WEBVTT - Benghazi: Episode 4 - Feckless 0:00:16.271 --> 0:00:29.391 Pushkin previously on fiasco. 0:00:30.631 --> 0:00:33.391 It was a high risk venture. 0:00:33.591 --> 0:00:35.751 I was very worried about a security. 0:00:35.351 --> 0:00:38.790 Six months after the uprising, Libya is flooded with weapons 0:00:38.791 --> 0:00:41.031 and places at the tend power vacuums. 0:00:40.711 --> 0:00:43.111 For the people who you're dealing with are not your friends. 0:00:43.391 --> 0:00:48.311 The scene is quiet. A relatively small but already armed 0:00:48.391 --> 0:00:50.751 group shows up at the gates. 0:00:50.711 --> 0:00:53.230 Find out what exactly is going on. 0:00:53.631 --> 0:00:56.111 What they had when they walked out was all the 0:00:56.151 --> 0:00:58.911 information they needed to conduct a precision more to attack 0:00:58.951 --> 0:01:01.591 at night, and so the next ones are right on target. 0:01:06.671 --> 0:01:09.831 The eleventh anniversary of September eleventh was kind of like 0:01:10.151 --> 0:01:14.311 thirty first birthday one year after a major milestone. It 0:01:14.471 --> 0:01:16.431 just didn't land with as much fanfare. 0:01:16.551 --> 0:01:17.391 It's expected to be. 0:01:17.351 --> 0:01:19.991 As quiet day as both candidates commemorate the nine to 0:01:20.031 --> 0:01:22.231 eleven attacks, both President Obama. 0:01:22.311 --> 0:01:25.671 Still, it was a somber enough occasion that both candidates 0:01:25.711 --> 0:01:29.231 in the twenty twelve presidential race, the incumbent Barack Obama 0:01:29.311 --> 0:01:32.951 and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, agreed to suspend all 0:01:33.031 --> 0:01:34.551 negative campaigning for the day. 0:01:34.951 --> 0:01:38.231 Yeah you will hear no negative campaigning, not to take tell. 0:01:38.311 --> 0:01:40.231 One day we won't have that, by the way, this is. 0:01:40.231 --> 0:01:42.831 Around the nine to eleven attacks. You know, we would 0:01:42.831 --> 0:01:46.991 see it not as an opportunity necessarily for politics. I mean, 0:01:46.991 --> 0:01:48.711 we were going to keep making our case, but we're 0:01:48.751 --> 0:01:50.231 going to make our case affirmatively. 0:01:50.831 --> 0:01:54.551 This is longhe Chen. He was Mitt Romney's chief policy 0:01:54.551 --> 0:01:56.591 advisor during the twenty twelve campaign. 0:01:57.111 --> 0:01:59.191 Our hope and our intention was to go into it 0:01:59.271 --> 0:02:02.511 focused on what we needed to do looking ahead, rather 0:02:02.631 --> 0:02:05.831 than spending the day on September eleventh talking about some 0:02:05.911 --> 0:02:07.991 of the challenges created by the Obama administration. 0:02:08.431 --> 0:02:11.271 Chen is being polite here. What he means is the 0:02:11.311 --> 0:02:13.271 two campaigns were going to take a day off from 0:02:13.311 --> 0:02:15.951 beating up on each other, and one of the challenges 0:02:15.990 --> 0:02:18.871 the Romney team would not be talking about was Obama's 0:02:18.911 --> 0:02:21.831 policy in the Middle East, his approach to the war 0:02:21.871 --> 0:02:24.311 on terror that had started more than a decade earlier 0:02:24.391 --> 0:02:28.471 under George W. Bush. Romney had been calling Obama soft 0:02:28.511 --> 0:02:31.711 on terrorism since the start of his campaign, but on 0:02:31.751 --> 0:02:34.471 this day he would hold his fire out of respect. 0:02:35.311 --> 0:02:38.951 But then, at around one o'clock in the afternoon DC time, 0:02:39.551 --> 0:02:43.791 some concerning news started filtering in from Egypt. A large 0:02:43.791 --> 0:02:46.311 group of angry protesters had gathered in front of the 0:02:46.311 --> 0:02:47.751 American Embassy in Cairo. 0:02:48.111 --> 0:02:51.031 Protesters are outside the US Embassy. There are there about 0:02:51.031 --> 0:02:52.751 a thousand of them and protests. 