Hume: Geithner Revelations Make White House's Benghazi Claim 'Inconceivable'

On Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” on Monday, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume reacted to revelations from Tim Geithner’s memoir that White House communications staffers Dan Pfeiffer and Stephanie Cutter attempted to coerce the then-Treasury Secretary to make statements that were untrue.

Hume tied the changing circumstances of the Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack and how the White House had handled it, claiming politics weren’t involved in the messaging in the aftermath of Benghazi, to what Geithner had illustrated in his book about the role of a Cabinet official and the interactions with the White House.

“Well what it illustrates, Martha, is the extent to which the White House is deeply involved, and this has not been true just at this White House – this has been a custom for quite a long time,” Hume said. “In the preparation of members of the Cabinet and other senior officials to appear on television, whether it’s on a Sunday show or in the case of this Stephanie Cutter matter, simply an event in the White House where the press was at least briefly present and remarks were going to be made by the president and others, including in this case, Geithner.”

“So when we think about Benghazi and the supposed CIA talking points that were the core on supposedly what Susan Rice had said on all five Sunday shows, it’s inconceivable that the White House was not involved in that,” he continued. “And now we know from the email that got out a week or two ago that indeed the White House was involved. So, this is the way it works. It also illustrates, Martha, I must tell you, and this is reminiscent of complaints I have heard from other Cabinet members that being a Cabinet member can be a humbling experience because you’re forever being told by some 30-something whippersnapper in the White House what you’re supposed to do, what you’re supposed to say and the rest of it if you’re going to share the president’s limelight. And that certainly was the case here with Geithner.”

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