they're obsessed with what susan rice said on the sunday shows. and it's absurd. and by the way, the most ridiculous, almost comical line that was used at the hearings today was rand paul saying "had i been president." give me a break. is he getting his info from info wars, breitbart? that's what they're using to question our secretary of state? it's absurd. >> admiral, what was your take away today from the entire ordeal on capitol hill? how did secretary clinton do in her testimony? >> i think secretary clinton was exactly as she was a few davis the incident occurred. she stood up and said i am responsible. she stood up and said today look, the state department isn't perfect and i am responsible for that. but she also lightly turned the mirror towards congress and said look, when you start finger-pointing, look in the mirror yourself. as joy just said, since 2010, they cut the infrastructure funding to defend our consulates and our embassies overseas by $300 million. i think accountability and having investigations is absolutely needed as you said, ed, to get to

they're obsessed with what susan rice said on the sunday shows. and it's absurd. and by the way, the most ridiculous, almost comical line that was used at the hearings today was rand paul saying "had i been president." give me a break. is he getting his info from info wars, bright bart? that's what they're using to question our secretary of state? it's absurd. >> admiral, what was your take away today from the entire ordeal on capitol hill? how did secretary clinton do in her testimony? >> i think secretary clinton was exactly as she was a few davis the incident occurred. she stood up and said i am responsible. she stood up and said today look, the state department isn't perfect and i am responsible for that. but she also lightly turned the mirror towards congress and said look, when you start finger-pointing, look in the mirror yourself. as joy just said, since 2010, they cut the infrastructure funding to defend our consulates and our embassies overseas by $300 million. i think accountability and having investigations is absolutely needed as you said, ed, to get

you know, he backed away from the susan rice pick. he gave in on taxing the top income earners at the rate he wanted. and so far he's really just tiptoed kind of cautiously around gun control. so this a confident obama based on the agenda you're seeing or a caution one? >> reporter: focusing on foreign policy, i think you'd have to say this is a confident president obama right now. just consider the selections of chuck hagel, john kerry, even though it's not susan rice, but also john brennan compared to four years ago. jim jones did not work out. there was secretary gates at defense that was brought over from the bush administration before him. and so i think in many ways this sort of demonstrates that the president feels he'll put his imprint on foreign policy going forward from him. hillary clinton a choice that some may have viewed as a concession of secretary of state and worked out well for both sides. >> david, you know, chuck hagel has gotten some opposition from the left and the right. do you expect in a second term now electe

i'm getting weary with the relentless attacks first on susan rice and now on hillary clinton. there's a whisper to it and it's getting, i think, washington orientated rather than in the national interest of america. what do you think? >> i think there are legitimate questions that still need to be answered. as hillary clinton said today, the fbi is still working on the investigation. director mueller was in libya and tunisia recently. i get disappointed when people give half of the story. the guy has been released. as hillary clinton said today, yes, but he's under constant surveillance within tunisia and following the rule of law and as more evidence becomes available, they are prepared to act on him again. i think as hillary clinton said dramatically, our focus here now is to bring these guys to justice but also to understand benghazi in the context of what's happening over the last few days to understand the evolving threat from al qaeda and to deal appropriately with that. >> dana loesch there were phone calls today that they would have been fired. do you agree with that?

. >> she also waited a few months, which is not what sun rice did, and susan rice got into deep trouble. in other words, shmonths. >> she had nothing to do with the aftermath, john. >> who didn't? >> susan rice. that's all the aftermath. >> you don't understand me. susan rice went on television early. >> she was sent out to do it. >> she, did and hillary waited, and she did -- that helped her in this presentation. >> she escaped the initial heat of all this, and she had a lot of time to think of a good way to kind of get out of the blame game here. and really, this hearing, i think the wfort thing about this hearing, aside from the politics, we still walked away without any answers. there are, yes, four dead americans, one of whom was pleading for extra help, extra security from the state department, and he didn't get it. and there were no clear answers as to why. all we got out of it was that hillary clinton was not to blame. >> hillary clinton has traveled almost a million miles since she's been secretary of state. that means she's been absent from the state debt. however, with modern