0:02:52.751 --> 0:02:55.271 As you heard in our last episode, the crowd was 0:02:55.311 --> 0:02:58.751 protesting a video called The Innocence of Muslims that had 0:02:58.791 --> 0:03:01.991 recently been uploaded to YouTube by a man in California. 0:03:01.711 --> 0:03:05.591 They are protesting a video they say to fames the 0:03:05.631 --> 0:03:06.551 prophet Muhammad. 0:03:07.031 --> 0:03:09.711 Earlier in the day, the US Embassy in Cairo had 0:03:09.711 --> 0:03:12.791 denounce the anti Muslim video in a written statement. 0:03:12.631 --> 0:03:15.231 Saying, quote the Embassy of the United States and Cairo 0:03:15.391 --> 0:03:20.391 condemns the continuing efforts misguided individuals to hurt the religious 0:03:20.391 --> 0:03:21.711 feelings of Muslims. 0:03:21.871 --> 0:03:25.551 As The statement was intended to diffuse the situation to 0:03:25.631 --> 0:03:29.631 distance the US government from the islamophobic video, but it 0:03:29.711 --> 0:03:32.111 did not prevent the protests in front of the Embassy 0:03:32.111 --> 0:03:33.591 in Cairo from turning violent. 0:03:33.871 --> 0:03:37.271 Protesters have stormed the walls of the embassy and pulled 0:03:37.311 --> 0:03:41.271 down US flags. Now they have replaced them with black 0:03:41.311 --> 0:03:43.871 flags with Islamic emblems Now America. 0:03:43.871 --> 0:03:46.791 As footage of the chaos aired on American television. The 0:03:46.911 --> 0:03:49.551 US Embassy's statement from earlier in the day got the 0:03:49.591 --> 0:03:52.591 attention of conservative commentators like lou Dobbs. 0:03:52.751 --> 0:03:57.871 Obamba administration, the State Department actually apologized to the very 0:03:57.991 --> 0:04:03.911 radical Islamis who were demonstrating in hurting the feelings of Muslims. 0:04:04.311 --> 0:04:05.351 It's just disgusting. 0:04:06.191 --> 0:04:10.391 Then that evening, at around seven pm Eastern time, the 0:04:10.471 --> 0:04:13.351 news out of Cairo was compounded with reports of a 0:04:13.391 --> 0:04:18.950 second incident nearby, this one in Libya. It appeared that 0:04:18.991 --> 0:04:23.111 the protests in Cairo had spread to Benghazi, Libya's second 0:04:23.111 --> 0:04:26.431 biggest city. A mob had set fire to a diplomatic 0:04:26.471 --> 0:04:28.271 compound and killed an American. 0:04:28.671 --> 0:04:31.111 As you can imagine, there is a degree of conflicting 0:04:31.151 --> 0:04:34.551 information coming out of nighttime Libya amid the chaos of 0:04:34.591 --> 0:04:36.351 an attack on the US consulate. 0:04:36.391 --> 0:04:39.591 The Libyan government has now informed the State Department that 0:04:39.671 --> 0:04:43.031 an American consulate official has been killed in an attack 0:04:43.071 --> 0:04:46.951 on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. We're just getting 0:04:46.951 --> 0:04:48.151 this information. 0:04:47.711 --> 0:04:51.510 From his apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lanhi Chen watched the 0:04:51.551 --> 0:04:54.950 news and fielded requests from media outlets that wanted Romney's 0:04:54.991 --> 0:04:56.111 take on the day's events. 0:04:56.511 --> 0:04:59.111 The media inquiries did start to pick up as the 0:04:59.191 --> 0:05:02.271 early evening war into late evening Eastern Time, and a 0:05:02.351 --> 0:05:07.871 number of conservative media outlets, some online, some radio, some television, 0:05:08.071 --> 0:05:12.871 and they were particularly up. They were very concerned about 0:05:13.151 --> 0:05:17.031 why the Romney campaign hadn't yet used this as something 0:05:17.111 --> 0:05:19.551 with which to attack President Obama. 