HANOVER — Obama-era United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice told an audience at Dartmouth College on Thursday that “our domestic political divisions are our greatest security vulnerability.”
Rice recalled the Sunday in September 2012 when, in the heat of a presidential election cycle, she went on five political morning shows to provide details of the attack that killed four Americans at the embassy in Benghazi, Libya, including U.S. Ambassador John Stevens.
“Suddenly, I’d gone from relative anonymity to a villain … or a heroine depending on which cable channel you watched,” she said.
On Thursday, Rice characterized the Benghazi attack as an act of terrorism against the U.S. But on that Sunday in 2012, four days after the attack, she was accused of intentionally distorting the strike’s motivations and implying that the attackers had acted spontaneously in response to an internet video.
Although she acknowledged that some of her comments that day were made in error, Rice said the political vitriol against her and falsehoods spread in their aftermath “look like patty cake compared to where we are now.”
Her talk was organized by the college’s Dickey Center for International Understanding and moderated by its director and fellow former Obama official Dan Benjamin, who served as ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counter-terrorism at the State Department.
Rice said that Russian hackers are able to sow discord during American elections by exploiting racial and political tensions that Americans have themselves created.
But she remains optimistic. Citing the Civil War, the Vietnam War and McCarthyism, Rice argued that “we’ve had periods of much greater political division than we have today.”
The former ambassador is no stranger to political tensions, even within her own home. She said her daughter, a high school junior, is a staunch progressive while her son is the president of the Stanford College Republicans.
“Just as I have no interest in letting these divisions tear our family apart … we’ve got to do the same for our country,” she said.
Rice raised her concerns about the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic.
As national security adviser, she helped convince President Obama to send troops to Africa to combat the Ebola crisis.
“We didn’t panic, we didn’t shut the borders. … Obama insisted that science drive the response,” she said.
She contrasted that response with President Trump’s “alarmist” approach, which has included a policy that no administration official can make public comments about the pandemic unless they are coordinated with the office of Vice President Mike Pence.
After Benjamin finished asking Rice his pre-prepared questions, he read a few from the audience, including one about who she is supporting or endorsing in the Democratic primaries.
Rice said she’s looking for someone who “would not only bring a stark departure from Trump’s temperament and policies” but also “be a force for the ambition of unity.”
Without giving an explicit endorsement, Rice said that “somebody like a Joe Biden brings a unique capacity to do that (because) someone like (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel … knows him the most,” quickly adding that she thought many of the candidates in the field have the same capacity to build relationships with world leaders.
Rice said that although she has not endorsed a candidate, “I have been helpful to those who have asked for my help.”
Audience member Don Foster, 75, said he was impressed by Rice’s even-keeled manner. As a retired Foreign Service officer, he splits his time between White River Junction and Pretoria, South Africa, where he was most recently posted.
“I have very mixed feelings because this is the kind of leadership we should have in this country and it was painful to realize we don’t have that kind of intelligent and thoughtful leadership,” Foster said.
Rohan Chakravarty can be reached at rchakravarty@vnews.com.