Former US President Barack Obama is pushing for Joe Biden to nominate his former national security adviser Susan Rice for secretary of state, Fox News says citing sources close to Biden.

Rice was nominated by Obama in 2008 to serve as the US ambassador to the UN, but later in 2013 the Democratic president made her national security advisor.

The Biden team vetted Rice when she made the “shortlist” of Biden’s potential picks for vice president before Sen. Kamala Harris was eventually chosen.

Bypassing an ascertainment delay from the General Services Administration, Rice already has the necessary clearances to prep for the role.

However, some Democrats are concerned that she might face a confirmation problem in a closely divided Senate following her involvement in the Benghazi attacks, but sources closer to Biden dismissed that thought.

An attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 killed four US diplomats, including then Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Then-UN ambassador Rice appeared on TV on behalf of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to recite “talking points” from a CIA memo and said the attacks were spontaneous and the result of an anti-Muslim video made by an American, but the theory was later disproved.

Meanwhile, Rice’s office has not commented on whether the former vice national security advisor is interested in the job, but she has already expressed interest in serving a Biden administration when she was considered for former vice president’s running mate.

“I think I could bring my experience of almost now 20 years in the senior levels of the executive branch to bear to help tackle the most pressing problems we face,” she told NPR’s Morning Edition.

“If there’s an opportunity to serve again, I’m certainly eager to do so, but not because it’s something that I want for myself,” she added.

Source: Presstv