On Wednesday President Trump came under heavy fire after White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the administration was considering allowing Russian agents to interrogate former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and other Americans.
Under no circumstances should #Putin officials ever be allowed to come into the U.S. & “question” Americans on their list. I don’t believe this will ever be allowed to happen which is why the ?@WhiteHouse? should publicly & unequivocally rule it out. https://t.co/bLDGJsSodi
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 19, 2018
2/2 But @McFaul never wavered on human rights and democracy issues. Putin despises him for it. And this is such an obvious/classic Russian disinformation campaign. It should be loudly condemned and rejected out of hand by every US government official.
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) July 18, 2018
Twice failed Democrat presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also chimed in.
MORE: Hillary Clinton: "To see the White House even hesitate to defend a diplomat is deeply troubling." https://t.co/DxfKFqn3p1 pic.twitter.com/Mvo5Zv3YuE
— ABC News (@ABC) July 19, 2018
While the criticism overall was certainly warranted, Clinton should sit this one out.
On September 11, 2012 U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, in addition to three other Americans, were murdered by terrorists in Benghazi, Libya. They were attacked after months of dire warnings from Stevens that the consulate needed more security. Further, President Obama and Clinton were missing in action during the attack and Americans on the ground waited 20-hours for help to arrive.
During the attack, officials in Washington were slow to respond to the crisis and bogged themselves down with poltical considerations. Newly revealed evidence made available in the report makes clear that no real effort was made by officials in D.C. save American lives, to evacuate survivors, or retrieve Ambassadors Stevens' body.
The order to deploy rapid response teams by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and President Obama became muddled as high ranking officials discussed the political implications of marines in uniform entering Libya. One team sat on a plane for hours and changed in and out of their uniforms four times as the attack raged on.
With Ambassador Stevens missing and attacks still in progress, the White House held a two hour meeting largely focused on the "inflammatory" YouTube video, even though none of the information coming from individuals on the ground connected the attack with protests or the video.
Ultimately, no official U.S. assets would come to the aide of Americans in crisis. No attempt was made to save their lives and no steps were taken to ensure or assist in the evacuation of survivors.
I'll leave you with this:
