Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) today issued a statement essentially conceding that he was wrong in accusing the White House of changing U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's talking points on Benghazi for political purposes.
Former CIA Dir. David Petraeus told lawmakers last week that the CIA's assessment that al Qaeda was responsible for the Sept. 11 attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi was taken out of Rice's talking points after an interagency review. McCain and his allies then claimed the White House took out the talking points because it supposedly undercut the Obama administration's narrative that it had severely weakened al Qaeda. But Intelligence officials told CNN yesterday that the intelligence community was responsible for the changes made to Rice's talking points. The Dir. of National Intelligence spokesperson said that the White House did not make any "substantive changes." |