Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) issued a challenge to President Barack Obama Wednesday, telling the president that if he was actually looking to defined U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice over the administration's handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, he should come to Congress and testify himself.
"Instead of talking up for Susan Rice, I'll make a deal with the president. You come in her place and answer questions," Gowdy said during an appearance on Fox News.
During a press conference last week, the president told Republican lawmakers to "go after me" instead of Rice with questions about the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Rice has been heavily criticized by members of the GOP for initially suggesting that the motivation behind the violence that left four Americans dead was an anti-Islam video posted to YouTube.
The White House has said that Rice was simply providing the best intelligence available at the time, with the president defending her "exemplary work" and saying she "gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her."
"For them to go after a U.N. ambassador who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous," Obama said.
But on Wednesday, Gowdy said that even if Rice was unaware of the possibility the attack was terrorism, the suggestion that the YouTube video had been responsible remained problematic.
"It's not just what she didn't say, it's what she did say," Gowdy said. "She may not have known it was al Qaeda. There is no evidence it was a video. There is no evidence it was spontaneous. So it's not just what Susan Rice wasn't told, it what's she affirmatively told the American people, which is demonstrably false."
