Rice fails to allay Republican concerns on Benghazi

Key Republican senators said US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice had failed Tuesday to allay their concerns about the attack on the US mission in Libya, saying more information was needed to support her possible promotion to secretary of state. "Before anybody could make an intelligent decision about promoting someone involved in Benghazi, we need to do a lot more," Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters after meeting Rice and acting CIA director Michael Morell. "All I can tell you, that the concerns I have are greater today than they were before. We're not even close to getting the basic answers," Graham said. Senators John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Graham had sharply criticized Rice for saying on Sunday talkshows five days after the attack on the mission, which killed the US ambassador to Libya, that it grew out of a protest over an anti-Muslim film. Rice is considered a favorite to be President Barack Obama's nominee to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, but McCain and Graham have vowed to block her nomination because of her stance on Benghazi. None of the senators said they heard anything to change their minds on Tuesday, and Ayotte said, "I would hold her nomination until I had additional answers to questions."