0:05:20.671 --> 0:05:23.351 Between the breaking news of the attack and Benghazi, the 0:05:23.391 --> 0:05:26.671 protest in Cairo, and the embassy statement about the religious 0:05:26.711 --> 0:05:31.991 feelings of Muslims, the Romney campaign saw an opportunity. Here 0:05:32.111 --> 0:05:35.231 was a perfect example of the Obama administration bending over 0:05:35.311 --> 0:05:38.191 backwards to show respect to the Muslim world at the 0:05:38.231 --> 0:05:42.551 expense of American power and security. It didn't matter that 0:05:42.591 --> 0:05:45.871 the Cairo Embassy's statement had been issued hours before the 0:05:45.871 --> 0:05:48.711 Benghazi attack. It all just fit together. 0:05:49.111 --> 0:05:52.190 The statement that was issued by US station in Cairo, 0:05:52.991 --> 0:05:57.511 I think accounted for essentially the quote hurt feelings that 0:05:57.631 --> 0:06:00.751 resulted because of the video, and then as the Benghazi 0:06:00.831 --> 0:06:03.151 news came in, it sort of added to this notion 0:06:03.231 --> 0:06:06.111 that we were under attack and the response from the 0:06:06.111 --> 0:06:09.911 Obama administration was an apology to the Islamic world. 0:06:10.991 --> 0:06:13.831 Mitt Romney was delivering a speech in Reno, Nevada at 0:06:13.871 --> 0:06:16.271 a conference of the National Guard when the gears of 0:06:16.311 --> 0:06:18.671 his campaign back in Boston started the turn. 0:06:19.031 --> 0:06:22.390 I recall our communications director calling me at some point 0:06:22.551 --> 0:06:25.311 around dinner time basically saying, I think it's not going 0:06:25.351 --> 0:06:27.431 to be possible for us to end this day without 0:06:27.511 --> 0:06:28.191 saying something. 0:06:28.791 --> 0:06:32.151 As night fell, Lanhi Chen initiated a conference call with 0:06:32.231 --> 0:06:35.511 other campaign operatives to discuss whether their candidate should weigh in. 0:06:36.111 --> 0:06:39.630 We had a small closet that you could kind of 0:06:39.631 --> 0:06:42.071 walk into in our apartment, and I remember going into 0:06:42.071 --> 0:06:44.951 that closet and shutting the door and doing the call 0:06:45.071 --> 0:06:47.271 in there amidst all of our clothes and shoes and 0:06:47.311 --> 0:06:50.031 everything else, because I didn't want to disturb my wife, 0:06:50.071 --> 0:06:52.231 didn't want to disturb our son, And a lot of 0:06:52.271 --> 0:06:55.231 the evening transpired with me in that closet trying to 0:06:55.271 --> 0:06:56.471 work all this out. 0:06:57.271 --> 0:06:59.711 The consensus among the Romney staffers was that they would 0:06:59.791 --> 0:07:02.351 draft a statement that night and run it by the candidate, 0:07:02.711 --> 0:07:05.111 but hold the final product in an embargo from the 0:07:05.151 --> 0:07:08.151 press until after midnight, at which point it would be 0:07:08.231 --> 0:07:12.351 September twelfth. That way, they could skirt any backlash about 0:07:12.391 --> 0:07:15.311 negative campaigning on the anniversary of nine to eleven, but 0:07:15.591 --> 0:07:18.511 still be seen as responding quickly to events on the ground. 0:07:19.231 --> 0:07:21.311 We ended up with a statement that was aggressive. We 0:07:21.391 --> 0:07:24.551 knew it was aggressive. We debated the aggressiveness of it. 0:07:25.031 --> 0:07:28.111 I will say that I was not one hundred percent convinced, 0:07:28.111 --> 0:07:29.911 but by the end of that call, I was that 0:07:29.951 --> 0:07:31.871 the more aggressive posture was the right one. 0:07:33.871 --> 0:07:37.111 Once the campaign team had their wording down, Chen called 0:07:37.191 --> 0:07:40.751 Romney and read the statement aloud to him, it's disgraceful. 