Fmr. Obama Admin. Spox: Gov’t’s Untrue Claims About New Orleans Attack to Look Good Were Like Benghazi Video Claim

On Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN NewsNight,” Hagar Chemali, who worked as an adviser in both the Bush and Obama administrations and a spokesperson in the Obama administration, stated that inaccurate statements by government officials in the wake of the New Orleans terrorist attack were “like when the U.S. government said that what happened in Benghazi was due to a video.” And “you see it happen all the time when agencies get too tempted to want to appear on top of things, and then you end up having a first story that’s wrong.”

Chemali said, [relevant remarks begin around 16:35] “It’s kind of like when the U.S. government said that what happened in Benghazi was due to a video. Do you remember when that — I was in government when that happened.”

Host Abby Phillip then stated, “It’s always a choice to say, we don’t know yet.”

Chemali agreed and added, “I was a spokesperson twice in the U.S. government. I have been on the other side of being pummeled by the media to say, like, this is breaking, what do you know? And the answer is always, this is developing, we are aware, we’re going to figure it out, and we’re going to keep you updated. But it is — you see it happen all the time when agencies get too tempted to want to appear on top of things, and then you end up having a first story that’s wrong. But that’s never acceptable, in any crisis.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett