Susan Rice thinks Lindsey Graham is 'a piece of s--t'

Susan Rice.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The world now knows exactly how Susan Rice feels about Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

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Rice, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013 and was former President Barack Obama's national security adviser from 2013 to 2017, sat down with two other Obama officials — Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor — for their podcast, Pod Save the World. In a clip released Tuesday afternoon, Rhodes said that in order to understand President Trump, "you have to understand Benghazi," referring to the 2012 attack in Libya, which left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Vietor responded, "Right, because Lindsey Graham isn't just a piece of s--t now," and was quickly interrupted by Rice. "He's been a piece of s--t," she said with a laugh. "I said it. I said it, damnit, finally. He's a piece of s--t." Vietor added that Graham was "lying, lying, lying" about the attack, and "raising money off of the death of four Americans."

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Rice and Graham went toe to toe in the wake of the Benghazi attack, as Republicans accused Rice of intentionally misleading the public, with Graham among the loudest voices. It was determined during 10 separate investigations that no members of the Obama administration lied or engaged in a cover-up, and when that conclusion was shared in a report released in November 2014 by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, Graham was heated. "That's a bunch of garbage," he told CNN. Graham said Rice went on television after the attack and declared on "three different occasions the consulate was strongly, and significantly, secure." Nothing, he added, "could be further than that from the truth."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.