0:07:40.751 --> 0:07:43.791 It said that the Obama administration's first response to the 0:07:43.911 --> 0:07:46.871 violence in Egypt and Libya was not to condemn attacks 0:07:46.871 --> 0:07:49.911 on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who 0:07:49.911 --> 0:07:50.511 wage them. 0:07:50.831 --> 0:07:52.831 And he sort of paused and said, okay, that that 0:07:52.911 --> 0:07:55.231 sounds about right to me. Has there been any other 0:07:55.311 --> 0:07:57.511 news that we should account for? I said no, I 0:07:57.551 --> 0:08:00.471 think that's it, and he said, okay, sounds good. Let 0:08:00.471 --> 0:08:03.391 a rip. Let's do it, And I thought, okay, case closed. 0:08:03.711 --> 0:08:06.471 We're going to put out the statement. I'm going to 0:08:06.511 --> 0:08:08.871 get to bed, and we're going to see kind of 0:08:08.871 --> 0:08:11.191 where things develop, and I'll wake up the next day 0:08:11.231 --> 0:08:11.791 to fight again. 0:08:12.471 --> 0:08:14.791 A decision was made to lift the nine to eleven 0:08:14.791 --> 0:08:19.071 embargo early after all, and at ten twenty four pm, 0:08:19.351 --> 0:08:22.031 the Romney campaign sent the statement out to the media. 0:08:22.591 --> 0:08:25.031 I think Romney certainly went to bed feeling pretty good 0:08:25.031 --> 0:08:27.191 about the statement. I know I did, and a number 0:08:27.191 --> 0:08:29.631 of us did as well, because we'd spend so much 0:08:29.671 --> 0:08:32.671 time thinking about that evening. You know, I think we 0:08:32.711 --> 0:08:36.271 all really felt like this was the right approach and 0:08:36.670 --> 0:08:39.271 this was an evidence of exactly what we had been 0:08:39.310 --> 0:08:39.830 talking about. 0:08:39.910 --> 0:08:43.351 Mitt Romney responded in a statement saying, it's disgraceful that 0:08:43.391 --> 0:08:47.391 the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks 0:08:47.430 --> 0:08:50.711 on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who 0:08:50.790 --> 0:08:54.431 wage the attacks, published reports playing the unbasays estate. 0:08:54.670 --> 0:08:57.470 Romney's statement was the first volley in what would become 0:08:57.631 --> 0:09:02.590 the long political war over Benghazi, and calling Obama disgraceful 0:09:02.751 --> 0:09:06.151 mere hours after the attack was first reported, and in 0:09:06.231 --> 0:09:08.790 doing so, as it turned out, while the attack was 0:09:08.790 --> 0:09:13.670 still unfolding, Romney was taking a risk, maybe even crossing 0:09:13.710 --> 0:09:14.271 a line. 0:09:15.070 --> 0:09:16.711 If you'd said to me that night, when we were 0:09:16.710 --> 0:09:19.030 getting together to put together that first statement that we 0:09:19.030 --> 0:09:21.310 would still be talking about that night and the events 0:09:21.351 --> 0:09:24.511 that transpired years later, I would have said, Yeah, maybe 0:09:24.550 --> 0:09:27.430 maybe it's a blip in history. 0:09:27.790 --> 0:09:32.391 I'm Leon Nafok from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. This 0:09:32.710 --> 0:09:34.391 is fiasco BEng Ghazi. 0:09:34.670 --> 0:09:36.790 This is a political cover up of something kind what's 0:09:36.830 --> 0:09:38.190 being called Benghazi Gate. 0:09:38.391 --> 0:09:41.751 Intelligence officials acknowledged they originally got it wrong. 0:09:41.991 --> 0:09:44.950 We got the classified cable that was chilling. 0:09:45.310 --> 0:09:48.310 Why should anybody have any credibility in what the administration 0:09:48.430 --> 0:09:50.271 says giving its shifting narrative. 0:09:50.310 --> 0:09:52.151 It was a fucking mess, man, there's a fucking mess. 0:09:52.151 --> 0:09:53.790 It's really hard to figure out what's going on. 0:09:56.950 --> 0:10:01.950 Episode four Feckless, in which the attack in Benghazi collides 0:10:01.950 --> 0:10:07.511 with an American election. We'll be right. 0:10:07.351 --> 0:10:16.430 Back, And this really is what New Hampshire is all about. 