Exactly.
The election was then just 2 months away, and they needed for all this to go away, or at least to minimize it.
EVERYONE then knew the impending election was going to be a photo-finish SQUEEKER and that rightly terrified them.
It was best to let them all die quietly (the number they were then resolved to was probably FAR north of just 4 KIA) and then lie their azzes off until after the election.
And then they’d take their sweet time further covering it up and handling it.
It was a little like Bill Clinton’s re-election and TWA800, which which the re-election theme was “peace and prosperity” and the FBI was more or less ordered to investigate in a way that would buttress the “Spontaneous Center Fuel Tank” narrative.
Did the witch allow Stevens and company to die so there would be no contradiction to the video lie and their statements would bring other hidden garbage and the arming of Islamic terrorists to the forefront. We’ll never know.