let's add the name of susan rice to this discussion. because i think we might not even be having this discussion had he picked susan rice and had she had a better shot at being confirmed. a lot of progressives are still upset he didn't fight for her like he's going to have to fight for hagel. i want to leave that question aside. i don't think it has to do with gender. if he got his way, he didn't tell me he wanted to pick her, but had he been able to appoint susan rice, this might be a different picture. we might not even be talking about it. >> who did he pass over that could have met the quality test year? you don't have to be exactly the same as john kerry, but in that league. this is what i think you're pointing out about bringing up the foreign team. >> who is it actually? >> all the press, all the guys on the right now are saying flournoy. i don't know her. >> i don't know her either but i'm told she's terrific. >> her resume is dynamite. >> and would have been a great choice. but again, you bring people up and they develop a publ

let's add the name of susan rice to this discussion. because i think we might not even be having this discussion had he picked susan rice and had she had a better shot at being confirmed. a lot of progressives are still upset he didn't fight for her like he's going to have to fight for hagel. i want to leave that question aside. i don't think it has to do with gender. if he got his way, he didn't tell me he wanted to pick her, but had he been able to appoint susan rice, this might be a different picture. we might not even be talking about it. >> who did he pass over that could have met the quality test year? you don't have to be exactly the same as john kerry, but in that league. this is what i think you're pointing out about bringing up the farm team. >> who is it actually? >> all the press, all the guys on the right now are saying flournoy. i don't know her. >> i don't know her either but i'm told she's terrific. >> her resume is dynamite. >> and would have been a great choice. but again, you bring people up and they develop a public

so john kerry not susan rice. earlier this week, the president announcing that former republican senator chuck hagel was his pick to be the next secretary of defense. so chuck hagel and not, say, michelle flournoy, the very highly regarded undersecretary of defense for policy. no word yet on who president obama has in mind to be his next secretary of labor, but hilda solis announced just this afternoon that she has handed in her resignation. that's another woman gone from the cabinet. the white house going out of its way to stress today right after the solis announcement exactly who in the cabinet plans to stay on at the start of the president's second term. they led their list with health secretary kathleen sebelius. earlier tried to press down on the lack of diversity in the cabinet. >>> the u.s. ambassador to the united nations is susan rice. again, this president has made two appointments to the supreme court, both of them women. and i think that his commitment -- >> you think that it is an unfair charge? >> w

rice. >> well, there are folks who are defenders of susan rice and chuck hagel would put it somewhat differently. their view is, they don't have the white house's opposition team. they don't have formidable folks like bill burton who are arguing on their behalf. their names were floated, put out there pretty much on their own. and then allowed the slings and arrows to come their way. if you have the formal backing of the white house, then you can make it more of a fight. my own view is that both of those names that were floated were not necessarily the best choices for the country. but regardless, if you actually are going to back them, you ought to back them 100%. >> all right. well, thanks very much to both of you. we appreciate it, both very formidable. >> chris lawrence is "outfront" on the story. >>> still to come, new >> reporter: the options are on the table. at the low end, a little more than 6,000 troops, mostly special operations forces hunting terrorists, with a small amount of training for afghan forces. the 10,000 option would still focus on al qaeda, but would add conve

he didn't work for susan rice. we don't know what she knew about security. spinning a story afterwards. jay carney, how credulous they are about the story. carney, the highly politicized issue. not political if you ask the administration to explain what happened. what happened during the hours? what about the solution is that as a close advisor to the president on terrorism, what was the president engaged in, in the seven hours in what did brennan know? what did he tell the president? were orders >> i were they carried out? there is so much unknown here. i'm not surprised we have let go the only suspect. we know the leader of the attack was a certain, katala. seen a few days later in a coffee shop outside benghazi. he remains unmolested to benghazi today. the administration wants to pretend it's political. it's not. it's to seek out what happened. >> bret: the other thing that this potentially does in the context of this hearing on brennan is open up the door to al-qaeda. the strength of al-qaeda in the region. strength that perhaps it's stronger than the ad

