Rice: Hillary ‘Integrally Involved’ in Everything We Did in Obama’s First Term

Thursday on Bloomberg TV’s “With All Due Respect,” President Barack Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice said during her tenure as Obama’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was “integrally involved in all of the major initiatives of the first term of the administration,” and she “participated in everything we did in the first term in a meaningful way.”

When asked what the three biggest costs of Clinton were, Rice said, “You would have to put them in the context of the administration’s accomplishment. Because she participated in everything we did in the first term in a meaningful way.”

“In the first term we were able to bring to conclusion two long and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and she was very much involved in supporting those transitions. In the president’s first term also, we initiated and now have sustained what we call the rebalanced to Asia, the Asia-Pacific, where we have increased our security commitment, our economic engagement. We have been negotiating the Transpacific Partnership agreement to bring that to fruition. We are looking forward to obtaining trade promotion authority from Congress—that is another significant accomplishment.”

“And then, since you asked specifically about Secretary Clinton, she, along with the president, was very much engaged in some of the signature development initiatives of this administration. I think when all is said and done, which will be things we look back on with pride. We have elevated the role of the relevant, support for civil society, for women, for voices that have been left out, and we have launched critical initiatives that have been life-saving in the realm of health and food security and power in Africa, which is an electricity initiative. So, she was integrally involved in all of the major initiatives of the first term of the administration.”

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