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Speaker 1: Pushkin previously on fiasco.

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Speaker 2: It was a high risk venture.

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Speaker 3: I was very worried about a security.

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Speaker 4: Six months after the uprising, Libya is flooded with weapons

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Speaker 4: and places at the tend power vacuums.

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Speaker 5: For the people who you're dealing with are not your friends.

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Speaker 6: The scene is quiet. A relatively small but already armed

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Speaker 6: group shows up at the gates.

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Speaker 7: Find out what exactly is going on.

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Speaker 1: What they had when they walked out was all the

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Speaker 1: information they needed to conduct a precision more to attack

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Speaker 1: at night, and so the next ones are right on target.

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Speaker 1: The eleventh anniversary of September eleventh was kind of like

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Speaker 1: thirty first birthday one year after a major milestone. It

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Speaker 1: just didn't land with as much fanfare.

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Speaker 8: It's expected to be.

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Speaker 9: As quiet day as both candidates commemorate the nine to

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Speaker 9: eleven attacks, both President Obama.

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Speaker 1: Still, it was a somber enough occasion that both candidates

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Speaker 1: in the twenty twelve presidential race, the incumbent Barack Obama

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Speaker 1: and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, agreed to suspend all

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Speaker 1: negative campaigning for the day.

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Speaker 10: Yeah you will hear no negative campaigning, not to take tell.

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Speaker 11: One day we won't have that, by the way, this is.

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Speaker 7: Around the nine to eleven attacks. You know, we would

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Speaker 7: see it not as an opportunity necessarily for politics. I mean,

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Speaker 7: we were going to keep making our case, but we're

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Speaker 7: going to make our case affirmatively.

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Speaker 1: This is longhe Chen. He was Mitt Romney's chief policy

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Speaker 1: advisor during the twenty twelve campaign.

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Speaker 7: Our hope and our intention was to go into it

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Speaker 7: focused on what we needed to do looking ahead, rather

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Speaker 7: than spending the day on September eleventh talking about some

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Speaker 7: of the challenges created by the Obama administration.

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Speaker 1: Chen is being polite here. What he means is the

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Speaker 1: two campaigns were going to take a day off from

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Speaker 1: beating up on each other, and one of the challenges

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Speaker 1: the Romney team would not be talking about was Obama's

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Speaker 1: policy in the Middle East, his approach to the war

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Speaker 1: on terror that had started more than a decade earlier

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Speaker 1: under George W. Bush. Romney had been calling Obama soft

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Speaker 1: on terrorism since the start of his campaign, but on

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Speaker 1: this day he would hold his fire out of respect.

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Speaker 1: But then, at around one o'clock in the afternoon DC time,

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Speaker 1: some concerning news started filtering in from Egypt. A large

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Speaker 1: group of angry protesters had gathered in front of the

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Speaker 1: American Embassy in Cairo.

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Speaker 12: Protesters are outside the US Embassy. There are there about

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Speaker 12: a thousand of them and protests.

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Speaker 1: As you heard in our last episode, the crowd was

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Speaker 1: protesting a video called The Innocence of Muslims that had

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Speaker 1: recently been uploaded to YouTube by a man in California.

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Speaker 13: They are protesting a video they say to fames the

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Speaker 13: prophet Muhammad.

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Speaker 1: Earlier in the day, the US Embassy in Cairo had

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Speaker 1: denounce the anti Muslim video in a written statement.

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Speaker 13: Saying, quote the Embassy of the United States and Cairo

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Speaker 13: condemns the continuing efforts misguided individuals to hurt the religious

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Speaker 13: feelings of Muslims.

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Speaker 1: As The statement was intended to diffuse the situation to

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Speaker 1: distance the US government from the islamophobic video, but it

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Speaker 1: did not prevent the protests in front of the Embassy

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Speaker 1: in Cairo from turning violent.

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Speaker 12: Protesters have stormed the walls of the embassy and pulled

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Speaker 12: down US flags. Now they have replaced them with black

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Speaker 12: flags with Islamic emblems Now America.

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Speaker 1: As footage of the chaos aired on American television. The

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Speaker 1: US Embassy's statement from earlier in the day got the

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Speaker 1: attention of conservative commentators like lou Dobbs.

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Speaker 14: Obamba administration, the State Department actually apologized to the very

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Speaker 14: radical Islamis who were demonstrating in hurting the feelings of Muslims.

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Speaker 14: It's just disgusting.

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Speaker 1: Then that evening, at around seven pm Eastern time, the

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Speaker 1: news out of Cairo was compounded with reports of a

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Speaker 1: second incident nearby, this one in Libya. It appeared that

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Speaker 1: the protests in Cairo had spread to Benghazi, Libya's second

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Speaker 1: biggest city. A mob had set fire to a diplomatic

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Speaker 1: compound and killed an American.

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Speaker 15: As you can imagine, there is a degree of conflicting

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Speaker 15: information coming out of nighttime Libya amid the chaos of

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Speaker 15: an attack on the US consulate.

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Speaker 16: The Libyan government has now informed the State Department that

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Speaker 16: an American consulate official has been killed in an attack

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Speaker 16: on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. We're just getting

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Speaker 16: this information.

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Speaker 1: From his apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lanhi Chen watched the

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Speaker 1: news and fielded requests from media outlets that wanted Romney's

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Speaker 1: take on the day's events.

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Speaker 7: The media inquiries did start to pick up as the

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Speaker 7: early evening war into late evening Eastern Time, and a

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Speaker 7: number of conservative media outlets, some online, some radio, some television,

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Speaker 7: and they were particularly up. They were very concerned about

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Speaker 7: why the Romney campaign hadn't yet used this as something

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Speaker 7: with which to attack President Obama.

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Speaker 1: Between the breaking news of the attack and Benghazi, the

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Speaker 1: protest in Cairo, and the embassy statement about the religious

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Speaker 1: feelings of Muslims, the Romney campaign saw an opportunity. Here

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Speaker 1: was a perfect example of the Obama administration bending over

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Speaker 1: backwards to show respect to the Muslim world at the

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Speaker 1: expense of American power and security. It didn't matter that

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Speaker 1: the Cairo Embassy's statement had been issued hours before the

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Speaker 1: Benghazi attack. It all just fit together.

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Speaker 7: The statement that was issued by US station in Cairo,

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Speaker 7: I think accounted for essentially the quote hurt feelings that

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Speaker 7: resulted because of the video, and then as the Benghazi

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Speaker 7: news came in, it sort of added to this notion

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Speaker 7: that we were under attack and the response from the

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Speaker 7: Obama administration was an apology to the Islamic world.

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Speaker 1: Mitt Romney was delivering a speech in Reno, Nevada at

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Speaker 1: a conference of the National Guard when the gears of

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Speaker 1: his campaign back in Boston started the turn.

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Speaker 7: I recall our communications director calling me at some point

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Speaker 7: around dinner time basically saying, I think it's not going

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Speaker 7: to be possible for us to end this day without

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Speaker 7: saying something.

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Speaker 1: As night fell, Lanhi Chen initiated a conference call with

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Speaker 1: other campaign operatives to discuss whether their candidate should weigh in.

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Speaker 7: We had a small closet that you could kind of

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Speaker 7: walk into in our apartment, and I remember going into

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Speaker 7: that closet and shutting the door and doing the call

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Speaker 7: in there amidst all of our clothes and shoes and

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Speaker 7: everything else, because I didn't want to disturb my wife,

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Speaker 7: didn't want to disturb our son, And a lot of

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Speaker 7: the evening transpired with me in that closet trying to

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Speaker 7: work all this out.

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Speaker 1: The consensus among the Romney staffers was that they would

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Speaker 1: draft a statement that night and run it by the candidate,

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Speaker 1: but hold the final product in an embargo from the

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Speaker 1: press until after midnight, at which point it would be

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Speaker 1: September twelfth. That way, they could skirt any backlash about

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Speaker 1: negative campaigning on the anniversary of nine to eleven, but

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Speaker 1: still be seen as responding quickly to events on the ground.

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Speaker 7: We ended up with a statement that was aggressive. We

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Speaker 7: knew it was aggressive. We debated the aggressiveness of it.

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Speaker 7: I will say that I was not one hundred percent convinced,

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Speaker 7: but by the end of that call, I was that

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Speaker 7: the more aggressive posture was the right one.

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Speaker 1: Once the campaign team had their wording down, Chen called

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Speaker 1: Romney and read the statement aloud to him, it's disgraceful.

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Speaker 1: It said that the Obama administration's first response to the

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Speaker 1: violence in Egypt and Libya was not to condemn attacks

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Speaker 1: on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who

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Speaker 1: wage them.

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Speaker 7: And he sort of paused and said, okay, that that

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Speaker 7: sounds about right to me. Has there been any other

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Speaker 7: news that we should account for? I said no, I

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Speaker 7: think that's it, and he said, okay, sounds good. Let

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Speaker 7: a rip. Let's do it, And I thought, okay, case closed.

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Speaker 7: We're going to put out the statement. I'm going to

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Speaker 7: get to bed, and we're going to see kind of

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Speaker 7: where things develop, and I'll wake up the next day

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Speaker 7: to fight again.

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Speaker 1: A decision was made to lift the nine to eleven

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Speaker 1: embargo early after all, and at ten twenty four pm,

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Speaker 1: the Romney campaign sent the statement out to the media.

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Speaker 7: I think Romney certainly went to bed feeling pretty good

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Speaker 7: about the statement. I know I did, and a number

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Speaker 7: of us did as well, because we'd spend so much

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Speaker 7: time thinking about that evening. You know, I think we

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Speaker 7: all really felt like this was the right approach and

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Speaker 7: this was an evidence of exactly what we had been

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Speaker 7: talking about.

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Speaker 10: Mitt Romney responded in a statement saying, it's disgraceful that

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Speaker 10: the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks

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Speaker 10: on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who

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Speaker 10: wage the attacks, published reports playing the unbasays estate.

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Speaker 1: Romney's statement was the first volley in what would become

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Speaker 1: the long political war over Benghazi, and calling Obama disgraceful

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Speaker 1: mere hours after the attack was first reported, and in

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Speaker 1: doing so, as it turned out, while the attack was

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Speaker 1: still unfolding, Romney was taking a risk, maybe even crossing

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Speaker 1: a line.

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Speaker 7: If you'd said to me that night, when we were

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Speaker 7: getting together to put together that first statement that we

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Speaker 7: would still be talking about that night and the events

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Speaker 7: that transpired years later, I would have said, Yeah, maybe

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Speaker 7: maybe it's a blip in history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Leon Nafok from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. This

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Speaker 1: is fiasco BEng Ghazi.

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Speaker 17: This is a political cover up of something kind what's

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Speaker 17: being called Benghazi Gate.

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Speaker 18: Intelligence officials acknowledged they originally got it wrong.

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Speaker 2: We got the classified cable that was chilling.

