Posted on 05/10/2013 11:04:45 AM PDT by neverdem
Today's blockbuster ABC News report about White House and State Dept. involvement in revising the CIA’s Benghazi talking points has provided Republicans with new talking points in their effort to discredit former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. But Jonathan Karl, the ABC News White House correspondent who landed the scoop, says not so fast.
The emails obtained by Karl show that State Dept. spokesman Victoria Nuland raised objections to a paragraph in the talking points mentioning threats from extremists linked to Al Qaeda. When a round of revisions did not satisfy her concerns, she wrote back: “These changes don’t resolve all of my issues or those of my building's leadership."
In that reference to the "building's leadership," some see a reference to Sec. Clinton. But Karl says that to date, no such evidence exists.
"There's no evidence that I've seen that Hillary Clinton was aware of what was going on, or in any way tried to direct what was in these talking points," Karl told POLITICO on Friday morning. "But that sentence is certainly open to interpretation, and you can guarantee it is going to seized on by Republicans for a long time, because ultimately the leadership of that building is Hillary Clinton."
Republicans have been fighting to keep the Benghazi story alive for months, and the right-wing blogosphere has made it their r'aison d'etre. Despite front page reports in the New York Times and scoops from reporters like Karl, conservatives accuse the mainstream media of failing to adequately investigate the story.
Those accusations are likely to subside this weekend in the wake of Karl's report (and that of The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes), which comes on the heels of Wednesday's 'emotional' testimony from three State Dept. officials. Benghazi is now driving the news cycle and -- as my colleagues Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman pointed out on Thursday -- Hillary Clinton is once again fair-game for critics.
The Sunday shows will be almost entirely dedicated to the issue: ABC's "This Week," will feature interviews with Sens. John McCain and Jack Reed, and Gen. James Cartwright, retired Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will join the roundtable. CBS's "Face The Nation" will feature interviews with former Sec. of Defense Robert Gates and Sens. Dick Durbin and Kelly Ayotte. NBC's "Meet The Press" will have exclusive interviews with House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa and Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein.
But where the story goes after Sunday is anyone's guess.
"I have no idea how long this story will go on, but what is clear after this week is that there are still legitimate questions to be asked, and there's also going to be a political story regarding Hillary Clinton," Karl told POLITICO. "The story clearly has legs -- for how long, I just don't know."
Maybe one of us need to do it!
Nuland wasn't even there.
How ridiculous, she went out and repeated the lie in the TPs herself and yet did not know where they came from?
Good point.
They are going to try and place the blame on low information staffers....bank on it.
Theres no evidence that Ive seen that Hillary Clinton was aware of what was going on, or in any way tried to direct what was in these talking points,
Just like she wasn’t aware that Bill was getting blow jobs from Monica.
So she was too stupid to be complicit... she’s only guilty of criminal incompetence.
“allegedly” no evidence.
My impression is that Sullivan was a high info staffer close to Hillary.
My impression is that Sullivan was a high info staffer close to Hillary.
This is even worse; Hiliary must have known that wrat the WH was peddling was BS and went along with it! Or she was the dumbest SoS in history.
An American Ambassador is dead, our embassy breached. The Secretary of State should be THE ONLY ONE giving any directives during such a time of crisis. Instead, they want to pretend Hillary wasn’t involved, what could have been more important at that time? Bottom line, Clinton and Obama knew something was going down in Benghazi and they intentionally made themselves invisible that night.
Well that makes it all better..
We can’t convict Hillary....
....quite yet!
But the investigation continues outside the Justice Department and MSM...
To Jon Karl: It’s hard to see evidence against your boy when you have your eyes closed to everything he’s done or not done over the past 4.5 years. What a schmuck!!!
Honestly! How many more lies/excuses can they pull out of their a**es!
So darn sick of all these insane lies. I believe the truth will prevail, in time. I ask for divine protection for those working so hard to get to the truth; Gowdy, Chaffetz et al
I saw many bright stars we don’t usually see. The two that stood out for me were U.S. Representative Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio and
U.S. Representative James Lankford from Oklahoma.
They came prepared and asked precise questions that required brief and to the POINT answers! They got the answers that we needed.
Some Repubs. needed to brush up on how to cut to the chase. Maybe Jordan and Lankford can update the low/slow Repubs.
All the DemoRATS should educate themselves as to what the subject is at hand.
Rep. Cummings as(s) Court Jester again earns the title of “The Clown from Downtown with a Frown for a Crown!
What’s so hard about asking Victoria Nuland who the people were?
LIARS!
But this time people died.
Oh yeah, but last time people died, too.
Nevermind.
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