Posted on 11/04/2015 2:26:10 PM PST by SeekAndFind
When Washington Post fact-checker Glen Kessler awarded Marco Rubio ‘Two Pinocchios‘ for his CNBC debate assessment that the recent Benghazi hearings had exposed Hillary Clinton as a liar, he rooted his conclusion –partially, at least — in two factors. First, he argued that although it’s legitimate to point out Hillary’s conflicting statements about the attacks, jumping to “lie” requires a higher standard of proof. Given the alleged “fog of war” that hung over the deadly event, Kessler said, it’s unfair and uncharitable to accuse Clinton of outright lying. Second, he cited a statement from Clinton’s campaign flat-out denying that the former Secretary of State had ever fingered the irrelevant online film as the cause of the attack: “Josh Schwerin, a Clinton spokesman, said, ‘Rubio's statement that she ever said the video was the cause is false,'” Kessler wrote, after acknowledging that family members of the victims have accused Clinton of doing precisely that, several days after the raid. The families’ assertions “give us pause,” he conceded, before determining that they did not amount to sufficient proof of a Clinton lie. Let’s set aside for a moment the larger question of whether Hillary deliberately lied about the nature of the Benghazi attacks.
Let’s focus instead on her campaign’s assertion that she never blamed the video for causing the attack. Family members of three different Americans murdered on that hellish night have strikingly similar recollections of what Mrs. Clinton told them at Andrews Air Force Base on September 14, 2012 (via Leigh Wolf, Townhall’s new video guru):
Tyrone Woods’ father (who took notes about their meeting): “I gave Hillary a hug and shook her hand. And she said we are going to have the film maker arrested who was responsible for the death of my son…’She said — the filmmaker who was responsible for the death of your son’…”
Sean Smith’s mother: “She’s absolutely lying. She told me something entirely different at the casket ceremony. She said it was because of the video.”
Sean Smith’s uncle: “Mrs. Clinton really has a problem embracing the truth.”
Glen Doherty’s sister: “When I think back now to that day and what she knew, it shows me a lot about her character that she would choose in that moment to basically perpetuate what she knew was untrue.”
Also keep in mind that Clinton invoked the video in her public remarks that day, though she didn’t link it directly to Benghazi. “We've seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with,” she said. Questions: Would Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have us believe that all of these people are lying? And for what reason were these remarkably consistent memories deemed less compelling or convincing than a rote denial issued by a notably scandal-plagued candidate for public office? Clinton’s potential motive for seeking to mold the historical record is plainly obvious. What motive do the four people quoted above share that would compel them to concoct an untrue story? Perhaps they loathe Mrs. Clinton so much that they’re willing to coordinate a slander — connected to their loved ones’ deaths, mind you — that paints her in a negative light. Or perhaps the Clinton campaign is engaged in politically-motivated distortions.
Which explanation sounds more plausible? As Mark Hemingway writes in his detailed response to Kessler’s analysis, the gap between the relatives’ public comments and the campaign’s denial, “seems like a pretty good indicator that Clinton and her campaign aren’t inclined to be honest here.” Indeed. As for the broader issue of whether Hillary Clinton intentionally lied about Benghazi, the recent hearings revealed two messages she sent on September 11th and 12th, several days before family members of the deceased say she attributed the attack to the video. The first was an email sent to her daughter, informing her that Americans had been killed in a terrorist attack perpetrated “by Al Queda-like group.†The second, a message sent to a high-ranking Egyptian official, was very specific on several crucial points:
Stood in front of 4 flag draped coffins and blamed YouTube pic.twitter.com/NoUZhytQTN
-- Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) October 22, 2015
“We know that the lack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack — not a protest.” Emphasis mine. This is neither ambiguous nor colored by the “fog of war.” It was a real-time conclusion bolstered by multiple American officials’ subsequent statements and sworn testimony: “The former acting CIA chief said the video protest fable did not originate from the intelligence community. David Petraeus testified that the US government knew Benghazi was a premeditated attack ‘almost immediately.’ State Department documents confirm this. And Amb. Chris Stevens’ second-in-command testified that the obscure online film was a ‘non event‘ on the ground in Libya.”
Yet on September 14, a top White House aide circulated a messaging memo underscoring the political importance of casting the violent events as “rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.” That same day, Hillary blamed that very “non event” video for the bloodshed, according to multiple grieving family members present at the time. And on September 15, Susan Rice also directly tied the “non event” video to the Benghazi attacks on national television — all against the backdrop of a heated presidential campaign in which Clinton and Rice’s boss was running for re-election, striking a triumphal tone on terrorism. Apply Occam’s Razor. What happened here?
Editor’s note: This item is cross-posted at Townhall.com
So WPost has a full time fact checker that doesn’t believe Hillary is a liar?
Our candidate should have the Benghazi families on the front row of Presidential debates with Hillary.
Glenn Kessler is a lying sack of sh4t just like Hillary is.
Curious if we are being focused on the Benghazi lie(s) of Hillary Rotten Clinton so all the rest of her lies lay dormant, and off the radar screen, thus irrelevant this campaign season?
If ALL her lies were on the board she’d have less of a chance than she does now of becoming POTUS one might think.
But I digress. ALL those lies to a Democrat are pieces of an honorable mosaic.
So it is safe to say Hillary told a whopper. Knowingly. For the Sec State to lie like she did should have been an impeachable offense. It will forever stain her already-soiled record.
What shocks me is that anyone would be shocked that Hildabeast lied. It’s what she does plain and simple. It’s all she knows.
The only person I believe is a better liar than her AND Bill, is Josh Earnest. It’s effortless for them both.
Hillary lied as a good soldier for Obama who needed to divert attention from his vile administration as he faced reelection.
RE: The only person I believe is a better liar than her AND Bill, is Josh Earnest.
Talk show host Mark Levin calls him Josh NOT Earnest :)
The great talk show host calls Bill Clinton the GREAT STAIN MAKER. :)
All you need, is a crack in the damn before it’s ruled useless.
Video of Hitlery cutting the throats of the ambassador and three others who were murdered by jihadists could go viral on the nightly news and the web, and Hitlery's stupid supporters would still vote for her.
I give Kessler 10 Pinnochios on a scale of 1 to 5 for writing such a scurriless article.
There was no ‘fog of war’ anyway. The British Embassy warned them there would be an attack. Gosh, who would have thought it would come on the anniversary of 9/11??? /s
And I’m wondering what the Dems did to ‘buy off’ the Stevens family?? Maybe they were told the truth from the outset, but are good Democrat minions and keep their truths quiet due to loyalty to the Party.
I love the CLARITY of this article!
The Cairo embassy tweeted it's first apology for the "video" early in the morning on Sept. 11th 2012 many hours before the attack in Benghazi. Even before the protests in Cairo.
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