so john kerry not susan rice. earlier this week, the president announcing that former republican senator chuck hagel was his pick to be the next secretary of defense. so chuck hagel and not, say, michelle flournoy, the very highly regarded undersecretary of defense for policy. no word yet on who president obama has in mind to be his next secretary of labor, but hilda solis announced just this afternoon that she has handed in her resignation. that's another woman gone from the cabinet. the white house going out of its way to stress today right after the solis announcement exactly who in the cabinet plans to stay on at the start of the president's second term. they led their list with health secretary kathleen sebelius. earlier tried to press down on the lack of diversity in the cabinet. >> the u.n. ambassador, the u.s. ambassador to the united nations is susan rice. and again, i could go through the list. this president has made two appointments to the supreme court. both of them women. and i think that his commitm

so susan rice i think will continue to do the job the way she's done it. i suspect if tom donelan ever moves on that susan rice would be a leading contender for that job and have the ability to do what tom donelan has done, which is to consolidate an enormous amount of authority and decision making. >> is there an emerging-- you may have touched on this at the top, david-- obama doctrine that might come out of this next four years? >> well, if the doctrine in the first four years, charlie, was that the united states will act unilaterally when its direct interests are affected-- think of the bin laden raid-- but that it will only act in concert with others when its interests are far more general-- think of the libya invasion where the president insisted that nato and the arab leae take the lead, or think about syria where everyone has been pretty well paralyzed for the past year and a half nearly two years now-- then the president has insisted that the u.s. will not act as the policemen of the world. and when i suggested that that light footprint strategy a

so john kerry not susan rice. earlier this week, the president announcing that former republican senator chuck hagel was his pick to be the next secretary of defense. so chuck hagel and not, say, michelle flournoy, the very highly regarded undersecretary of defense for policy. no word yet on who president obama has in mind to be his next secretary of labor, but hilda solis announced just this afternoon that she has handed in her resignation. that's another woman gone from the cabinet. the white house going out of its way to stress today right after the solis announcement exactly who in the cabinet plans to stay on at the start of the president's second term. they led their list with health secretary kathleen saab sebelius. earlier tried to press down on the lack of diversity in the cabinet. >> the u.n. ambassador, the u.s. ambassador to the united nations is susan rice. and again, i could go through the list. this president has made two appointments to the supreme court. both of them women. and i think that his co

so susan rice i think will continue to do the job the way she's done it. i suspect if tom donelan ever moves on that susan rice would be a leading contender for that job and have the ability to do what tom donelan has done, which is to consolidate an enormous amount of authority and decision making. >> is there an emerging-- you may have touched on this at the top, david-- obama doctrine that might come out of this next four years? >> well, if the doctrine in the first four years, charlie, was that the united states will act unilaterally when its direct interests are affected-- think of the bin laden raid-- but that it will only act in concert with others when its interests are far more general-- think of the libya invasion where the president insisted that nato and the arab league take the lead, or think about syria where everyone has been pretty well paralyzed for the past year and a half nearly two years now-- then the president has insisted that the u.s. will not act as the policemen of the world. and when i suggested that that light footprint strategy

rice. >> well, there are folks who are defenders of susan rice and chuck hagel would put it somewhat differently. their view is, they don't have the white house's opposition team. they don't have formidable folks like bill burton who are arguing on their behalf. their names were floated, put out there pretty much on their own. and then allowed the slings and arrows to come their way. if you have the formal backing of the white house, then you can make it more of a fight. my own view is that both of those names that were floated were not necessarily the best choices for the country. but regardless, if you actually are going to back them, you ought to back them 100%. >> all right. well, thanks very much to both of you. we appreciate it, both very formidable. >> chris lawrence is "outfront" >> reporter: the options are on the table. at the low end, a little more than 6,000 troops, mostly special operations forces hunting terrorists, with a small amount of training for afghan forces. the 10,000 option would still focus on al qaeda, but would add conventional troops to expand afghan train