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Speaker 19: Why should anybody have any credibility in what the administration

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Speaker 19: says giving its shifting narrative.

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Speaker 4: It was a fucking mess, man, there's a fucking mess.

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Speaker 4: It's really hard to figure out what's going on.

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Speaker 1: Episode four Feckless, in which the attack in Benghazi collides

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Speaker 1: with an American election. We'll be right.

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Speaker 6: Back, And this really is what New Hampshire is all about.

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Speaker 6: Isn't it a day like this at a farm like this?

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Speaker 6: Doug and Stella, thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Mitt Romney announced his candidacy for president on a New

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Speaker 1: Hampshire farm in twenty eleven. He was wearing slacks and

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Speaker 1: a checkered button down shirt, and he spoke from a

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Speaker 1: podium with a picturesque barn behind him. It was the

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Speaker 1: perfect setting for Romney to make his case that Barack

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Speaker 1: Obama didn't understand everyday Americans.

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Speaker 6: And this is what America is about as well, don't

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Speaker 6: you think, Oh, Gosh.

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Speaker 1: The kickoff was mostly focused on the economy, but Romney

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Speaker 1: also took the opportunity to distinguish himself from the president

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Speaker 1: on foreign policy.

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Speaker 6: At a time of historic change and great opportunity in

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Speaker 6: the Arab world, He's hesitant and uncertain. A few mens

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Speaker 6: into officey he traveled around the globe to apologize for America.

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Speaker 1: Romney was referencing a trip that Obama had taken to

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Speaker 1: the Middle East in two thousand and nine at the

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Speaker 1: start of his presidency. It included a high profile appearance

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Speaker 1: in Egypt, during which the President called for a new

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Speaker 1: era of mutual respect between the Muslim world and the West.

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Speaker 3: I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning

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Speaker 3: between the United States and Muslims around the world one based.

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Speaker 1: In his speech, Obama recalled growing up in Indonesia surrounded

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Speaker 1: by practicing Muslims. He spoke reverently of Islamic contributions to

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Speaker 1: Western civilization, like algebra in the treatment of infectious disease.

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Speaker 1: He even quoted from the Quran, as the.

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Speaker 3: Holy Quran tells us be conscious of God and speak

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Speaker 3: always the truth.

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Speaker 1: Six years after the start of the Iraq War, Obama's

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Speaker 1: speech was an implicit critique of the Bush administration. The

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Speaker 1: new president seemed to be saying that the American government

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Speaker 1: would no longer hold an antagonistic attitude towards the Middle

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Speaker 1: East or tolerate the Islamophobia and jingoism that had been

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Speaker 1: awakened under his predeces.

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Speaker 3: And I considered part of my responsibility as president of

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Speaker 3: the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam

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Speaker 3: wherever they appear.

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Speaker 1: Back home, Republicans framed Obama's posture as weak and naive.

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Speaker 1: They called it an apology for America.

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Speaker 17: As we investigate the Obama apology tour and now it

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Speaker 17: has systematically dismantled America's credibility around the world.

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Speaker 1: But first, the apology narrative took hold on Fox News

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Speaker 1: and other conservative media outlets. Obama was undermining the United

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Speaker 1: States by acting like Americans had something to be sorry for.

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Speaker 14: There you heard the president's apology tour.

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Speaker 6: The apology tour, This apology tour, apology tour.

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Speaker 13: The president who apologizes to Muslim religious fanatics.

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Speaker 20: Can we stop apologizing?

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Speaker 1: I'm tired of the apologies. When it came time for

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Speaker 1: Romney to put out a campaign book, he even named

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Speaker 1: it after this idea that.

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Speaker 6: Colmit Romney his book No Apology, The Case for American Greatness.

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Speaker 7: The Obama argument was that they were looking for a

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Speaker 7: more nuanced view of the Islamic world.

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Speaker 1: Again, Romney advisor Lanhi Chen.

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Speaker 7: They took pains, for example, to distinguish between Islamic fundamentalism

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Speaker 7: or Islamic terrorism. And they were very careful about how

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Speaker 7: they approached the region and what they wanted to do,

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Speaker 7: in part because I think President Obama felt that there

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Speaker 7: could be common cause made with parts of the Islamic world.

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Speaker 1: Obama's insistence on making common cause with the Muslim world

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Speaker 1: gave Romney an opening during the twenty twelve race, an

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Speaker 1: easy way to communicate to voters how he and the

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Speaker 1: incumbent were different.

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Speaker 6: Think about this internationally, President Obama has adopted an appeasement strategy.

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Speaker 6: In Barack Obama's profoundly mistaken view, there's nothing unique about

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Speaker 6: the United States.

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Speaker 1: Obama did have one massive advantage when it came to

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Speaker 1: his record on fighting terrorism.

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Speaker 3: Tonight, I can report to the American people and to

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Speaker 3: the world, the United States has conducted an operation that

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Speaker 3: killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaida.

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Speaker 1: A little over a year before the attack in Benghazi,

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Speaker 1: Obama had ordered the raid that killed Osamam bin Laden.

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Speaker 1: He had eliminated the leader of al Qaida and dealt

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Speaker 1: the organization in existential blow. Naturally, Obama's reelection campaign placed

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Speaker 1: this achievement at the center of his foreign policy record.

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Speaker 3: I said, we go after al Qaeda and Bin Laden.

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Speaker 7: We did.

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Speaker 1: Obama's vice president made hay of it as well, Osama

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Speaker 1: bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. By

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Speaker 1: the end of the summer, polling showed that Obama was

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Speaker 1: leading Romney on foreign policy, and the race was widely

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Speaker 1: seen as his to lose. On September twelfth, the morning

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Speaker 1: after the attack in Benghazi, Lanhi Chen started his day

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Speaker 1: the same way he always did, by pouring through news

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Speaker 1: coverage to see what people were saying about his candidate.

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Speaker 7: On an ordinary day. By the time I'd wake up,

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Speaker 7: you know, there might be twenty five thirty thirty five

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Speaker 7: five articles on that morning. I recall waking up and

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Speaker 7: clips were coming fast and furious.

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Speaker 1: Chen was curious to see whether the aggressive stance Romney

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Speaker 1: had taken the night before was having its desired effect.

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Speaker 1: The statement did seem to be getting a lot of attention,

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Speaker 1: but not in the way the Romney campaign had hoped.

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Speaker 11: Whether you agree or don't agree with the Romney statement,

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Speaker 11: it just sounds cynical and gross.

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Speaker 13: And I have to say I'm stun they put out

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Speaker 13: this release when they did, before we knew all the

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Speaker 13: facts before daybreak.

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Speaker 14: Just so patently political.

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Speaker 20: It really gives you.

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Speaker 16: Pause a political handgrad and I think shame on that

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Speaker 16: campaign personally.

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Speaker 1: Normally, when a campaign is under this kind of heavy criticism,

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Speaker 1: the candidate can marshal a battalion of loyal, credentialed partisans

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Speaker 1: to get on TV and mounted defense. They're called surrogates,

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Speaker 1: and typically the Romney campaign had a deep bench of

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Speaker 1: surrogates at their disposal. In this case, though support was

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Speaker 1: slow to come. It appeared that even Romney's fellow Republicans

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Speaker 1: thought the campaign had gone too far.

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Speaker 7: We found a reticence amongst a number of our key

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Speaker 7: national security surrogates who would have been forceful voices on

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Speaker 7: the outside. They were either not on board, or they

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Speaker 7: wanted to speak to me or someone on the campaign

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Speaker 7: to give them some sense of our thinking before they

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Speaker 7: were willing to get out there and say something.

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Speaker 1: That morning, Chen dialed into a conference call with other

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Speaker 1: top campaign officials and Romney himself, who was not happy.

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Speaker 1: According to one account, he gripped the armrest of his

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Speaker 1: chair as he spoke.

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Speaker 7: He expressed his sense that perhaps we had been too

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Speaker 7: quick with the statement and that there was a brewing

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Speaker 7: controversy over it. It was something to the effect of, guys,

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Speaker 7: I think we may have made a mistake here, or

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Speaker 7: we may have misfired.

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Speaker 1: Romney knew it didn't look good. Four Americans, including an ambassador,

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Speaker 1: were dead, and here he was pouncing on it to

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Speaker 1: try to win an election. It wasn't just Obama partisan

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Speaker 1: who were outraged. Establishment Republicans also seemed to agree that

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Speaker 1: Romney campaign had improperly politicized a national security crisis.

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Speaker 8: I'm a hawk, but you do not want to have

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Speaker 8: this become a political election issue right now. We should

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Speaker 8: have one president of the United States at a time

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Speaker 8: when it comes to foreign policy. I don't think he

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Speaker 8: should be a second force of foreign policy now.

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Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell and John Bayner, the two highest ranking Republicans

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Speaker 1: in Congress, offered statements condemning the Bengazi attack, but neither

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Speaker 1: took the opportunity to criticize Obama or come to Romney's defense.

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Speaker 1: John McCain also declined to address Romney's statement, saying only

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Speaker 1: that Ambassador Chris Stevens was one of his dear friends,

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Speaker 1: but not everyone in the conservative movement had the same qualms.

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Speaker 20: But what really is going on right there is a

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Speaker 20: coordinated effort by the media in coordination with the White House.

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Speaker 1: On talk radio, Rush Limbaugh gave a full throated defense

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Speaker 1: of Roma and suggested that the outrage of the campaign

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Speaker 1: statement was a distraction from Obama's mishandling of the attack.

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Speaker 20: We're in the middle of an absolute disaster, a foreign

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Speaker 20: policy disaster, and there's a coordinated effort to make it

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Speaker 20: about Romney, whether or not it's presidential for Romney.

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Speaker 1: One commentator on the website Breitbart dot Com dismissed the

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Speaker 1: notion that Romney had done anything wrong and called on

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Speaker 1: the Obama campaign to direct their outrage at the murderers

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Speaker 1: instead of Romney. And so the Romney campaign faced a choice.

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Speaker 1: Were they going to give in to the criticism they

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Speaker 1: were hearing from more moderate Republicans or would they stay

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Speaker 1: on message and hope the rest of the party fell

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Speaker 1: in line.

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Speaker 7: How do we address this now going forward? That was

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Speaker 7: really more the focus of that call and the tone

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Speaker 7: that Romney took that morning, And it was really a

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Speaker 7: division between do we walk it back or do we

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Speaker 7: double down on it.

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Speaker 1: After some debate, the Romney campaign decided not to backtrack.

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Speaker 1: The guy who wrote a book called No Apology simply

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Speaker 1: could not apologize.

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Speaker 7: It would have been seen as a sign of weakness.

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Speaker 7: It would have been seen as a rebuke of our

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Speaker 7: own line of thinking about not just this event, but

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Speaker 7: perhaps more broadly about Obama.

