What were they thinking . Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Today we may be at the Tipping Point for one of the most important decisions president obama needs to make as he begins his second term. On capitol hill republicans including moderate republicans are sending the president a clear warning, dont nominate susan rice to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Rice is the current u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations. She spent a second day meeting with senators trying to explain some of her inaccurate comments she made after the september 11th terrorist attack on the u. S. Consulate in benghazi, libya. Cnns senior Congressional Correspondent dana bash is joining us now from capitol hill with the very latest. What happened today, dana . Reporter wolf, it was one thing for susan rice to be criticized harshly yesterday by the three republicans she met with because they had been among her harshest critics, senators graham and mccain. Todays meeting was different because she met with a republican who was among the remaining centerist republicans in the senate one of the most likely to throw susan rice a lifeline. It didnt happen. I continue to be troubled by the fact that the u. N. Ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious president ial election campaign. Reporter after meeting with rice for more than an hour, collins emerged questioning her judgment in giving the public what turned out to be Incorrect Information in the days after the deadly attack in benghazi. And the main republican was lukewarm about the prospect of rice as secretary of state. If president obama were to nominate susan rice to be the next secretary of state, could you support that nomination . I would need to have Additional Information before i could support her nomination. Reporter collins has gone out of her way to support rice in the past. Even introducing rice family ties to maine at a confirmation hearing for u. N. Ambassador. The people of maine are proud of what this remarkable woman has accomplished. Reporter whether collins supports rice now for a promotion is crucial because of the raw numbers. Rice would likely need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster by these gop senators assuming all 55 senator who is will caucus with democrats next year vote to confirm rice, she would still need five republicans to get to 60. Its hard to see where those five gop votes for rice would be if even moderate collins doesnt support her. To be sure, the president has not nominated rice for the post yet. Another republican senator who met with rice made clear he thinks it would be a mistake. We want someone of independence. I would just ask the president to step back for a moment and realize that all of us here hold the secretary of state to a very different standard than most cabinet members. Reporter rice isnt the only one whose attempts to calm criticism about the benghazi attack appear to be backfiring. Acting cia director Michael Morell accompanying rice to the meetings told gop senators tuesday it was the fbi that took references to al qaeda out of these unclassified talking points rice used for her tv appearances. But later in the day morell called to say he was wrong. It was actually his agency, the cia. I cant help but feel incredibly disappointed that we were told something at 10 00 a. M. That couldnt withstand scrutiny for six hours and thats totally inconsistent with what we were told the day before. We now have five different explanations of who changed the talking points to take out benghazi and four different reasons. This is becoming a joke. Reporter it is quite surprising that the acting cia director gave Incorrect Information on something as politically explosive as the controversial talking points that susan rice used in a meeting with among the administrations chief republican critics. You know, the answer to why he did it according to senators is simply that he misspoke, wolf. So a quick question, dana. Does that mean Michael Morell if the president were to nominate him to become the permanent director of the cia he would have problems getting himself confirmed . Reporter you know, thats a great question. Its probably too early to say yes to that question. But there certainly is a lot of frustration not just with susan rice but with the Intelligence Community and right now the Intelligence Community is being represented by Michael Morell and they are not getting the answers that they want from him and from others. So, you know, it certainly wont be easy if he is nominated. Yeah. All right. Thanks, dana. Thanks very much. President obama met with his cabinet this afternoon. Its probably the last time well see all of them together in the same room. Lets bring in our chief White House Correspondent jessica yellin. Jess, changes very likely in the cabinet for the president s second term. What are you hearing . Reporter hi, wolf. Well thats right. The president is still in that Cabinet Meeting. He says theyre going to talk about Hurricane Sandy, the fiscal cliff, some National Security issues. But to your question, we already know that secretary of state clinton plans to depart treasury secretary geithner and even defense secretary leon panetta has made it clear he would like to leave within the