Search Results for: benghazi
Press Conference
The president seemed to hold all the cards Wednesday for his first press conference in 8 months. Greg Gutfeld says Obama’s outrage over criticism of Susan Rice’s explanation of the Benghazi attack was greater than his outrage over the actual Benghazi attack.
Blackmail
Politico has a good timeline on the Petraeus scandal. His affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, began last November.
The story broke because Jill Kelley, a Tampa event planner, plugged into the MacDill Air Force Base social scene, received “harassing” emails last May and notified the FBI. The emails were traced to Broadwell from a joint account she held with Petraeus. Broadwell and Petraeus communicated with each other through the drafts folder in the account.
While there was no breach of national security, the information was passed on to AG Eric Holder, who sat on it until the day after the election. Obama accepted Petraeus’ resignation on Friday Nov 8.
Krauthammer believes Petraeus thought he would keep his job by supporting the administration’s Benghazi storyline.
Hillary Took a Great Fall
In the vice presidential debate, Biden said “we weren’t told” that diplomats in Libya had requested increased security before the Benghazi attack. On Tuesday Hillary blamed the failure on “the fog of war” but accepted responsibility. Meanwhile, Bill is campaigning for Obama. Is he hoping that by 2016, he can put Hillary back together again?
Debate
Going into tonight’s debate, Obama is mired in troubles (I couldn’t cram in Fast and Furious, Afghan police killing American troops, or the coverup of the Benghazi attacks ), yet he leads in the polls, and Republicans are hammering Romney!
If you’ve got half an hour to blow, here’s an entertaining and angry speech by Pat Caddell, former pollster for Jimmy Carter.
9/11 Tribute
Islamists flew their black flag over the American embassy in Egypt, burned the U.S. consulate in Libya, and murdered four of its staff, including ambassador Chris Stevens – because they hate us, though they say it was because the didn’t like a movie. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo issued an apology for the movie. Romney immediately came swinging from the trees to attack the apology. Obama was shocked, shocked by Romney’s attack. Obama condemned Romney, then condemned the attackers, and retracted the apology for the movie. Hillary condemned the Libya attack too, but then apologized for the movie.
The Real Clear Politics Morning Note compared Obama’s response favorably to Bush’s original 9/11 response:
“The American people need to know that we’re facing a different enemy than we have ever faced,” Bush added. “This enemy hides in shadows, and has no regard for human life. This is an enemy who preys on innocent and unsuspecting people, then runs for cover. But it won’t be able to run for cover forever. This is an enemy that tries to hide. But it won’t be able to hide forever. This is an enemy that thinks its harbors are safe. But they won’t be safe forever.”
On the 11th anniversary of those attacks, the United States was targeted again, this time in Egypt and Libya. Once again, the initial governmental response from the administration was not commensurate with the threat. But today – 11 years to the day that Bush found his voice – President Barack Obama released a forceful statement of his own.
“I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens,” the president said this morning. “Right now, the American people have the families of those we lost in our thoughts and prayers. They exemplified America’s commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe, and stand in stark contrast to those who callously took their lives.”