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Speaker 1: So the Romney campaign was going to stay the course. Yes,

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Speaker 1: what happened to Benghazi was a tragedy, but it was

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Speaker 1: an avoidable one that illustrated the failures of Obama's foreign policy.

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Speaker 1: As lnhi Chen told a reporter at the time, the

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Speaker 1: attack was a direct result of the Obama administration conducting

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Speaker 1: its foreign policy in effeckless manner. That word feckless was

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Speaker 1: a callback to a critique that Romney had been leveling

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Speaker 1: against Obama for the better part of a year.

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Speaker 6: The very real dangers that America faces if we continue

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Speaker 6: the effeckless policies of the past three years.

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Speaker 12: Knit Romney said, that you are America's most chectless president

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Speaker 12: since Carter.

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Speaker 15: What would you like to say to mister Romney.

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Speaker 20: I tell him to go feck himself. That's an.

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Speaker 7: And I think that word feckless describes a timidity. And

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Speaker 7: that's the reason why that critique stuck.

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Speaker 1: Whatever had happened in Benghazi, it was proof of Obama's fecklessness,

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Speaker 1: particularly when viewed alongside the conciliatory statement issued by the

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Speaker 1: US Embassy in Cairo. It was true that making this

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Speaker 1: point required Romney to conflate the Benghazi attack with the

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Speaker 1: administration's response to the Innocence of Muslims video, But the

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Speaker 1: point here was to level a general critique of the president,

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Speaker 1: not get into specifics.

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Speaker 17: Back to our breaking news in a matter of moments,

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Speaker 17: live in Jacksonville.

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Speaker 10: Governorment Romney is prepared to make a statement.

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Speaker 6: And we understand he may take questions now.

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Speaker 1: As criticism continued to pour in the day after the attack,

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Speaker 1: the Romney campaign pulled together a press conc in which

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Speaker 1: Romney would address reporters directly. Hillary Clinton had just done

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Speaker 1: the same thing at State Department headquarters, and Obama was

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Speaker 1: getting ready to deliver his own statement in the White

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Speaker 1: House Rose Garden. The setting for Romney's press conference was

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Speaker 1: less official. It took place at a strip mall in Jacksonville, Florida.

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Speaker 6: Good morning, Americans woke up this morning with tragic news

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Speaker 6: and felt heavy hearts.

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Speaker 7: So he was having a press conference in a strip

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Speaker 7: mall where there was a reptile store of some kind.

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Speaker 7: And I don't know why that sticks with me, but

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Speaker 7: it does. It was sort of fitting for the time.

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Speaker 7: I guess that we were in a pit of vipers

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Speaker 7: and there was a reptile store nearby.

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Speaker 6: I think it's a terrible course for America to stand

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Speaker 6: in apology for our values, that the first response to

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Speaker 6: the United States must be outrage at the breach of

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Speaker 6: the sovereignty of our nation.

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Speaker 1: Reporters echoed the questions lanhi Chen had seen in the

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Speaker 1: press clippings that morning. Why had the Romney campaign weighed

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Speaker 1: in so early? It was the anniversary of nine to eleven.

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Speaker 1: Shouldn't they at least wait until after the attack was over?

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Speaker 3: Watching this basin itself a mixed signal when you've criticized

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Speaker 3: the administration.

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Speaker 1: At a time that Americans are being you know, shouldn't

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Speaker 1: politics offer for this?

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Speaker 6: We have a campaign for presidency of the United States,

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Speaker 6: and are speaking about the different courses we would each

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Speaker 6: take with regards to the challenges that the world faces.

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Speaker 11: If you had known last night, if the investor had

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Speaker 11: gotten obviously, I'm.

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Speaker 6: Gathering you did not know, I'm I'm not gonna take

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Speaker 6: hypotheticals about what would have been known on and so forth.

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Speaker 14: We respotted last night.

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Speaker 1: It was a rough press conference and a rough morning

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Speaker 1: for the candidate overall, but it was still possible that

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Speaker 1: Romney's fellow Republicans would get behind him.

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Speaker 7: I really didn't have a great sense of what that

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Speaker 7: day and what the next few days we're going to

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Speaker 7: look like.

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Speaker 1: In the first few days after the attack and been god,

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Speaker 1: a wave of anti American uprising started to crop up

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Speaker 1: across the Arab world in response to the Innocence of

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Speaker 1: Muslims video. The Obama administration was concerned about the risk

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Speaker 1: of another attack.

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Speaker 21: Pictures here from protests and anti American demonstrations in more

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Speaker 21: than a dozen countries.

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Speaker 4: The Bengazi attack happened on a Tuesday. The day we

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Speaker 4: were all watching was Friday, because of Friday prayers.

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Speaker 1: This is Tommy Vitor. He's best known today as a

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Speaker 1: co host of Pod Save America. Back in twenty twelve,

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Speaker 1: he was the thirty two year old spokesperson for the

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Speaker 1: National Security Council, a panel of advisors responsible for helping

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Speaker 1: the president make decisions on foreign policy and terrorism.

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Speaker 4: Because what happened in a lot of places was everyone

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Speaker 4: would go to the mosque, if you had any mom

446
00:23:56,870 --> 00:24:00,390
Speaker 4: who was giving a sermon about the innocence of Muzzlim videos,

447
00:24:00,551 --> 00:24:02,910
Speaker 4: you could see more protests and more violence and more

448
00:24:02,951 --> 00:24:05,230
Speaker 4: attacks on the US facilities.

449
00:24:05,350 --> 00:24:08,630
Speaker 13: American diplomatic missions across the globe are on high alert.

450
00:24:08,671 --> 00:24:12,191
Speaker 12: They are expecting and desion of anti American protests.

451
00:24:12,231 --> 00:24:20,351
Speaker 1: After Friday prayers, protesters demonstrated outside US diplomatic outposts in Morocco, Mauritania, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kuwait,

452
00:24:20,511 --> 00:24:23,471
Speaker 1: even Australia and the Philippines. You know, a dominus fact.

453
00:24:23,471 --> 00:24:26,751
Speaker 1: The chain reaction with being more protests in Arab capitals.

454
00:24:26,951 --> 00:24:29,551
Speaker 22: There were small demonstrations in front of Tunisia, there were

455
00:24:29,551 --> 00:24:30,951
Speaker 22: other ones in the Gaza Strip.

456
00:24:31,191 --> 00:24:33,031
Speaker 21: The unrest came to Sudan.

457
00:24:32,671 --> 00:24:36,031
Speaker 3: Protesters shouting with our soul, our blood, we defend you,

458
00:24:36,150 --> 00:24:37,710
Speaker 3: Prophet Mohammed.

459
00:24:37,830 --> 00:24:40,110
Speaker 4: And so that led to a whole series of meetings

460
00:24:40,150 --> 00:24:44,991
Speaker 4: and conversations about how to harden various facilities all around

461
00:24:44,991 --> 00:24:48,991
Speaker 4: the globe and to really review like whether US personnel

462
00:24:48,991 --> 00:24:50,791
Speaker 4: were safe. I mean, that was the real focus.

463
00:24:52,150 --> 00:24:56,350
Speaker 1: Some of the demonstrations were peaceful, others turned violent. In Yemen,

464
00:24:56,551 --> 00:25:00,231
Speaker 1: protesters breached the gates of the US embassy. In Tunisia,

465
00:25:00,271 --> 00:25:03,590
Speaker 1: they set vehicles on fire. In Sudan, they climbed over

466
00:25:03,671 --> 00:25:06,071
Speaker 1: the walls of the US embassy and raised a black

467
00:25:06,110 --> 00:25:06,870
Speaker 1: Islamic flag.

468
00:25:07,271 --> 00:25:11,471
Speaker 22: Wherever there is weak security for seeing some radicals take

469
00:25:11,511 --> 00:25:14,430
Speaker 22: advantage of that and using this opportunity to attack the embassidy.

470
00:25:14,471 --> 00:25:19,271
Speaker 4: In truth, like, we didn't really have time to immediately

471
00:25:19,390 --> 00:25:22,350
Speaker 4: mourn and focus on the Benghazi attacks and do an

472
00:25:22,350 --> 00:25:25,791
Speaker 4: after action report because we were so worried about whether

473
00:25:25,870 --> 00:25:28,071
Speaker 4: there could be another Benghazi someplace else.

474
00:25:28,390 --> 00:25:29,311
Speaker 7: We were worried.

475
00:25:29,031 --> 00:25:32,551
Speaker 4: About personnel all over the world, diplomatic personnel, intelligence personnel,

476
00:25:32,870 --> 00:25:37,351
Speaker 4: military personnel. It was a total rethinking of our security

477
00:25:37,390 --> 00:25:39,791
Speaker 4: situation all over the globe.

478
00:25:39,830 --> 00:25:42,991
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the US intelligence community was trying to get to

479
00:25:43,071 --> 00:25:45,470
Speaker 1: the bottom of who was responsible for the attack in

480
00:25:45,511 --> 00:25:48,911
Speaker 1: Benghazi and how they had managed to kill four people.

481
00:25:49,390 --> 00:25:54,471
Speaker 4: Even with the entire intelligence capability of the United States government,

482
00:25:54,830 --> 00:25:57,230
Speaker 4: you are still scrambling to figure out what happened in

483
00:25:57,271 --> 00:25:58,231
Speaker 4: situations like this.

484
00:25:59,031 --> 00:26:02,231
Speaker 1: From the start, a central question was how the Benghazi

485
00:26:02,271 --> 00:26:06,271
Speaker 1: attack began. Did it grow spontaneously out of peaceful protests

486
00:26:06,350 --> 00:26:09,670
Speaker 1: inspired by the video or was it a terrorist attack

487
00:26:10,071 --> 00:26:13,470
Speaker 1: that had been planned separately. At stake was whether the

488
00:26:13,511 --> 00:26:17,230
Speaker 1: tragedy had been preventable, whether someone in the US government

489
00:26:17,350 --> 00:26:20,350
Speaker 1: had screwed up by not thwarting the attack or better

490
00:26:20,390 --> 00:26:22,271
Speaker 1: preparing the compound to withstand it.

491
00:26:22,590 --> 00:26:25,630
Speaker 4: That's just the nature of diplomacy. It's nature of like

492
00:26:25,630 --> 00:26:29,150
Speaker 4: the fog of war like there was no way to

493
00:26:29,271 --> 00:26:32,630
Speaker 4: quickly vet and get people on the ground to sort

494
00:26:32,671 --> 00:26:37,390
Speaker 4: through the aftermath. Even with enormous intelligence capability, it still

495
00:26:37,431 --> 00:26:39,990
Speaker 4: took hours and hours and hours to figure out what

496
00:26:40,150 --> 00:26:41,071
Speaker 4: exactly happened.

