McCain Backtracks on Rice

A week after accusing U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice of editing the CIA talking points she went on the TV circuit with in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Sen. John McCain said on Wednesday that he was wrong. In a statement on his website, McCain concedes that Rice’s talking points hardly deviated from what she was given by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. McCain had previously blasted Rice for changing comments on the attacks to cooperate with a White House–mandated narrative, but intelligence officials told CNN on Tuesday that the intelligence community was responsible for omitting details like al Qaeda’s involvement in the attacks for security reasons.