During CNN’s coverage of the RNC, anchor Jake Tapper stated that Libya was “in many ways,” presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “baby.” And that Clinton went along with the White House’s narrative that the Benghazi terrorist attack was due to a YouTube video “even though she suspected, accurately, that this was terrorism related.”
After fellow anchor Wolf Blitzer stated that Libya was “a failed state.” Tapper said, “Libya was, in many ways, her baby. She, and the National Security Advisor, Dr. Susan Rice, were the ones urging President Obama to get involved in Libya, along with the governments of France and England. So, she was, in many ways, in charge, at least theoretically, of that country, of that specific policy, as secretary of state, that’s one. two, the disaster, the tragedy of Benghazi, of the deaths of those four Americans. Largely, I think, having reported on this and covered it for years now, largely because, at the very least, inadequate security for the people who were there. Obviously, the primary fault lies with the horrific Islamic extremist terrorists that killed those four men, but there was inadequate security, and ultimately, she was the secretary of state. Now,you might not hold her responsible in the same way that a lot of people here do, but those are serious parts of her record to be discussed.”
Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash added that, “[A]t the time, when it looked like it could be, a sort of, a good story, a positive story of getting out a dictator and turning it around, potentially into a democracy. I mean, you can see the email traffic about how all in, her advisors were, and maybe even her friend Sidney Blumenthal, who was emailing her, about the need to really hold on to Libya as kind of her — a crown jewel, potential crown jewel of tenure of secretary of state.”
Tapper added, “And then, obviously, in addition to the failure to provide adequate security, there is the post-attack part of this, which is, in the context of the 2012 re-election campaign for President Obama, the White House was very eager to have the narrative — to continue the narrative that the terrorists are on the run, and that this was not al Qaeda, and to blame this on that anti-Islam video. And Hillary Clinton, without question, went along with that narrative even though she suspected, accurately, that this was terrorism related. Now, was she the reason that that narrative was important? No. That was from the White House, that was President Obama, that had to do with his re-election, but did she put out that it was a video when it — privately she’s sending messages and having — to her daughter, and having conversations with the Egyptian foreign minister saying we think this is an al Qaeda-related group? Yeah, she was.”
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