497
00:26:41,471 --> 00:26:45,271
Speaker 1: As investigators sought witnesses and made contact with Libyan authorities,

498
00:26:45,630 --> 00:26:49,350
Speaker 1: President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton delivered public speeches

499
00:26:49,390 --> 00:26:53,230
Speaker 1: and met with the victims' families. Obama also visited the

500
00:26:53,231 --> 00:26:56,151
Speaker 1: State Department, where grief over losing two of their own

501
00:26:56,390 --> 00:27:00,351
Speaker 1: was still just setting in A sitting American ambassador had

502
00:27:00,390 --> 00:27:02,711
Speaker 1: not been killed in the line of duty since nineteen

503
00:27:02,791 --> 00:27:03,711
Speaker 1: seventy nine.

504
00:27:04,751 --> 00:27:12,430
Speaker 3: To you, their families and colleagues, to all Americans know this,

505
00:27:14,271 --> 00:27:17,110
Speaker 3: their sacrifice will never be forgotten.

506
00:27:18,031 --> 00:27:21,991
Speaker 1: On Friday afternoon, Obama and Clinton presided over a solemn

507
00:27:22,031 --> 00:27:26,670
Speaker 1: ceremony as the victims' bodies were returned from Libya. Family

508
00:27:26,711 --> 00:27:30,231
Speaker 1: members stood by for a military salute as servicemen loaded

509
00:27:30,271 --> 00:27:34,431
Speaker 1: flag draped caskets into hearses. The event was carried live

510
00:27:34,551 --> 00:27:35,431
Speaker 1: on National TV.

511
00:27:36,271 --> 00:27:41,830
Speaker 2: We bring home for Americans who gave their lives for

512
00:27:42,071 --> 00:27:47,071
Speaker 2: our country and our values to the families.

513
00:27:47,271 --> 00:27:49,670
Speaker 1: The ceremony took place in the midst of a fevered

514
00:27:49,751 --> 00:27:52,031
Speaker 1: rush in the media to get clarity on whether the

515
00:27:52,071 --> 00:27:54,991
Speaker 1: attack and Benghazi had been pre planned or linked to

516
00:27:55,031 --> 00:27:58,551
Speaker 1: a protest. Reporters initially had a hard time getting a

517
00:27:58,590 --> 00:28:03,071
Speaker 1: definitive picture. The Washington Post cited a Libyan journalist who

518
00:28:03,110 --> 00:28:06,750
Speaker 1: described the attackers as racing towards a protest. The New

519
00:28:06,830 --> 00:28:09,590
Speaker 1: York Times seemed to back that up, citing a Libyan

520
00:28:09,590 --> 00:28:11,750
Speaker 1: official who said the first part of the attack had

521
00:28:11,751 --> 00:28:14,870
Speaker 1: evolved from protests, while the second on the CIA base

522
00:28:14,911 --> 00:28:19,311
Speaker 1: had been coordinated. However, the same article also cited two

523
00:28:19,350 --> 00:28:22,191
Speaker 1: Libyan guards who had been wounded in the attack, who

524
00:28:22,191 --> 00:28:24,831
Speaker 1: said there had been no indication of a protest outside

525
00:28:24,870 --> 00:28:28,991
Speaker 1: the compound before the shooting started. Separately, the President of

526
00:28:29,031 --> 00:28:31,670
Speaker 1: Libya described the attack as highly organized.

527
00:28:31,870 --> 00:28:34,751
Speaker 11: The President of Libya says that this was something that

528
00:28:34,830 --> 00:28:35,431
Speaker 11: had been in.

529
00:28:35,311 --> 00:28:36,750
Speaker 20: The works for two months.

530
00:28:36,830 --> 00:28:39,511
Speaker 11: This attack, he blames it on al Qaeda.

531
00:28:39,831 --> 00:28:42,911
Speaker 2: It was a lot of scrambling in the initial days.

532
00:28:43,391 --> 00:28:46,471
Speaker 1: This is Pamela K. Brown in twenty twelve. She was

533
00:28:46,551 --> 00:28:50,031
Speaker 1: an executive producer at Fox News. Before that, she had

534
00:28:50,071 --> 00:28:53,871
Speaker 1: spent time building an international roodex at NBC, ABC and

535
00:28:53,951 --> 00:28:57,231
Speaker 1: CBS News while reporting on conflicts like the First Gulf

536
00:28:57,271 --> 00:28:59,190
Speaker 1: War and the breakup of Yugoslavia.

537
00:28:59,311 --> 00:29:02,871
Speaker 2: I had good contexts I made in Saudi Arabia. I

538
00:29:02,911 --> 00:29:06,431
Speaker 2: had friends in Egypt. I had friends in a UAE,

539
00:29:06,711 --> 00:29:09,271
Speaker 2: and I say friends people that would take my phone

540
00:29:09,311 --> 00:29:12,391
Speaker 2: call and do their very best to answer my question

541
00:29:12,551 --> 00:29:14,071
Speaker 2: or help me in my quest.

542
00:29:14,711 --> 00:29:17,871
Speaker 1: The evening after the attack in Benghazi, anchors at Fox

543
00:29:17,951 --> 00:29:20,791
Speaker 1: News were running with a definitive claim that the attack

544
00:29:20,871 --> 00:29:23,751
Speaker 1: was pre planned and likely linked to al Qaida. It

545
00:29:23,791 --> 00:29:26,031
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the innocence of Muslim's video.

546
00:29:26,311 --> 00:29:29,591
Speaker 17: Fox News has obtained information that those killings were apparently planned,

547
00:29:29,871 --> 00:29:31,551
Speaker 17: not a spontaneous demonstration.

548
00:29:32,191 --> 00:29:36,151
Speaker 2: One thread that I developed from a source on the

549
00:29:36,191 --> 00:29:40,071
Speaker 2: ground that there was no protest and the attacks were

550
00:29:40,111 --> 00:29:43,831
Speaker 2: not spontaneous. The attack was planned and had nothing to

551
00:29:43,911 --> 00:29:49,231
Speaker 2: do with the movie. I was confident, highly confident. That's

552
00:29:49,271 --> 00:29:51,431
Speaker 2: something you just have to lock and load on when

553
00:29:51,471 --> 00:29:52,471
Speaker 2: you really have it.

554
00:29:52,631 --> 00:29:56,231
Speaker 15: There is growing consensus tonight among the intelligence community that

555
00:29:56,271 --> 00:29:59,871
Speaker 15: the attack in Libya had little or nothing to do

556
00:29:59,951 --> 00:30:03,391
Speaker 15: with Muslim protests against an anti Islamic film.

557
00:30:03,911 --> 00:30:07,191
Speaker 1: In addition to Brown's source on the ground, top Republicans

558
00:30:07,191 --> 00:30:09,751
Speaker 1: on the House Intelligence Committee were arguing that the weapons

559
00:30:09,831 --> 00:30:13,951
Speaker 1: used in the attack were proof of premeditation. Specifically, they

560
00:30:13,991 --> 00:30:16,711
Speaker 1: noted that the CIA facility in Benghazi had been hit

561
00:30:16,831 --> 00:30:20,591
Speaker 1: with mortars, meaning the attackers would have needed exact coordinates

562
00:30:20,591 --> 00:30:22,991
Speaker 1: for the building in order to target it.

563
00:30:22,991 --> 00:30:26,311
Speaker 2: It was such an area that they knew the way

564
00:30:26,351 --> 00:30:29,710
Speaker 2: the mortar rounds were coming in people we spoke to

565
00:30:30,151 --> 00:30:32,311
Speaker 2: it showed that there had been pre planning.

566
00:30:33,351 --> 00:30:36,710
Speaker 1: The FBI later theorized that the assailants may have gotten

567
00:30:36,711 --> 00:30:39,351
Speaker 1: the coordinates needed to launch the mortars when they raided

568
00:30:39,351 --> 00:30:42,950
Speaker 1: the Benghazi compound. In other words, the attack on the

569
00:30:42,991 --> 00:30:46,831
Speaker 1: CIA base may have been planned, but planned in one night.

570
00:30:47,831 --> 00:30:50,031
Speaker 1: In the days after the attack, there was a lot

571
00:30:50,111 --> 00:30:53,271
Speaker 1: riding on this point for Republicans. If the attack in

572
00:30:53,311 --> 00:30:56,990
Speaker 1: Benghazi was pre planned, it meant that the Obama administration

573
00:30:57,191 --> 00:30:59,871
Speaker 1: was exactly as weak on terror as mitt Romney had

574
00:30:59,911 --> 00:31:02,950
Speaker 1: been saying. The potential link to al Qaeda meant that

575
00:31:02,951 --> 00:31:07,151
Speaker 1: Obama hadn't conquered the terrorist organization after all, and that

576
00:31:07,271 --> 00:31:09,351
Speaker 1: while he was out running his victory lab over bin

577
00:31:09,431 --> 00:31:13,311
Speaker 1: Laden's death, the group had managed to murder an American ambassador.

578
00:31:18,231 --> 00:31:22,431
Speaker 1: On Thursday, September thirteenth, the intelligence community provided a classified

579
00:31:22,471 --> 00:31:26,631
Speaker 1: briefing to the President and to Congress. Their assessment reiterated

580
00:31:26,631 --> 00:31:30,190
Speaker 1: that the attack had begun spontaneously following the protests in Cairo,

581
00:31:30,671 --> 00:31:34,111
Speaker 1: but that extremists with ties to al Qaida were involved.

582
00:31:34,391 --> 00:31:38,031
Speaker 23: All right, good afternoon, ladies, and gentlemen, thanks for being here.

583
00:31:38,631 --> 00:31:41,831
Speaker 1: At a press conference the next day, ABC's Jake Tapper

584
00:31:41,871 --> 00:31:44,710
Speaker 1: pushed White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to square the

585
00:31:44,751 --> 00:31:47,711
Speaker 1: idea of a spontaneous protest with emerging evidence about the

586
00:31:47,751 --> 00:31:48,991
Speaker 1: weapons used in the attack.

587
00:31:49,631 --> 00:31:53,191
Speaker 3: The group around, but the Benghazi post was well armed.

588
00:31:53,191 --> 00:31:54,671
Speaker 3: It was a well coordinated attack.

589
00:31:54,751 --> 00:31:58,671
Speaker 15: Do you think it was a spontaneous protest against a movie?

590
00:31:59,111 --> 00:32:02,471
Speaker 23: Look, this is obviously under investigation. We do not at

591
00:32:02,471 --> 00:32:05,391
Speaker 23: this moment have information to suggest or to tell you

592
00:32:05,471 --> 00:32:09,911
Speaker 23: that would indicate that any of this unrest was prel

593
00:32:10,631 --> 00:32:11,471
Speaker 23: What is true about?

594
00:32:11,711 --> 00:32:14,950
Speaker 1: On the Sunday news shows that weekend, un Ambassador Susan

595
00:32:15,031 --> 00:32:18,871
Speaker 1: Rice further amplified the government's official assessment by appearing on

596
00:32:18,911 --> 00:32:24,551
Speaker 1: every major network CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, and Fox News.