rice. >> absolutely. >> some of those people were silent about susan rice on the left. so i think i have pains for the right and the left on this. i think the real issue today is, you know, if you look at the president's cabinet and those people who are closest to him, those people who have the most influence, someone like a valerie jarrett, i mean, i think that speaks volumes for how this president -- what this president's vision is about and how he expects to execute on that vision. >> yes, indeed. karen, if i may, in fact, to both of you, i want to show you a picture of the white house press corps who was grilling the spokesman about diversity. >> it is the truth that in most news rooms in this town the picture is going to look more like that than the kind of diversity we would want to see. again, that's why i keep coming back to this point. there is a bigger issue here. the bigger issue, and that's pasht of this why president's policies matter so much, it's not just about who is in the white house but also what policies are being passed that ensure that pathways are

the fact that susan rice and hillary clinton have not been up to testify yet is one of the problems. there is another issue that makes me certain. senior principals if you are the president and the ambassador to the u.n, susan rice or hillary clinton you get a treasure trove of intelligence when important events break. including susan rice and jay carney who went out on tv who said this was a reaction to a movie would have seen lots of intelligence from realtime overhead imagery during the attack from radio communications that came in realtime from the attack. all of that would have said terrorist attack. so to come out days later and say it wasn't, we have lost sight of the bigger intelligence picture here which said terrorist attack. >> i'm sure you saw or heard what the president said on "meet the please" this pass sunday when asked about benghazi. he called it sloppiness. he said it was unintentional. i am wondering if you think there will ever come a time when we think that's what it was or if there's something more to it. >> i think what would have to happen is a real congressi

i thought it was also notable that she said she did not select susan rice to be the public spokesperson. she had nothing to do with the talking points and was very clear to point out that on the 12th of september, relatively hours after this attack, she had, in fact, described it as a terrorist attack and armed militant attack. definitely giving herself some distance from what was a real political football. >> david sanger, you've watched these kinds of confrontations before, these political debates, over foreign policy. there's a bigger issue here, which is what do we do about libya, what do we do about security, and what's happened since libya with some of those same elements moving into mali and then algeria. this is not going to be an easy issue to resolve in a second term for president obama. >> it certainly isn't, andrea. i think what was most notable about the testimony was that while the secretary came quite well prepared to talk about the question of benghazi and, of course, as you noted before, whether congress had underfunded the overall embassy security issue, which doesn't

i think that appointment should go to susan rice for what he did to her. he never supported an african-american. he did the same thing to shirley sarratt. i consider obama a weak president. he has no fight in him. >> bill: i appreciate the comment, derek. i'm sorry that he decided not to fight for susan rice. but i think he learned his lesson. he certainly is going to fight for chuck hagel. he made that very clear yesterday. the white house has launched a "full court press" to borrow a phrase. and i think you're going to see -- i think you'll see chuck hagel confirmed don't you igor? >> key thing is you saw apec sit this one out. they're not weighing in. that's a big help from israel's side of this entire controversy. i think they'll be able to hold it. >> bill: it will be tough for republicans to vote against a republican war hero american patriot. >> i was going to say john mccain can bluster all he wants now. when it comes down to it, he's going to look like an ass if he votes against him. >> wouldn't be the first time. >> good point. >> bill: you peopl

i'm getting a little weary, with the relentless attacks first on susan rice and then on hillary clinton. there's a whisper of misogyny to it i think, and it's getting pretty, i think, incestuous and very washington-orientated rather than in the national interests of america. what do you think? >> well, i think there are legitimate questions that still need to be answered. and as hillary clinton said today, the fbi is still working on the investigation. director mueller was in both libya and tunisia recently. i get disappointed when people give half of the story. the senator just said, you know, while this guy's been released. but as hillary clinton said today, yes, but he's under constant surveillance within tunisia, they're following the rule of law, and as more evidence becomes available they're fully prepared to act on him again. so i think, you know, as hillary clinton said dramatically, our focus here now is to bring these guys to justice but also to understand benghazi in the context of what's happened in mali recently, what's happened in algeria over the past few days, to underst

