When Fox News host Bill O’Reilly interviewed President Obama before the Super Bowl, we knew sparks might fly. And the segment on Benghazi is provoking a lot of indignation. First, the relevant bit of the conversation as transcribed by Fox News:
OBAMA: -- we don't know yet who's doing it. Understand, by definition, Bill, when somebody is attacking our compound...
O'REILLY: Yes?
OBAMA: -- that's an act of terror, which is how I characterized it the day after it happened. So the -- so the question ends up being who, in fact, was attacking us?
O'REILLY: But it's more than that...
OBAMA: And that...
O'REILLY: -- though...
OBAMA: -- well, we...
O'REILLY: -- because of Susan Rice.
OBAMA: No, it...
O'REILLY: It's more than that because if Susan Rice goes out and tells the world that it was a spontaneous demonstration...
A shouting match then ensued and the president basically concluded that because of people like Bill O’Reilly -- and networks like Fox News -- Americans continue to be totally misinformed about what he actually said that day. But the key bit here is important: the president (again) explicitly declared that on 9/12/2012 -- the day after the U.S. consulate was overrun by terrorists and four Americans were killed -- he publicly and for the record stated that the assault on the U.S. compound was a “terrorist attack.” The fact checkers disagree. They gave the claim "Four Pinocchios."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, responding to this assertion on Monday, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) took issue with the president’s timeline of events, telling a local radio station he was perpetuating an “outrageous lie” (via The Hill):
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“It’s just an outrageous lie. It’s kind of hard to call it anything else. It’s kind of like ObamaCare and the things he said in the beginning and now he’s denying it,” Inhofe said during a radio interview on 1170 KFAQ’s The Pat Campbell Show, which based in Tulsa, Okla.
The 2012 attack on an American compound in Benghazi was staged on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
“I will say this till my dying day, I know people don’t realize it now, that’s going to go down in history as the greatest cover-up. And I’m talking about the Pentagon Papers, Iran-Contra, Watergate and the rest of them,” Inhofe said.
The president obviously had reason not to declare the raid an act of terrorism. He was running for re-election, and it directly contradicted a central theme of his campaign -- namely, that al-Qaida was on the run. Plus, in doing so, this would have only raised more questions about his leadership qualities and where he was that night. (We still don’t know). To this day, many questions remain unanswered.
And one wonders when, if ever, they will be.
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