597
00:32:25,351 --> 00:32:28,231
Speaker 1: This was a feat known as the full Ginsburg, named

598
00:32:28,231 --> 00:32:30,831
Speaker 1: after Monica Lewinski's lawyer, who's the first to ever do

599
00:32:30,911 --> 00:32:32,231
Speaker 1: it in nineteen ninety eight.

600
00:32:32,271 --> 00:32:33,831
Speaker 3: Madam Ambassador, thank you for joining us.

601
00:32:33,831 --> 00:32:34,351
Speaker 16: Good to be with you.

602
00:32:34,431 --> 00:32:36,751
Speaker 14: Candy, Doctor Rice, thank you so much for coming here

603
00:32:36,791 --> 00:32:37,991
Speaker 14: today and answering our question.

604
00:32:38,071 --> 00:32:39,911
Speaker 1: Good to be with you in each interview. When the

605
00:32:39,951 --> 00:32:43,351
Speaker 1: Bengazi attack came up, Rice crafted her answers based on

606
00:32:43,391 --> 00:32:46,311
Speaker 1: the intelligence briefing submitted to the president three days earlier.

607
00:32:46,471 --> 00:32:50,351
Speaker 24: What happened in Benghazi was in fact, initially a spontaneous

608
00:32:50,951 --> 00:32:54,031
Speaker 24: reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo,

609
00:32:54,551 --> 00:32:57,711
Speaker 24: almost a copycat of the demonstrat.

610
00:32:57,831 --> 00:33:00,511
Speaker 1: Rice made it clear that the investigation was still underway

611
00:33:00,631 --> 00:33:03,151
Speaker 1: and cautioned that there was a lot the administration didn't know.

612
00:33:03,431 --> 00:33:07,911
Speaker 24: We'll wait to see exactly what the investigation finally confirms,

613
00:33:07,991 --> 00:33:09,991
Speaker 24: but that's the best information we have at present.

614
00:33:10,271 --> 00:33:13,151
Speaker 1: It didn't take long for more solid intelligence to come in.

615
00:33:14,191 --> 00:33:16,911
Speaker 1: Within a week of Susan Rice's tour of the Sunday Shows,

616
00:33:17,311 --> 00:33:19,551
Speaker 1: it was clear the Obama White House had been wrong

617
00:33:19,631 --> 00:33:22,111
Speaker 1: to suggest the Benghazi attack grew out of a protest

618
00:33:22,191 --> 00:33:25,631
Speaker 1: against the Innocence of Muslim's video. There had been no

619
00:33:25,751 --> 00:33:30,071
Speaker 1: protest against the video in Benghazi. Security camera footage obtained

620
00:33:30,071 --> 00:33:33,311
Speaker 1: by the CIA showed that the diplomatic compound was quiet

621
00:33:33,351 --> 00:33:36,151
Speaker 1: that night, and to an organized group of armed assailants

622
00:33:36,191 --> 00:33:37,271
Speaker 1: broke in.

623
00:33:37,271 --> 00:33:40,671
Speaker 18: Intelligence officials acknowledged they originally got it wrong.

624
00:33:41,031 --> 00:33:44,351
Speaker 1: On September nineteenth, a counter terrorism official from the Obama

625
00:33:44,391 --> 00:33:48,190
Speaker 1: administration testified that the assault was in fact a coordinated

626
00:33:48,271 --> 00:33:48,991
Speaker 1: terrorist attack.

627
00:33:49,071 --> 00:33:52,190
Speaker 11: The intelligence community now believes it was a deliberate and

628
00:33:52,431 --> 00:33:55,631
Speaker 11: organized attack. Some of those involved, it says, were linked

629
00:33:55,631 --> 00:33:59,311
Speaker 11: to groups affiliated with or sympathetic to Al Qaida, to.

630
00:33:59,311 --> 00:34:02,431
Speaker 1: The Romney campaign and their fellow Republicans. It looked like

631
00:34:02,471 --> 00:34:06,071
Speaker 1: the administration was dramatically changing its story on Benghazi.

632
00:34:06,351 --> 00:34:09,591
Speaker 21: Last week, the administration insisted the attack was a spontaneous

633
00:34:09,631 --> 00:34:12,871
Speaker 21: reaction to a YouTube video, but today Secretary Clinton has

634
00:34:12,871 --> 00:34:14,911
Speaker 21: said it was indeed terrorism.

635
00:34:15,031 --> 00:34:18,111
Speaker 11: Mitt Romney said today it raises questions about how those

636
00:34:18,151 --> 00:34:19,991
Speaker 11: first statements could be so wrong.

637
00:34:20,631 --> 00:34:23,230
Speaker 6: There was a great deal of confusion about that from

638
00:34:23,230 --> 00:34:25,031
Speaker 6: the very beginning on the part of the administration.

639
00:34:25,591 --> 00:34:28,631
Speaker 19: Why should anybody have any credibility in what the administration

640
00:34:28,710 --> 00:34:30,631
Speaker 19: says giving its shifting narrative.

641
00:34:31,190 --> 00:34:35,511
Speaker 1: Tommy Vitor, Obama's National Security Council spokesman, acknowledges that the

642
00:34:35,551 --> 00:34:40,151
Speaker 1: administration's narrative did shift, but all these years later, the

643
00:34:40,190 --> 00:34:43,991
Speaker 1: notion that there was anything nefarious about it still exasperates him.

644
00:34:44,391 --> 00:34:46,270
Speaker 4: It was a fucking mess, man, It was a fucking mess.

645
00:34:46,270 --> 00:34:48,951
Speaker 4: It's really hard to figure out what's going on. You know,

646
00:34:49,190 --> 00:34:52,910
Speaker 4: when something happens thousands of miles away in the dead

647
00:34:52,951 --> 00:34:57,190
Speaker 4: of night, in complicated circumstances, you have to allow for

648
00:34:57,230 --> 00:35:00,751
Speaker 4: shifting explanations. It takes time to figure out what happened.

649
00:35:01,111 --> 00:35:03,791
Speaker 4: I promise you when I would walk into the situation

650
00:35:03,911 --> 00:35:07,031
Speaker 4: room meetings, there was not some conversation about how do

651
00:35:07,071 --> 00:35:10,951
Speaker 4: we spin this. The conversation was, Hey, intelligence guys, what

652
00:35:10,991 --> 00:35:11,390
Speaker 4: do we know?

653
00:35:15,351 --> 00:35:18,671
Speaker 1: The messy reality is that there was disagreement among intelligence

654
00:35:18,710 --> 00:35:22,631
Speaker 1: officials as information about the Bengazi attack rolled in. At

655
00:35:22,631 --> 00:35:26,111
Speaker 1: one point, the executive coordinator of the Presidential Daily brief

656
00:35:26,391 --> 00:35:28,790
Speaker 1: had written that the presence of armed assailants on the

657
00:35:28,831 --> 00:35:32,190
Speaker 1: ground suggested that this was an intentional assault and not

658
00:35:32,351 --> 00:35:35,591
Speaker 1: an escalation of a peaceful protest, but that statement was

659
00:35:35,591 --> 00:35:38,710
Speaker 1: removed from the initial briefing because other analysts didn't think

660
00:35:38,750 --> 00:35:40,230
Speaker 1: there was enough evidence to support it.

661
00:35:40,750 --> 00:35:45,390
Speaker 4: There was clearly a difference of opinion among various parts

662
00:35:45,431 --> 00:35:48,671
Speaker 4: of the government about what happened, and so those dissenting

663
00:35:48,791 --> 00:35:52,951
Speaker 4: views would start to leak out, which would cause reporting

664
00:35:52,991 --> 00:35:55,271
Speaker 4: that was just off or confused or wrong.

665
00:35:56,230 --> 00:35:59,551
Speaker 1: But Pamela Brown, the producer at Fox News, saw something

666
00:35:59,591 --> 00:36:02,551
Speaker 1: suspicious in the Obama White House's insistence on bringing up

667
00:36:02,591 --> 00:36:06,551
Speaker 1: the innocence of Muslims video. The fact that the administration

668
00:36:06,671 --> 00:36:10,431
Speaker 1: had been so attached to the spontaneous uprising theory to

669
00:36:10,431 --> 00:36:12,471
Speaker 1: Brown that they were trying to get away with something.

670
00:36:13,511 --> 00:36:17,310
Speaker 2: It was a very big deal for them to pin

671
00:36:17,591 --> 00:36:21,151
Speaker 2: all of this on the video. When somebody goes out

672
00:36:21,471 --> 00:36:24,871
Speaker 2: and sticks to a story like that and it's just

673
00:36:25,111 --> 00:36:25,751
Speaker 2: not true.

674
00:36:26,871 --> 00:36:30,351
Speaker 1: This sense that Obama was hiding the truth pervaded Fox News.

675
00:36:31,351 --> 00:36:33,631
Speaker 1: Soon the network was calling it a cover up.

676
00:36:34,431 --> 00:36:37,910
Speaker 17: More on the Benghazi cover off, what's being called Benghazi Gate,

677
00:36:38,071 --> 00:36:40,310
Speaker 17: probably more serious than Watergate.

678
00:36:40,710 --> 00:36:43,551
Speaker 1: To what was your theory at the time of like

679
00:36:44,311 --> 00:36:48,990
Speaker 1: why the Obama people wanted to blame it on the video?

680
00:36:49,431 --> 00:36:51,270
Speaker 1: What was what was in it for them to blame

681
00:36:51,311 --> 00:36:51,911
Speaker 1: it on the video?

682
00:36:53,351 --> 00:36:57,911
Speaker 2: I have no idea. This is a larger question for

683
00:36:57,991 --> 00:37:02,270
Speaker 2: someone in mess in foreign policy. So the question is

684
00:37:02,511 --> 00:37:05,830
Speaker 2: why were we there, Why was this so important to

685
00:37:05,951 --> 00:37:11,471
Speaker 2: have Ambassador Stevens in this position and temporary mission compound?

686
00:37:12,391 --> 00:37:15,391
Speaker 2: And what was the hope That I cannot answer.

687
00:37:17,911 --> 00:37:22,191
Speaker 1: Fox's primetime hosts were less circumspect. In the weeks after

688
00:37:22,230 --> 00:37:25,791
Speaker 1: the attack, Sean Hannity was mapping out a vast conspiracy

689
00:37:25,831 --> 00:37:29,031
Speaker 1: designed to cover up what really happened to Ambassador Stevens.

690
00:37:29,391 --> 00:37:32,311
Speaker 17: It's clear to me that either they are totally stupid,

691
00:37:32,991 --> 00:37:35,071
Speaker 17: or they have the worst intelligence, or that this is

692
00:37:35,111 --> 00:37:37,071
Speaker 17: a political cover up of some kind because they didn't

693
00:37:37,111 --> 00:37:39,991
Speaker 17: want to admit. What is hobbyist to everybody that on

694
00:37:40,031 --> 00:37:42,231
Speaker 17: the anniversary of nine to eleven they should have had

695
00:37:42,431 --> 00:37:44,631
Speaker 17: some protection for our embassies, and they didn't.

