis you make that judgment.”

Rice reiterated the Obama administration’s claim that an anti-Islam movie by filmmaker Sam Bacile is responsible for the turmoil.

“First of all, let’s be clear about what transpired here,” Rice said. “What happened this week in Cairo, in Benghazi, in many other parts of the region was a direct result of a heinous and offensive video that was widely disseminated that the U.S. government had nothing to do with, which we have made clear that it’s reprehensible and disgusting. We also have been very clear in saying that there’s no excuse for violence. We have condemned it in the strongest possible terms. We have said that there’s no excuse for violence.”

“But let’s look at what’s happened,” she continued. “It is quite the opposite of being impotent. We have worked with the governments in Egypt. President Obama picked up the phone and talked to [Egyptian President Mohamed] Morsi. And as soon as he did that, the security provided to our personnel and our embassies dramatically increased. President Morsi has been out repeatedly and said that he condemns this violence. He’s called off — his people called off any further demonstrations and has made very clear that this has to stop.”

Rice insisted the U.S. remains popular in Libya, despite the Benghazi attack.

“Frankly, in Tunisia, in Yemen, and of course in Libya, where the government has gone out of its way to try to step up security and express the deepest remorse — we’re quite popular in Libya, as you might expect, having been a major part in their revolution,” Rice said.

“What transpired outside of our consulate in Benghazi wasn’t an expression of deep-seated anti-American sentiment. Quite the contrary. the counter-demonstrations, the outpouring of sympathy and support for Ambassador [Christopher] Stevens and for the United States, the government of Libya, and the people on the streets saying, how pained they are about this, is much more reflective of the sentiment toward the United States than a small handful of heavily armed mobsters.”

Follow Jeff on Twitter

Jeff Poor

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel