Today, according to the White House pool report, President Obama told Jon Stewart during a Comedy Central Daily Show taping that the deaths of our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were “not optimal.” This comes just weeks after President Obama told CBS News’ Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes that the murders of four Americans in Benghazi were “bumps in the road.” By way of contrast, President Obama described the YouTube video “The Innocence of Muslims,” which had nothing to do with the Benghazi attacks, as “crude and disgusting,” an “insult,” and said that its message “must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity.”
To reiterate: deaths of Americans are “not optimal,” and “bumps in the road.” A YouTube video is “bigotry,” “blasphemy,” “crude and disgusting,” an “insult,” and inhuman.
The left is already saying that the “not optimal” quote has been taken out of context; they were saying that Stewart used the word “optimal” first. The problem: it’s far worse in context. Stewart said that the White House response was “not the optimal response.” Obama responded not by tackling the White House response, but by calling the murders “not optimal.”
Here’s the transcript from the White House pool report:
Jon Stewart: “Is part of the investigation helping the communication between these divisions? Not just what happened in Benghazi, but what happened within. Because I would say, even you would admit, it was not the optimal response, at least to the American people, as far as all of us being on the same page.”
POTUS: “Here’s what I’ll say. If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal. We’re going to fix it. All of it. And what happens, during the course of a presidency, is that the government is a big operation and any given time something screws up. And you make sure that you find out what’s broken and you fix it. Whatever else I have done throughout the course of my presidency the one thing that I’ve been absolutely clear about is that America’s security comes, and the American people need to know exactly how I make decisions when it comes to war, peace, security, and protecting Americans. And they will continue to get that over the next four years of my presidency.”
“Not optimal.” Now that’s disgusting.