696
00:37:49,471 --> 00:37:58,991
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. As Pamela Brown reported the Benghazi story,

697
00:37:59,270 --> 00:38:02,151
Speaker 1: she filed several freedom of information requests with the State

698
00:38:02,190 --> 00:38:04,551
Speaker 1: Department to see if there was anything that didn't match

699
00:38:04,631 --> 00:38:08,230
Speaker 1: up to the official narrative. For instance, the administration had

700
00:38:08,270 --> 00:38:10,871
Speaker 1: said that there was no indication to the attack in

701
00:38:10,911 --> 00:38:15,151
Speaker 1: Benghazi that the diplomatic compound was under imminent threat, but

702
00:38:15,230 --> 00:38:18,830
Speaker 1: Brown's Foyer requests turned up State Department cables indicating that

703
00:38:18,871 --> 00:38:21,391
Speaker 1: some alarms had been sounded in the weeks leading up

704
00:38:21,431 --> 00:38:21,991
Speaker 1: to the attack.

705
00:38:22,511 --> 00:38:26,151
Speaker 2: We got the classified cable which said that the compound

706
00:38:26,311 --> 00:38:29,831
Speaker 2: could not withstand a coordinating attack. That was chilling.

707
00:38:30,431 --> 00:38:33,350
Speaker 1: That cable was sent in August of twenty twelve, and

708
00:38:33,391 --> 00:38:35,631
Speaker 1: it indicated that the State Department knew that there were

709
00:38:35,710 --> 00:38:39,310
Speaker 1: Al Qaeda cells in Benghazi. The message was approved by

710
00:38:39,351 --> 00:38:40,631
Speaker 1: Ambassador Chris Stevens.

711
00:38:41,151 --> 00:38:43,631
Speaker 9: I really believe, having read it, that it is this

712
00:38:44,031 --> 00:38:45,111
Speaker 9: smoking gun warning.

713
00:38:45,151 --> 00:38:45,350
Speaker 3: Here.

714
00:38:45,631 --> 00:38:48,351
Speaker 1: You've got this now. It's worth saying that the cable

715
00:38:48,431 --> 00:38:51,310
Speaker 1: Brown received in response to her Foyer request did not

716
00:38:51,431 --> 00:38:55,230
Speaker 1: say an attack in Benghazi was imminent, but it did

717
00:38:55,311 --> 00:38:58,471
Speaker 1: suggest that if one did occur, the compound would be

718
00:38:58,551 --> 00:39:02,391
Speaker 1: vulnerable in any event. Brown and her colleagues at Fox

719
00:39:02,471 --> 00:39:06,511
Speaker 1: News thought the cable spoke pretty loudly. Catherine Herridge, the

720
00:39:06,551 --> 00:39:10,631
Speaker 1: reporter Brown worked with most closely on Benghazi coverage, characterized

721
00:39:10,671 --> 00:39:13,471
Speaker 1: it on the air as proof if the Obama administration

722
00:39:13,631 --> 00:39:16,750
Speaker 1: should have done more and was now knowingly trying to

723
00:39:16,791 --> 00:39:17,511
Speaker 1: deflect blame.

724
00:39:18,071 --> 00:39:20,671
Speaker 9: I can't think of anything that would be more specific

725
00:39:21,151 --> 00:39:24,151
Speaker 9: than if these groups had emailed the Stage Department and

726
00:39:24,230 --> 00:39:27,870
Speaker 9: said here's the time, here's the place, and here's the

727
00:39:27,911 --> 00:39:29,151
Speaker 9: method of the attack that.

728
00:39:29,111 --> 00:39:32,031
Speaker 1: Fall, Fox News continued to put out stories about the

729
00:39:32,031 --> 00:39:35,951
Speaker 1: attack that sounded extremely damning. For instance, they reported that

730
00:39:35,991 --> 00:39:38,551
Speaker 1: the administration knew within twenty four hours of the attack

731
00:39:38,671 --> 00:39:41,950
Speaker 1: that groups associated with al Qaida were involved. They also

732
00:39:42,151 --> 00:39:44,631
Speaker 1: ran segments suggesting that the president could have stopped the

733
00:39:44,671 --> 00:39:46,031
Speaker 1: attack but chose not to.

734
00:39:46,351 --> 00:39:49,631
Speaker 18: Lawmakers demanded to know how lack security may have been

735
00:39:49,991 --> 00:39:52,071
Speaker 18: and whether warning signs were simply ignored.

736
00:39:52,431 --> 00:39:56,391
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Congress questioned State Department personnel who confirmed that a

737
00:39:56,431 --> 00:39:59,631
Speaker 1: request for more security in Benghazi had been denied.

738
00:39:59,551 --> 00:40:02,951
Speaker 2: So there wasn't sufficient resources provided.

739
00:40:03,230 --> 00:40:05,111
Speaker 7: That was one of the main reasons I continued to

740
00:40:05,151 --> 00:40:06,311
Speaker 7: ask for those resources.

741
00:40:06,391 --> 00:40:10,031
Speaker 1: Yes, those statements prompted Republican lawmakers to hit Fox's airway

742
00:40:10,391 --> 00:40:12,151
Speaker 1: and call for more investigations.

743
00:40:12,471 --> 00:40:15,190
Speaker 2: This is why we need an independent council, and we

744
00:40:15,270 --> 00:40:18,511
Speaker 2: need the investigations to began immediately.

745
00:40:19,230 --> 00:40:21,951
Speaker 1: These questions about what the Obama White House knew and

746
00:40:21,991 --> 00:40:25,951
Speaker 1: when they knew it dovetailed perfectly with the administration's evolving

747
00:40:25,991 --> 00:40:29,350
Speaker 1: account of how the attack had started, and when the

748
00:40:29,351 --> 00:40:32,551
Speaker 1: intelligence community's assessment was revised to reflect the fact that

749
00:40:32,551 --> 00:40:36,111
Speaker 1: there had been no protest in Benghazi, it looked like

750
00:40:36,230 --> 00:40:39,431
Speaker 1: even more evidence that the administration was hiding behind the

751
00:40:39,431 --> 00:40:40,710
Speaker 1: Innocence of Muslims video.

752
00:40:41,351 --> 00:40:44,350
Speaker 6: There was Jay Carney, There were several Obama officials going

753
00:40:44,351 --> 00:40:46,991
Speaker 6: out saying it was a response to the movie, is

754
00:40:47,031 --> 00:40:48,991
Speaker 6: this is this a cover up?

755
00:40:49,270 --> 00:40:51,151
Speaker 20: Well, they lie, I mean, there's no question about it.

756
00:40:51,151 --> 00:40:53,071
Speaker 22: And by the way, if the Republicans did that, it

757
00:40:53,270 --> 00:40:54,151
Speaker 22: be hell to pay.

758
00:40:54,591 --> 00:40:55,310
Speaker 12: Everybody would.

759
00:40:59,230 --> 00:41:02,111
Speaker 1: About a month before the twenty twelve election, the Romney

760
00:41:02,111 --> 00:41:04,671
Speaker 1: campaigns saw a change of fortune in their pull numbers.

761
00:41:05,671 --> 00:41:08,351
Speaker 1: This was in part due to Romney's stellar performance in

762
00:41:08,391 --> 00:41:09,751
Speaker 1: the first presidential debate.

763
00:41:10,071 --> 00:41:13,111
Speaker 6: Under the president's policies, middle income Americans had been buried.

764
00:41:13,750 --> 00:41:14,911
Speaker 6: They're just been crushed.

765
00:41:15,111 --> 00:41:20,470
Speaker 3: Now that may not seem like a big deal when

766
00:41:20,471 --> 00:41:24,391
Speaker 3: it just is numbers on a sheet of paper, but

767
00:41:24,511 --> 00:41:25,471
Speaker 3: if we're talking about.

768
00:41:25,270 --> 00:41:27,751
Speaker 1: It's hard to say exactly what role the ben Ghazi

769
00:41:27,831 --> 00:41:31,750
Speaker 1: controversy played in Romney's surge, but ongoing questions over the

770
00:41:31,750 --> 00:41:35,631
Speaker 1: administration's handling of the attack had seemingly validated the Romney

771
00:41:35,631 --> 00:41:39,631
Speaker 1: campaigns aggressive posture from the night of It wasn't just

772
00:41:39,710 --> 00:41:43,430
Speaker 1: Breitbart in Fox News either. Even the mainstream media didn't

773
00:41:43,431 --> 00:41:45,190
Speaker 1: seem to completely trust Obama.

774
00:41:45,631 --> 00:41:49,151
Speaker 18: Patients is starting to wear sin with shifting explanations from

775
00:41:49,151 --> 00:41:49,991
Speaker 18: the administration.

776
00:41:50,111 --> 00:41:51,951
Speaker 13: The president also facing a lot of questions about the

777
00:41:51,951 --> 00:41:53,951
Speaker 13: death of American Ambassador Stevens.

778
00:41:53,551 --> 00:41:56,111
Speaker 11: But getting answers to exactly what did happen has not

779
00:41:56,151 --> 00:41:56,711
Speaker 11: been easy.

780
00:41:57,111 --> 00:41:59,111
Speaker 1: Lonhi Chen saw victory in sight.

781
00:41:59,551 --> 00:42:01,511
Speaker 7: There definitely was a point where it turned. We saw

782
00:42:01,511 --> 00:42:04,351
Speaker 7: an appreciable shift in public opinion in our own internal

783
00:42:04,391 --> 00:42:07,391
Speaker 7: pulling in all of the key states, and Romney was

784
00:42:07,511 --> 00:42:09,391
Speaker 7: very competitive, if not ahead, in all the states he

785
00:42:09,431 --> 00:42:12,310
Speaker 7: needed to to be ahead in at least according to

786
00:42:12,311 --> 00:42:14,191
Speaker 7: our polling, and by the way, a number of public

787
00:42:14,190 --> 00:42:18,710
Speaker 7: polls as well, that he was really closing in on

788
00:42:18,791 --> 00:42:21,830
Speaker 7: the possibility of winning the presidency.

789
00:42:22,311 --> 00:42:25,911
Speaker 1: A new poll shows Governor Romney surging and closing the gap,

790
00:42:26,031 --> 00:42:27,751
Speaker 1: especially in some key swing states.

791
00:42:27,911 --> 00:42:29,031
Speaker 15: I think the race is very close.

792
00:42:29,071 --> 00:42:31,230
Speaker 4: I think the wind is that Governor Romney's back, and

793
00:42:31,270 --> 00:42:32,231
Speaker 4: they're clearly a momentum.

794
00:42:32,270 --> 00:42:34,790
Speaker 3: You can see it on the trail, you can see

795
00:42:34,831 --> 00:42:35,951
Speaker 3: it in the data.

