WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former U.S. Army Ranger and Benghazi survivor Kris “Tanto” Paronto told Breitbart News that he believes former President Barack Obama National Security adviser Susan Rice “needs to be in jail” for her decision to willfully unmask the identities of United States citizens connected to President Donald Trump’s transition team.
Paronto added, “The Trump administration has been given the perfect opportunity to set an example, or make an example, out of the type of politician that she is and show these other politicians that they are no longer untouchable.”
“I thought Hillary Clinton was bad,” Paronto said. “This woman [Susan Rice] surpasses her as far as her evilness and willingness to subvert America with this administration and to continually lie.” He added, “This woman broke the law. She put lives in danger. She put officers in danger. She put American citizens in danger by doing that. She has no value for human life unless it benefits her politics or benefits her friendship with the crooked administration that was in power for the previous eight years. That woman, at the very least, needs to be in jail. She has no value of human life.”
Instead, Paronto suggested Rice lied to protect Obama and questioned her allegiance to the United States. “There is no gray area; she lied. And she’s still protecting her mentor, Obama, from that administration. Her allegiance lies, for some reason misguidedly with them, not with the United States of America.” Paronto also criticized Rice for saying that Bowe Bergdahl served with honor and distinction. “I didn’t know a traitor could serve with honorable distinction and then get six of his fellow soldiers killed trying to find him. The woman has no integrity. She should have no credibility. And honestly, in my opinion, she should be in prison for unmasking and putting American citizens in danger.”
While Trump critics and former officials on Obama’s National Security Council did not dispute the report, they argued that Rice did nothing “illegal” in unmasking the identities of those Americans. Conversely, Trump administration officials have not stated that the unmasking was “illegal” but that leaking the identities of the individuals unmasked was.
He said he hopes President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions will go after Rice but said, “I don’t think justice will take place because I haven’t seen it yet. “Justice could have taken place with Hillary Clinton because she did violate national security; she did lie. Justice could have taken place” when it was discovered that interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile gave Clinton’s camp questions before a town hall debate while she was a contributor to CNN. He added, “Justice could happen with Susan Rice and her lying on national TV continually about a video causing Benghazi when it didn’t.”
Rice said it was a YouTube video, not then-President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, that prompted the Benghazi attack that left Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others dead. It was not.
Paronto was among four surviving warriors who defended more than 30 American personnel in two American facilities in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. The attacks were carried out by the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Sharia. In addition to Ambassador Stevens, former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty and State Department IT specialist Sean Smith were also killed.
“The Trump administration has been given the perfect opportunity to set an example, or make an example, out of the type of politician that she [Susan Rice] is and show these other politicians that they are no longer untouchable.” He said Rice’s decision to unlawfully unmask the identities of American citizens for “political gain” was a “gift” to President Trump “to set an example. This will influence future politicians from not telling the truth.”
Paronto said that when news first broke of the unmasking, he thought, “She’s going to be hailed a hero by CNN, by MSNBC, by the Washington Post because of what she did.” He added, “But what she did is not heroic: it’s criminal and unpatriotic. It completely lacks any integrity.” Paronto said, “I guarantee you, in the next week as things start to fall on Susan Rice, they’re going to come to her rescue and label her a hero because they have such a left-wing bias that they cannot see the truth, even if it smacks them across the face.”
Asked where he was on the Sunday that Rice suggested it was the YouTube video “Innocence of Muslims” that prompted the deadly Benghazi attack, Paronto said he was in Germany. “I had just woken up and I turned the TV on. I was tired. When I saw the news, I just kind of went, ‘What the hell?’ I called Jack Silva and I said, ‘Hey, turn the TV on. Did you guys talk to anybody? Has anybody said anything to anybody?'”
Paronto said the next thought he had was of how corrupt the Obama administration was and said, “Well, that’s par for the course. And then I went back to bed. They could have thought of a better excuse than that. They could have thought of a better lie.”
He said while he was angry, he did not dwell on it because he was “expecting it” from the Obama administration. “They don’t want people to know the truth. They just want to continue to lie to maintain power. Something needs to happen, publicly, to an elected official. Leading a public official out in handcuffs would shake things up.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) had also suggested there were inconsistencies in what Paronto said regarding a “stand down” order from a CIA officer. Schiff suggested Paronto was dishonest. Asked to react, Paronto said, “He says he didn’t call me a liar. We talked, and he said we were just getting conflicting information.” Paronto then noted, “Susan Rice was telling half-truths. Well, half-truths to me are lies. And Rep. Adam Schiff from Washington went on Hannity to debate us.”
Schiff was was invited but he did not come on to the show.
However, Paronto said his issue with Schiff, whose father was also a veteran, is something else. “I have problems with Adam Schiff because when I look in his eyes, I really think he is a good man. But politics has corrupted him so much that I don’t think he knows the truth anymore.”
“He’s letting politics dictate his ideology, and he’s wrong,” Paronto said. “He can’t challenge his paradigm. He can’t challenge that his Democratic beliefs are so wrong. He just can’t accept it.”
Kris Paronto currently serves as the Chairman of Leading from the Front, which is part of a non-profit organization, the American Legacy Center.
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