Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State planned to testify herself in January. The Benghazi matter also had an effect on Clinton's successor as Secretary of State. Obama's first choice was Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, but she came under heavy criticism from Congressional Republicans for what they felt were incorrect or deceptive statements in the aftermath of the attack, and by mid-December she withdrew her name from consideration. Obama then nominated Senator John Kerry for the position instead. By one report, Clinton had preferred Kerry over Rice all along anyway. Although still not well enough to attend the December 21 announcement of Kerry's nomination, Clinton
Political positions of Hillary Clinton during the Bush administration — has been too lax" and that "Investments at home that would make us more competitive have been blocked." She said, however, that "the answer is not to rant and rave – or to cut ourselves off from the world. That would kill even more jobs." Former top Obama adviser David Axelrod said on MSNBC that when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, she "owned" the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). During her tenure as Secretary of State, she spoke of the TPP negotiations in glowing terms: "exciting," "innovative," "ambitious," "groundbreaking," "cutting-edge," "high-quality,"