796
00:42:36,031 --> 00:42:37,631
Speaker 24: But I believe in minimum is clearly.

797
00:42:37,431 --> 00:42:41,511
Speaker 1: The second presidential debate was set for October sixteenth. The

798
00:42:41,551 --> 00:42:44,511
Speaker 1: first one had been focused on domestic policy, so ben

799
00:42:44,551 --> 00:42:48,071
Speaker 1: Ghazi had not come up. This time it was bound to.

800
00:42:48,631 --> 00:42:50,870
Speaker 7: We were in the driver's seat, so in some ways

801
00:42:50,871 --> 00:42:53,351
Speaker 7: the second debate took on additional importance in our minds

802
00:42:53,391 --> 00:42:55,710
Speaker 7: because we felt that it was important to continue momentum,

803
00:42:56,071 --> 00:42:58,871
Speaker 7: but also to open up some lines of attack, potentially

804
00:42:58,871 --> 00:43:01,551
Speaker 7: on Obama areas where we felt he could be weak.

805
00:43:01,911 --> 00:43:04,710
Speaker 1: But Romney was squeamish about continuing to beat the ben

806
00:43:04,710 --> 00:43:07,790
Speaker 1: Ghazi drum. It was an issue that the Republican base

807
00:43:07,911 --> 00:43:10,471
Speaker 1: cared about, but one that swing voters who could decide

808
00:43:10,471 --> 00:43:12,151
Speaker 1: the election didn't want to dwell on.

809
00:43:12,750 --> 00:43:15,430
Speaker 7: We knew it was a topic that had to be

810
00:43:15,791 --> 00:43:19,310
Speaker 7: delicately navigated and traversed because of the initial reaction and

811
00:43:19,351 --> 00:43:21,191
Speaker 7: because of how hot the event had become.

812
00:43:21,551 --> 00:43:24,631
Speaker 1: As Romney took the stage, he looked cautious but confident.

813
00:43:25,511 --> 00:43:29,031
Speaker 16: This is Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. This site

814
00:43:29,230 --> 00:43:31,470
Speaker 16: of tonight's debate, This second.

815
00:43:31,151 --> 00:43:34,231
Speaker 1: Go the Benghazi attack came up about halfway through the debate.

816
00:43:34,991 --> 00:43:37,471
Speaker 1: The President addressed the question with a pointed jab at

817
00:43:37,471 --> 00:43:40,591
Speaker 1: his opponent, emphasizing that the attack was still going on

818
00:43:40,710 --> 00:43:44,111
Speaker 1: when the Romney campaign put out its statement, while.

819
00:43:43,951 --> 00:43:48,191
Speaker 3: We were still dealing with our diplomats being threatened. Governor

820
00:43:48,270 --> 00:43:51,511
Speaker 3: Romney put out a press release trying to make political points,

821
00:43:51,871 --> 00:43:54,831
Speaker 3: and that's not how a commander in chief operates.

822
00:43:55,270 --> 00:43:58,190
Speaker 1: Romney responded with an argument that had been made repeatedly

823
00:43:58,270 --> 00:44:01,830
Speaker 1: on Fox News that it had taken the administration two

824
00:44:01,911 --> 00:44:04,471
Speaker 1: whole weeks to call the storming of the compound in

825
00:44:04,511 --> 00:44:06,191
Speaker 1: Benghazi a terrorist attack.

826
00:44:06,871 --> 00:44:09,591
Speaker 6: There were many days that passed before we knew whether

827
00:44:09,631 --> 00:44:12,270
Speaker 6: this was a spontaneous demonstration or actually whether it was

828
00:44:12,311 --> 00:44:15,310
Speaker 6: a terrorist attack. And there was no demonstration involved. It

829
00:44:15,391 --> 00:44:17,910
Speaker 6: was a terrorist attack, and it took a long time

830
00:44:17,951 --> 00:44:19,631
Speaker 6: for that to be told to the American people.

831
00:44:19,951 --> 00:44:23,270
Speaker 1: Romney's implication was that the administration had tried to hide

832
00:44:23,270 --> 00:44:26,350
Speaker 1: the fact that, on Obama's watch, America had suffered a

833
00:44:26,391 --> 00:44:29,991
Speaker 1: deadly blow in the war on terror. Obama was ready

834
00:44:30,031 --> 00:44:30,671
Speaker 1: with a response.

835
00:44:31,351 --> 00:44:35,270
Speaker 3: The day after the attack, Governor I stood in the

836
00:44:35,351 --> 00:44:38,750
Speaker 3: Rose Garden and I told the American people in the

837
00:44:38,750 --> 00:44:41,591
Speaker 3: world that we are going to find out exactly what happened,

838
00:44:42,710 --> 00:44:45,631
Speaker 3: that this was an act of terror. And I also

839
00:44:45,710 --> 00:44:48,471
Speaker 3: said that we're going to hunt down bows who committed

840
00:44:48,471 --> 00:44:48,911
Speaker 3: this crime.

841
00:44:49,391 --> 00:44:51,991
Speaker 6: I think it's interesting the President just said something, which

842
00:44:52,111 --> 00:44:54,071
Speaker 6: is that on the day after the attack, he went

843
00:44:54,071 --> 00:44:56,671
Speaker 6: to the Rose Garden and said that this was an

844
00:44:56,710 --> 00:45:00,111
Speaker 6: active terror. I want to make sure we get that

845
00:45:00,151 --> 00:45:02,791
Speaker 6: for the record, because it took the president fourteen days

846
00:45:02,791 --> 00:45:05,591
Speaker 6: before he called the attack in Benghazi an active terror.

847
00:45:05,631 --> 00:45:07,071
Speaker 3: Get the transfer he.

848
00:45:07,071 --> 00:45:09,991
Speaker 2: Did, in fact, sir, so let me call it an act.

849
00:45:13,031 --> 00:45:15,271
Speaker 1: He did call it an active terror.

850
00:45:15,551 --> 00:45:16,711
Speaker 21: It did as well.

851
00:45:16,911 --> 00:45:18,231
Speaker 1: Romney fumbled for words.

852
00:45:18,631 --> 00:45:23,951
Speaker 6: The administration indicated that this was a reaction to a video.

853
00:45:24,671 --> 00:45:26,231
Speaker 6: Am I incorrect in that regard.

854
00:45:26,391 --> 00:45:28,631
Speaker 1: Lannie Chen was watching the debate from the green room.

855
00:45:28,951 --> 00:45:31,750
Speaker 7: I do recall at the time thinking he's going to

856
00:45:31,791 --> 00:45:36,311
Speaker 7: want to know after the debate, what did Obama say

857
00:45:36,351 --> 00:45:39,151
Speaker 7: and was I right or wrong? I knew he was

858
00:45:39,151 --> 00:45:41,750
Speaker 7: going to ask me that right afterwards, because it was

859
00:45:41,791 --> 00:45:44,071
Speaker 7: one of those things that was like a factual question, right.

860
00:45:44,071 --> 00:45:45,671
Speaker 7: It wasn't like, hey, what do you think I did?

861
00:45:45,991 --> 00:45:47,910
Speaker 7: It was like, tell me what he said.

862
00:45:49,710 --> 00:45:52,310
Speaker 1: Chen called back to Romney headquarters to make sure he

863
00:45:52,391 --> 00:45:54,710
Speaker 1: knew the exact words the President had used in the

864
00:45:54,750 --> 00:45:57,991
Speaker 1: Rose Garden the day after the attack, and he braced

865
00:45:58,031 --> 00:46:00,391
Speaker 1: himself for Romney to step off the debate stage.

866
00:46:00,551 --> 00:46:02,990
Speaker 7: After the debate, he comes off the stage, he comes

867
00:46:02,991 --> 00:46:05,551
Speaker 7: into the green room, he makes a bee line for me,

868
00:46:05,911 --> 00:46:08,471
Speaker 7: and he says, you know, was I Was it accurate?

869
00:46:08,471 --> 00:46:10,710
Speaker 7: And I told him it was that that I thought

870
00:46:10,750 --> 00:46:12,751
Speaker 7: he had not misrepresented what had happened.

871
00:46:13,031 --> 00:46:15,991
Speaker 1: The truth was, it had taken Obama about two weeks

872
00:46:16,031 --> 00:46:19,031
Speaker 1: to characterize the Bengazi attack as more than just a

873
00:46:19,071 --> 00:46:22,711
Speaker 1: mob action, But it was also true. On the morning

874
00:46:22,710 --> 00:46:25,390
Speaker 1: of September twelfth, the President had stood in the Rose

875
00:46:25,431 --> 00:46:26,551
Speaker 1: Garden and said.

876
00:46:26,671 --> 00:46:28,951
Speaker 3: No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of

877
00:46:28,991 --> 00:46:33,190
Speaker 3: this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light

878
00:46:33,230 --> 00:46:34,671
Speaker 3: of the values that we stand for.

879
00:46:35,951 --> 00:46:39,471
Speaker 1: Chen says he still thinks active terror and terrorism are different.

880
00:46:39,871 --> 00:46:42,830
Speaker 7: There was a distinction between terror and terrorism. That in

881
00:46:42,831 --> 00:46:44,750
Speaker 7: fact Obama had not called it terrorism. He taught that

882
00:46:44,871 --> 00:46:46,951
Speaker 7: he called it an act of terror, but not an

883
00:46:46,991 --> 00:46:49,951
Speaker 7: act of terrorism or terrorism. That was the distinction.

884
00:46:50,071 --> 00:46:50,431
Speaker 3: Why is that?

885
00:46:50,431 --> 00:46:51,711
Speaker 1: Why was that a meaningful distinction?

886
00:46:52,671 --> 00:46:56,551
Speaker 7: We felt it took on a different tone when you

887
00:46:56,551 --> 00:46:59,551
Speaker 7: were willing to call it terrorism versus an act of terror.

888
00:46:59,911 --> 00:47:03,391
Speaker 7: An act of terror in some ways, almost disassociates it

889
00:47:03,431 --> 00:47:06,230
Speaker 7: a little bit from the emotion of it being a

890
00:47:06,351 --> 00:47:11,111
Speaker 7: terrorist attack, a terrorist attack, an active terrorism versus an

891
00:47:11,111 --> 00:47:14,071
Speaker 7: act of terror, which we thought it was Obama's effort

892
00:47:14,151 --> 00:47:19,830
Speaker 7: to disassociate it from the severity or the degree to

893
00:47:19,871 --> 00:47:23,151
Speaker 7: which it was an attack on the United States.