year. The Current White House chief of staff still considered the odds on favorite to get the nod to become the next treasury secretary from the president. Its believed he has the greatest chance here its believed of Getting Senate confirmation. That leaves open the job of white house chief of staff. And im hearing that among the names that are being considered for that role are ron clay, the man once bidens chief of staff and did himself im told a Great Service in president obamas debate prep despite that bad first debate the president takes responsibility for it, does not blame mr. Clain. And another name ive heard floated is dennis mcdunna. Earned the Great Respect and admiration of the president. A young man not often considered in that light but the president admires him. But that of course leaves open the question who would take over for secretary clinton and for leon panetta. And those are some dicey questions right now given what dana has just reported about susan rice. And Michael Morell this acting cia director whos going to be the next cia director. The president s going to have a full plate of nominations to put forward. What did he say about susan rice today . Reporter he was asked his thoughts on ambassador rice, currently the u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Ill let you listen to his remarks then we can talk about it. This is the president. Susan rice is extraordinary. Couldnt be prouder of the job shes done. [ applause ] reporter so from the whole cabinet. Little awkward hard to tell if the applause were necessarily for susan rice or right before he said that he had also called out secretary napolitano and the Veterans Affairs department saying its their birthday. Perhaps they were also applauding the birthdays. But im told the fact that susan rice is up on the hill should not necessarily be read as an early sign that the white house is giving her sort of a prerun dry run for a nomination. At this is in part because she wanted to go answer questions on the hill to clear her name and that this was part of her desire as well. Of course senator kerry also still im told a contender for either secretary of state if not another cabinet post as well. Or secretary of defense if susan rice were to be nominated for secretary of state. I think those applause certainly did from that video clip sound like they were applauding susan rice and her role. And it looked like Hillary Clinton actually started the applause. She was sitting right next to the president. Leon panetta on the other side of that Cabinet Meeting. Well continue to watch this story as well. Jessica yellin, our chief White House Correspondent. A little later by the way here in the situation room, ill ask the senates number three republican if his party will givein on raising taxes for the rich, also for all of us waiting for tonights half a billion billiondollar powerball drawing, well speak to a woman who struck it rich in another lottery. E good days. And some difficult ones. 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Our chief National Correspondent john king is here in the situation room. What would happen . Assuming there would be a filibuster, they need 60 votes to get her approved. Its a tough decision by both the president and republicans if he makes this choice. We should emphasize thats a capital i, capital f if he makes this choice. Essentially susan rice is seeing if she can get republican minds that are dug in. Its an audition of sorts even though the white house says its no such thing. For the president , does he want to do this . Hes going to have to cut a deal with republicans on the fiscal cliff. He has other big issues to deal with. He has several other cabinet nominees. Does he want to dig in and pick a fight with someone he has personal loyalty to . What was the biggest problem, College Educated women and people of color, do they want to oppose . Both sides would have dicey political choices. Theres a lot of talk in washington susan rice is undermined politically. It might hurt her in washington, but, wolf, youve covered world capitals. Think about the world. If the president were to fight for her, again thats an if, people would say shes obviously his person, hes loyal to her. Even someone like colin powell, people always wondered, am i talking to george w. Bush or colin powell . Will he be undermined by Donald Rumsfeld or dick cheney . If she wins, her stature might go up around the world. Even if she were to be confirmed with lets say 60 votes, five republicans would jump and endorse her, the secretary of state supposed to represent everyone be a bipartisan leader if you will. It could be a little awkward though. It is awkward. Youre going into a second term. You want to build your legacy. The republicans are going to have to work with the president on tough other issues, taxes and spending issues. Will republicans give him tax increases through reform or higher rates . What about Immigration Reform . Again, what about these other personnel choices . There will be policy issue were not thinking about today that will come up. Does he want a partisan fight right out of the box . Thats a big question. But the republicans have to ask themselves the same question. Of course what they would tell you is, mr. President , theres an easy pick, pick