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Susan Rice's Claim That Benghazi Attack Was Result of Video 'Met With Shock' by State Department Employees
Ambassador Susan Rice (File Photo: Getty Images)

Susan Rice's Claim That Benghazi Attack Was Result of Video 'Met With Shock' by State Department Employees

"I think Rice was off the reservation on this one."

State Department employees were reportedly shocked to see former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice go on five Sunday shows and blame the 2012 Benghazi attacks on an obscure anti-Muslim internet video.

According to the final report released Tuesday by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, employees within Hillary Clinton's own State Department were immediately surprised by the claim, which administration officials were later forced to walk back.

An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi late on September 11, 2012. (Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images)An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya, late Sept. 11, 2012. (AFP/Getty Images)

"Susan Rice’s comments on the Sunday talk shows were met with shock and disbelief by State Department employees in Washington.

"I think Rice was off the reservation on this one," one State Department official said, according to emails obtained by the Benghazi committee.

"Off the reservation on five networks!" another official responded, according to the report.

Yet another State Department employee added in an email, “WH [White House] very worried about the politics. This was all their doing."

"My jaw hit the floor as I watched this," Gregory Hicks, then-deputy chief of mission in Tripoli, Libya, told CBS' "Face the Nation."

"I have been a professional diplomat for 22 years. I have never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career, as on that day. There have been other times when I've been embarrassed, but that's the most embarrassing moment of my career," Hicks said.

(H/T: Business Insider)

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