Sen. John McCain said he would not accept Susan Rice as a nominee to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. (Creative Commons)

The two GOP senators said they would block Rice's nomination for her characterization of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Rice described the assault that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others as a "spontaneous" demonstration.

"I'm not asking her to step down. I'm just not going to promote anybody that I think is up to their eyeballs in the debacle," Graham said.

Obama defended Rice's comments, saying that she "gave the best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her."

"If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after someone they should go after me," Obama said at a White House news conference on Wednesday. "When they go after the U.N. ambassador apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me."

Read the full story at CNN. Find more Neon Tommy coverage of Libya here.

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