john kerry, the republicans like one of their own, hes a senator. They also have a political interest in that. If john kerry is elevated to a cabinet position, they eventually has to be a vote in a special election, scott brown just loss. Theres a lot of press going on in addition to the president having to make a tough policy choice. Thank you very much. John king reporting. Republicans on capitol hill keep asking the president to show them where he wants to cut not just who he wants to tax. Joining us now is the number three man in the Senate Republican leadership, senator john thune of south dakota. Senator, thanks very much for coming in. Good afternoon, wolf. Before i get to the fiscal cliff and the taxes, spending cuts, are you ready to make an announcement on how you would vote as far as confirmation of susan rice is concerned if the president nominated her to be secretary of state . Im not ready to make that determination right now. But i do think that her meetings up here have raised lots of questions. And there are more reservations about her now than there were before. And thats a problem for her at least with republicans here in the senate. Whether or not she could get confirmed, i dont know. But i think she would have a considerable amount of opposition just based on the reaction some of my colleagues have had to the discussions theyve had with her here the last couple days. But you still have can we call it an open mind . Well, i have an open mind, wolf. Clearly ive got the same sorts of questions. But until we actually have a nomination put forward, i think its all hypothetical. Obviously shes somebody who has a lot of experience in working in the diplomatic core and someone who i think is has a long background of dealing in Foreign Policy issues. But shes also somebody who hasnt been willing to answer some of the hard questions that many of my colleagues have had regarding the situation in benghazi. And i think that demonstrates questions about her judgment and how she would be how independent she would be as secretary of state. Thats obviously something very important in a secretary of state. Lets talk about the fiscal cliff. The president and other folks are hoping for a deal by christmas. Is it doable . I hope so. I think theres at least in my view an opportunity here for us to do something thats really good for the country. But it has to be its got to be entitlement reform included in anything that we ultimately act on. We believe that in order to solve the countrys fiscal solvency issues into the future, youve got to deal with the issue of entitlement reform. Thats something so far the president has been reluctant to put on the table. So far what weve gotten out of him is this proposal to raise taxes which we think would be harmful to the economy. And if you look at how much revenue that raises, 68 billion next year, that funds a government for less than a week. And it does potential significant harm to the economy and raises taxes on the very people we are asking to go out and create jobs. Dick durbin says when youre talking about entitlement reform or cuts in spending for medicare, medicaid for example, he says thats too complicated now. Listen to what he said this morning. When it comes to medicare, we know that its going to run out of money in 12 years. Whatever changes we want to make should be thoughtful changes not made in the heat of the fiscal cliff. Can you defer medicare for example medicare reform until after you get a deal on the fiscal cliff . Well, if we do that, wolf, i think what you have to do is also defer the issue of taxes. I think you extend tax rates some time into the foreseeable future whether thats six months or a year and allow us to go through the process where we can deal with entitlement reform and tax reform in regular order. I dont see republicans supporting something up here that deals with taxes that doesnt have entitlement reform incorporated into that. So i think right now were a little bit of a standoff, but the way to solve this would be of course to extend the existing tax rates which is by the way something the president agreed to two years ago when Economic Growth was stronger than it is today. At that time he said we shouldnt be raising taxes when we have a weak economy. That would be a bad idea. Growth today is significantly lower than it was two years ago when he made that statement. We agree its about jobs and the economy. Thats what the president said after the election that he wanted it to be his goal and his priority. We have a difference of opinion about how to get the economy growing again and expanding again. And obviously we have a big interest in making sure that we address the fundamental problem and driver of federal deficits and debt. And thats reforming these entitlement programs that are on an unsustainable path right now. So but remember the president also said when he extended the 35 tax rate for the upper income for those making more than 250,000 a year, he says he said then that was the last time he was going to do it. It was a oneshot deal. He wasnt going to do it anymore. And as you know he ran his Reelection Campaign on the notion he was going to increase the tax rates from 35 to 39. 6 for those people making more than 250,000 a year. You think hes likely to blink on that . Yo