Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that the Obama administration was more concerned about protecting the feelings of Libyans than protecting the American consulate in Benghazi during the 2012 attack on the diplomatic compound.
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“It is not clear what additional intelligence would have satisfied either Kennedy or the Secretary in understanding the Benghazi mission compound was at risk – short of an attack”, the report said. The 2012 Libya terror attacks killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
The release of the lengthy report – after two years and at least $7 million spent – could mark the end of the congressional probes into Benghazi and its aftermath.
The issue has long haunted her on the campaign trail.
The report found major administration failings led to four Americans dying in the 2012 attack, and didn’t focus on Clinton, as Republicans insisted it wouldn’t.
Over on Fox News, they’re characterizing this report as a hundred-megaton bombshell of damaging revelations about Clinton.
Republicans have long claimed that US officials initially blamed the attack – erroneously as it turned out – on reaction to an anti-Muslim video circulating in the Mideast at the time to protect Obama’s re-election chances rather than admit that a terrorist attack had occurred.
There is, however, some material in the report that will feed the narrative of those who believe the U.S. administration was too slow to react to mounting danger in Libya and too quick to blame unconnected protests about a US-made video.
Others might look at those same facts and draw a different conclusion – one that isn’t so nefarious and recognizes, as people like Ambassador Thomas Pickering (George H.W. Bush’s United Nations ambassador) have observed, that the blame for the attack rests “solely and completely” with the terrorists.
Two Republicans from the Benghazi committee – Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan – released their own sub-report placing the blame squarely on Clinton.
“In leaking out select portions from their report in the middle of the night, without even allowing some of the committee’s own members to see it, the Republican members are clearly seeking to avoid any fact-checking of their discredited, conspiracy theories”, Brian Fallon, spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said in the statement.
The report found that Libyan military officers loyal to former leader Moammar Gadhafi, whom the US had helped depose, had taken part in rescuing the remaining Americans.
With the general election fast approaching, renewing doubt in Clinton furthers a narrative of the nominee as “dishonest” and attempts to block a Democratic presidential victory.
One such error was a simple word substitution that had “major implications” in how the administration spoke of the attacks: A Central Intelligence Agency report that told of how “Extremists Capitalized on Benghazi Protests” actually should have said “Extremists Capitalized on Cairo Protest”, the panel reported.
Former House speaker John Boehner, who commissioned this investigation, released a statement Tuesday praising the final report, calling it “a serious, thorough, fact-centered report with new information that casts new light on the events immediately before, during and after the tragedy”.
“We cannot say whether the military could have saved lives in Benghazi”.
“Because of the committee’s work, it is clear now that multiple warning signs were ignored, help was incredibly slow to arrive, and for hours after the attack the Obama Administration was paralyzed by indecision”.
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The State Department also issued a statement Tuesday, saying that the “essential facts” of the attacks “have been known for some time”, and have been the subject of numerous reviews, including one by an independent review board.