weary, with the relentless attacks first on susan rice and then on hillary clinton. there's a whisper of misogyny to it i think, and it's getting pretty, i think, incestuous and very washington-orientated rather than in the national interests of america. what do you think? >> well, i think there are legitimate questions that still need to be answered. and as hillary clinton said today, the fbi is still working director mueller was in both libya and the senator just said, you know, while this guy's been released. but as hillary clinton said today, yes, but he's under constant surveilewithin tunisia, they're following the rule of law, and as more evidence becomes available they're fully prepared to act on him again. so i think, you know, as hillary clinton said dramatically, our focus here now is to bring these guys to justice but also to understand benghazi in the context of what's happened in mali recently, what's happened in algeria over the past few days, to understand the evolving throat from al qaeda in the maghreb and to deal appropriately with that. >> dana loe

, which is they areotology have this fight, the issue with susan rice is benghazi. that ties back to the president and hillary clinton. there is -- it's not a perfect scenario. whereas here it's you're opposing hagel and that has nothing do with me. >> susan rice went to the hill, and it did not go well. there was some sort of a dry run, and it did not go well, and there's some sense that she took herself out of the nomination as well. we can't with stand this. how much do you think hagel's comments about richard hormel, i believe, who was going to serve as the u.s. ambassador to lucks emberg and questioned his sexuality. that drew ayre from the left. chad griffin from the human rights campaign said the -- >> accept the apology. >> he has accepted the apology, as has hormel on his facebook page. you know, you mentioned that he is facing, you know, criticism from both the left and the right. >> yeah. >> how much do you think that stands in the way of a confirmation? >> you know, interestingly enough today you have a full page ad from log cabin republicans opposing ch

>> the susan rice contrast is a very interesting one for a number of reasons. one of them is that susan rice technically took herself out of contention but there was a perception that she had been abandoned by the white house. whereas chuck hagel, a ton of people not only on the political right were raising objections to hagel and yet the white house hung tough on behalf of hagel which is very telling, i would suggest. i think when you're looking at senator kerry and senator hagel, you are looking at two people who served as mentors to president obama when he first entered the senate, with whom he feels he has a shared world view. let's not forget that president obama had been praised for his team of rivals, that his having diverse voices, when he first came into office, so there's a question of whether or not he's stepping away from that. rosa brooks hasn't just talked about diversity and representativeness in the cabinet. she has also talked about deeper problems with president obama's national security team and his national security approach. i wonder if thi

valerie jarrett, secretary of state hillary clinton, susan rice. let's not forget that the two people that he appointed to the supreme court are both women. so i think that what happened here when you have the roll-out of the nominees, that they all happen to be white men made for what was a very easy story to do, but i think it's overstated. i think that there's plenty of diversity in the white house, and the president is committed to it. in terms of insularity. i think the president does have people who he depends on and who he can trust. i don't think that he is so beholden to the people who have been around him for a long time that he is not going outside to other voices. you don't hear about the phone calls that he makes and the meetings that he has with people who aren't from his inner circle. sometimes you do. sometimes you don't. he does really spend a lot of time on the phone and with people who are outside the circle in order to make some hard decisions. >> he calls people that don't have the same opinions. at the very least. >> he does.

on september 16th, 2012, on "meet the press" ambassador susan rice stated and i quote, what happened in benghazi was initially a spontaneous reaction to what had transpired before in cairo. almost a copy cat of the demonstrations against our facility in cairo which were prompted, of course, by the video. end quote. let me break this statement down into three parts, if i might. i'd ask you to confirm based on the data we now have whether her comments were true or false. secretary clinton, is ambassador's statement that benghazi was a spontaneous reaction to the cairo protest factually accurate? >> well, i think if you look at the arb finding, congressman, there is still question about what caused it. so i don't want to mislead you in any way. that is not the weight of the evidence right now, but i think until the fbi completes its investigation, we're not going to know all the reasons why these people showed up with weapons and stormed our compound. >> well, secretary clinton, is ambassador rice's statement that benghazi was a copy cat of the cairo demonstrations factually accurate? >