894
00:47:25,151 --> 00:47:27,830
Speaker 1: More than a month had passed since four Americans died

895
00:47:27,831 --> 00:47:32,111
Speaker 1: in Benghazi. The administration and Congress had begun investigations to

896
00:47:32,190 --> 00:47:36,351
Speaker 1: understand how and why it happened, But the debate between

897
00:47:36,391 --> 00:47:39,270
Speaker 1: the sitting president and the man who wanted to replace him,

898
00:47:39,831 --> 00:47:53,991
Speaker 1: it just came down to semantics. By now you can

899
00:47:54,031 --> 00:47:57,071
Speaker 1: tell there were multiple threads to the Benghazi story that

900
00:47:57,230 --> 00:48:01,271
Speaker 1: wound together to form the outline of a scandal. Whether

901
00:48:01,311 --> 00:48:04,991
Speaker 1: the attack was pre planned or spontaneous, whether there had

902
00:48:04,991 --> 00:48:07,511
Speaker 1: been a protest, in Benghazi, over the innocence of Muslims

903
00:48:07,591 --> 00:48:10,991
Speaker 1: video or not, why the compound out in Benghazi had

904
00:48:11,031 --> 00:48:15,671
Speaker 1: not been better protected, whether the Obama administration initially downplayed

905
00:48:15,710 --> 00:48:19,831
Speaker 1: the terrorism angle for political purposes. Each of these threads

906
00:48:19,831 --> 00:48:24,390
Speaker 1: became fodder for debate and speculation. Together, they created an

907
00:48:24,391 --> 00:48:30,390
Speaker 1: air of intrigue. Soon the attack in Benghazi became simply Benghazi,

908
00:48:30,511 --> 00:48:31,431
Speaker 1: All right, let's.

909
00:48:31,190 --> 00:48:34,591
Speaker 3: Turn to Benghazi, misleading America on ben Gaza, all.

910
00:48:34,471 --> 00:48:36,270
Speaker 9: Of the emails relating to Benghazi.

911
00:48:36,591 --> 00:48:39,270
Speaker 1: Benghazi was a place most Americans had never heard of

912
00:48:39,391 --> 00:48:43,470
Speaker 1: before Ambassador Stevens and his colleagues died there, but within

913
00:48:43,591 --> 00:48:46,751
Speaker 1: weeks the word alone was enough to conjure any number

914
00:48:46,791 --> 00:48:50,471
Speaker 1: of questions and theories. On the night of the attack,

915
00:48:50,631 --> 00:48:54,071
Speaker 1: Mitt Romney looked uncouth and opportunistic for trying to score

916
00:48:54,111 --> 00:48:58,431
Speaker 1: political points over Stevens's death. By the time the election ended,

917
00:48:58,791 --> 00:49:01,951
Speaker 1: those days were long gone, and Benghazi had become a

918
00:49:01,951 --> 00:49:03,790
Speaker 1: political event first and foremost.

919
00:49:10,831 --> 00:49:13,750
Speaker 13: Fox News Election Alert. Fox News can now project that

920
00:49:13,831 --> 00:49:16,750
Speaker 13: President Obama will win the state of Pennsylvania and its

921
00:49:16,791 --> 00:49:18,191
Speaker 13: twenty electoral votes.

922
00:49:18,311 --> 00:49:21,471
Speaker 1: As election results rolled in on the night of November sixth,

923
00:49:21,791 --> 00:49:25,151
Speaker 1: the Romney team was stunned their internal polling had been

924
00:49:25,151 --> 00:49:27,911
Speaker 1: showing Romney with a lead, instead.

925
00:49:28,071 --> 00:49:31,750
Speaker 16: Seeing a projectsment. Barack Obama will be re elected President

926
00:49:32,031 --> 00:49:34,710
Speaker 16: of the United States. He will remain in the White House.

927
00:49:34,750 --> 00:49:37,750
Speaker 16: They're excited in Chicago, they're excited at Times.

928
00:49:37,551 --> 00:49:40,871
Speaker 1: Square on Fox News. It took some time for reality

929
00:49:40,911 --> 00:49:41,310
Speaker 1: to set in.

930
00:49:41,791 --> 00:49:43,190
Speaker 14: Yes, I think this is prettymature.

931
00:49:43,230 --> 00:49:45,111
Speaker 13: We got seventy We got a quarter of the vote.

932
00:49:45,111 --> 00:49:46,071
Speaker 12: Now, remember, here's.

933
00:49:46,031 --> 00:49:49,551
Speaker 1: One of their analysts. Former Bush strategist Carl Rove objected

934
00:49:49,551 --> 00:49:52,190
Speaker 1: to the call, prompting anchor Megan Kelly to question the

935
00:49:52,190 --> 00:49:54,511
Speaker 1: statisticians in the election unit live on TV.

936
00:49:54,951 --> 00:49:58,551
Speaker 21: Now here are the guys. This is the decision desk.

937
00:49:58,791 --> 00:50:01,591
Speaker 21: You tell me whether you stand by your call in Ohio.

938
00:50:01,671 --> 00:50:03,231
Speaker 21: Given the doubts, Karl Rove just race.

939
00:50:03,190 --> 00:50:05,911
Speaker 3: We're actually quite comfortable with the call in Ohio. Basically

940
00:50:05,991 --> 00:50:09,471
Speaker 3: right now, there's just too much Obama vote that's outstanding

941
00:50:09,471 --> 00:50:09,830
Speaker 3: there that we.

942
00:50:10,031 --> 00:50:13,431
Speaker 1: But Benghazi was not going away. Now that Obama had

943
00:50:13,471 --> 00:50:17,311
Speaker 1: secured his second term, all eyes turned to Hillary Clinton,

944
00:50:17,710 --> 00:50:20,671
Speaker 1: whose intention to run for president in twenty sixteen was

945
00:50:20,710 --> 00:50:25,310
Speaker 1: considered a foregone conclusion. As Secretary of State, Clinton had

946
00:50:25,351 --> 00:50:28,750
Speaker 1: appointed an independent review Board to investigate the State Department's

947
00:50:28,750 --> 00:50:33,471
Speaker 1: failure to protect the compound and the ambassador. Meanwhile, congressional

948
00:50:33,471 --> 00:50:36,631
Speaker 1: oversight committees were continuing to ask their own questions.

949
00:50:36,831 --> 00:50:40,151
Speaker 18: The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Benghazi kicks off at

950
00:50:40,151 --> 00:50:41,391
Speaker 18: the top of the hour.

951
00:50:41,190 --> 00:50:45,791
Speaker 8: Focusing on what happened before, during, and after the attack.

952
00:50:46,791 --> 00:50:49,951
Speaker 1: In December, Clinton was set to testify a by Benghazi

953
00:50:50,071 --> 00:50:53,750
Speaker 1: before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, but her testimony was

954
00:50:53,750 --> 00:50:56,471
Speaker 1: delayed after she fainted and sustained a concussion.

955
00:50:56,551 --> 00:50:59,230
Speaker 5: She became dehydrated, fainted, apparently hit her head, and had

956
00:50:59,230 --> 00:51:01,911
Speaker 5: that concussion. She did not go to the hospital. Doctors

957
00:51:01,911 --> 00:51:04,471
Speaker 5: are said to be monitoring her. But this means that

958
00:51:04,551 --> 00:51:07,710
Speaker 5: she will not testify this week about the attack on

959
00:51:07,750 --> 00:51:09,991
Speaker 5: the mission in Benghazi and the killing of Hearth.

960
00:51:10,230 --> 00:51:12,390
Speaker 1: The Fox News something was up.

961
00:51:12,671 --> 00:51:13,870
Speaker 16: This is a duck and cover.

962
00:51:13,991 --> 00:51:16,270
Speaker 20: Let's be honest, and the cleansings are great at this.

963
00:51:16,230 --> 00:51:19,831
Speaker 1: Apparently she's suffering from a cute be Ghazi allergy.

964
00:51:19,951 --> 00:51:22,551
Speaker 13: We can't verify this because she's barricaded in her Rock

965
00:51:22,591 --> 00:51:24,191
Speaker 13: Creek Park mansion here in Washington.

966
00:51:24,230 --> 00:51:25,311
Speaker 1: He doesn' want to answer the question.

967
00:51:25,471 --> 00:51:28,710
Speaker 10: I bet that we might never hear her testimony on.

968
00:51:28,671 --> 00:51:47,190
Speaker 1: This On the next episode of Fiasco, Benghazi gets a whistleblower.

969
00:51:47,911 --> 00:51:49,671
Speaker 4: I remember his words so clearly.

970
00:51:50,311 --> 00:51:54,111
Speaker 19: He said, the government is lying to what they're saying.

971
00:51:54,190 --> 00:51:55,431
Speaker 2: Happened, did not happen.

972
00:51:57,591 --> 00:52:00,710
Speaker 1: For a list of books, articles, and documentaries we used

973
00:52:00,750 --> 00:52:03,431
Speaker 1: in our research, follow the link in our show notes.

974
00:52:04,471 --> 00:52:07,951
Speaker 1: Fiasco is a production of Prologue Projects, and it's distributed

975
00:52:07,991 --> 00:52:11,871
Speaker 1: by Pushkin Industries. The show is produced by Andrew Parsons,

976
00:52:12,071 --> 00:52:16,751
Speaker 1: Ulla Kulpa, Sam Lee and me Leon Mayfock, with editorial

977
00:52:16,831 --> 00:52:20,991
Speaker 1: support from Sam Graham Felsen and Madeline Kaplan. Our researcher

978
00:52:21,111 --> 00:52:24,671
Speaker 1: was Frances Carr. Our score was composed by Dan English,

979
00:52:24,831 --> 00:52:28,791
Speaker 1: Joe Valley and Noah Hecht. Additional music by Nick Sylvester,

980
00:52:29,230 --> 00:52:34,031
Speaker 1: Joel Saint, Julian Billy Libby and Little Cheddar Studios. Our

981
00:52:34,071 --> 00:52:38,151
Speaker 1: theme song is by Spatial Relations audio mixed by Rob Buyers,

982
00:52:38,270 --> 00:52:41,991
Speaker 1: Michael Raphael and Johnny Vince Evans. Our artwork is by

983
00:52:41,991 --> 00:52:45,791
Speaker 1: Teddy Blanks at Chips and y A. Copyright council provided

984
00:52:45,791 --> 00:52:50,231
Speaker 1: by Peter Yassi at Yasi Butler PLLC. Thanks to Archive

985
00:52:50,270 --> 00:52:54,350
Speaker 1: dot Org, Nicole Hemmer and Katherine Herridge. Special thanks to

986
00:52:54,391 --> 00:53:07,751
Speaker 1: Luminary and thank you for listening binge the entire season

987
00:53:07,831 --> 00:53:11,751
Speaker 1: of Fiasco Benghazi ad free by subscribing to Pushkin Plus.

988
00:53:12,391 --> 00:53:15,190
Speaker 1: Sign up on the Fiasco show page on Apple Podcasts,

989
00:53:15,391 --> 00:53:19,790
Speaker 1: or at pushkin dot fm slash Plus. Pushkin Plus subscribers

990
00:53:19,791 --> 00:53:23,871
Speaker 1: can access ad free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and

991
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