Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said she still harbors serious doubts about the Obama administration's explanation of its response to the deadly attack on an American mission in Benghazi, Libya, further clouding Susan E. Rice's prospects as secretary of state and dealing another serious blow to the White House.
Emerging from an hourlong meeting with Ms. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, Ms. Collins said on Wednesday that she remained deeply troubled that Ms. Rice did not seem to have a good answer for why the White House did not immediately classify the attack as an act of terror.
“I continue to be troubled by the fact that the United Nations ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election campaign,†Ms. Collins told a throng of reporters after the meeting concluded.
Ms. Collins is the latest Republican senator to meet with Ms. Ri ce this week and express significant concerns about her ability to lead the State Department if nominated by President Obama.
In an effort to smooth over growing tensions with Senate Republicans, Ms. Rice met with Senators John McCain of Arizona, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Tuesday. Yet all three senators said they were dismayed by what they had heard in the meeting. Ms. Ayotte and Mr. Graham went as far as to threaten to block Ms. Rice's nomination.
Ms. Collins said she would need additional information before she could support Ms. Rice's nomination. But in response to a question about support in the Senate for John Kerry of Massachusetts, who is Ms. Rice's main rival for the job, Ms. Collins said, “I think John Kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by his colleagues.â€
After she met wi th Ms. Collins, Ms. Rice was also scheduled to meet with Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee on Wednesday.
Congressional Republicans have accused the White House of playing down the possibility that the attack in Benghazi was terrorism because it occurred just weeks before the election and could have seriously undercut the president's contention that he has undermined Al Qaeda.
Ms. Collins echoed those concerns on Wednesday but said she was also troubled by another issue, which she described as an “eerie echo†of previous attacks on Americans in Africa.
Ms. Rice, as a senior American diplomat in Africa the late 1990s, should have known the dangers posed by terrorists there, Ms. Collins said, particularly because Americans were attacked while Ms. Rice was on the job.
“We seem not to have learned from the 1998 bombings of two of our embassies in Africa at the time when Ambassador Rice was the assistant secretary for African affairs,†Ms. Collins sai d. “These are issues I believe deserve further investing.â€