ambassador to the united nations is susan rice. you know, again, i could go through the list. this president has appointed -- has made two appointments to the supreme court both of them women. i think that his commitment to -- >> do you think it's an unfair charge? >> i think that the record speaks for itself. >> the record does speak for itself, doesn't it? joining me now for our daily fix, chris alissa, msnbc contributor managing editor of post politics.com, msnbc's white house correspondent kristen welker and washington post opinion columnist ruth marcus. ruth, i got to start with you because of the headline writers on your column -- >> thank you very much. copy desk. >> the headline was? >> binders full of women. >> beaninders full of women. what is going on here? that is the question that a lot of people are asking. >> it doesn't look so attractive. no disrespect to the looks of it. men involved. i am not a fan of bean counting and counting up numbers of women and numbers of minorities, but it is striking and it is disconcerting and it is disappointing to see in the big f

my guess, it's also not ambassador susan rices favorite thing to do anymore either. we'll see about secretary of state nominee john kerry in the months ahead. success in that time obama and the state of california. how about that. a former supermodel turned health food ceo joins us to tell us how she thinks then and profits. bedbugs. every traveler's nightmare. we will pull back the covers on the cities that are the eight used in the cheapest and you will be surprised what it all means for one state in particular. the speaker, house republicans demand democrats coming together to pass the debt ceiling extension. and a balanced budget in ten years? too good to be true? [ heart beating, monitor beeping ] woman: what do you mean, homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods? [ heart rate increases ] man: a few inches of water caused all this? [ heart rate increases ] woman #2: but i don't even live near the water. what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you -- including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $129 a year. for an agent, call the n

we thought it was susan rice for secretary of state. not surprising for a president who won an election to decide to pick one or two big personnel fights. that happens in politics. think think -- the white house calculation, jim's dead right about the iraq war. if we have to re-debate the iraq war, they're on the high ground for that one and hearing criticism he's soft. normally when a democrat does that, they want someone that's tough because the criticism historically is they're soft on defense and here's a republican choice labeled as soft, soft on israel and soft coming to iran sanctions. john mccain and other conservatives say soft with the end of the iraq war and the president's comfortable with him and comfortable with the new cia chief. the president doesn't have to face re-election. this is the second term a different set of calculations and thinks he has work to do, diplomacy. they think they'll win in the end. >> i want to ask you about hagel's israel comments because he made some pretty pointed comments about israel and goin

if he picks susan rice? guest: there was an interview, and i think that had those simultaneously been going on, susan rice would have deflected some of the attention. other nominations, like john brennan, which is controversial in some comment -- in some quarters, and john kerry -- i was the on the want to have written about this two years ago, because i had conversations with them about my own view is that at the time we will still pursuing -- part of the defense department, and trying to purge them from military service. this is one that they were attempting to sort out. it had not been repealed yet, and hagel made his opinion very clear. i have since talked to him about this. and the ambassador has greatly accepted his apology, and in addition, senator hagel says he strongly supports lgbt families, and he has gone beyond this, like on abortion, and one of the things we do not talk about is violence towards women and women in uniform in the military, rapes at the academy, and a senator passed an amendment

we're going to get susan rice. started by mitt romney. picked up by john mccain. ever since they've been trying to exploit the murder of a united states ambassador and three other americans for cheap political gains and they are still at it and still trying to make a big point about the fact that when susan rice went on the sunday talk shows and gave what she said was preliminary information that would probably change might likely change the same information that was given to members of the senate, to members of the house and to the white house, they all had the very very, very same reports from our intelligence officers that republicans finding she was deliberately misleading the american people. they've been beating the drum ever since. it is false false false. it was gusting to see them do it yesterday. the secretary of state handled herself admirably. first of all, as she has done -- she was tough, she was patient but she didn't take any crap either. as she's done before, she said look the buck stops here. >> as i have said many times i take responsibility and