0:10:16.471 --> 0:10:18.271 Isn't it a day like this at a farm like this? 0:10:18.991 --> 0:10:20.711 Doug and Stella, thank you so much. 0:10:20.751 --> 0:10:23.710 Mitt Romney announced his candidacy for president on a New 0:10:23.790 --> 0:10:27.630 Hampshire farm in twenty eleven. He was wearing slacks and 0:10:27.710 --> 0:10:30.110 a checkered button down shirt, and he spoke from a 0:10:30.151 --> 0:10:33.311 podium with a picturesque barn behind him. It was the 0:10:33.351 --> 0:10:36.350 perfect setting for Romney to make his case that Barack 0:10:36.391 --> 0:10:39.790 Obama didn't understand everyday Americans. 0:10:39.631 --> 0:10:41.431 And this is what America is about as well, don't 0:10:41.471 --> 0:10:42.951 you think, Oh, Gosh. 0:10:43.310 --> 0:10:46.791 The kickoff was mostly focused on the economy, but Romney 0:10:46.830 --> 0:10:49.791 also took the opportunity to distinguish himself from the president 0:10:49.871 --> 0:10:50.831 on foreign policy. 0:10:51.310 --> 0:10:53.790 At a time of historic change and great opportunity in 0:10:53.790 --> 0:10:57.871 the Arab world, He's hesitant and uncertain. A few mens 0:10:57.871 --> 0:11:03.190 into officey he traveled around the globe to apologize for America. 0:11:07.871 --> 0:11:10.391 Romney was referencing a trip that Obama had taken to 0:11:10.430 --> 0:11:12.471 the Middle East in two thousand and nine at the 0:11:12.471 --> 0:11:16.631 start of his presidency. It included a high profile appearance 0:11:16.631 --> 0:11:20.590 in Egypt, during which the President called for a new 0:11:20.670 --> 0:11:24.071 era of mutual respect between the Muslim world and the West. 0:11:24.590 --> 0:11:27.590 I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning 0:11:28.190 --> 0:11:32.190 between the United States and Muslims around the world one based. 0:11:32.111 --> 0:11:35.991 In his speech, Obama recalled growing up in Indonesia surrounded 0:11:35.991 --> 0:11:40.670 by practicing Muslims. He spoke reverently of Islamic contributions to 0:11:40.710 --> 0:11:44.550 Western civilization, like algebra in the treatment of infectious disease. 0:11:45.310 --> 0:11:47.190 He even quoted from the Quran, as the. 0:11:47.111 --> 0:11:51.231 Holy Quran tells us be conscious of God and speak 0:11:51.310 --> 0:11:52.311 always the truth. 0:11:53.271 --> 0:11:56.390 Six years after the start of the Iraq War, Obama's 0:11:56.391 --> 0:11:59.991 speech was an implicit critique of the Bush administration. The 0:12:00.070 --> 0:12:02.511 new president seemed to be saying that the American government 0:12:02.550 --> 0:12:05.631 would no longer hold an antagonistic attitude towards the Middle 0:12:05.631 --> 0:12:08.910 East or tolerate the Islamophobia and jingoism that had been 0:12:08.950 --> 0:12:09.991 awakened under his predeces. 0:12:10.631 --> 0:12:13.070 And I considered part of my responsibility as president of 0:12:13.070 --> 0:12:17.391 the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam 0:12:17.430 --> 0:12:18.351 wherever they appear. 0:12:19.430 --> 0:12:23.511 Back home, Republicans framed Obama's posture as weak and naive. 0:12:24.471 --> 0:12:26.471 They called it an apology for America. 0:12:26.830 --> 0:12:29.951 As we investigate the Obama apology tour and now it 0:12:29.991 --> 0:12:33.111 has systematically dismantled America's credibility around the world. 0:12:33.190 --> 0:12:36.471 But first, the apology narrative took hold on Fox News 0:12:36.511 --> 0:12:40.790 and other conservative media outlets. Obama was undermining the United 0:12:40.790 --> 0:12:43.790 States by acting like Americans had something to be sorry for. 0:12:43.991 --> 0:12:46.071 There you heard the president's apology tour. 0:12:46.190 --> 0:12:48.990 The apology tour, This apology tour, apology tour. 0:12:49.231 --> 0:12:52.670 The president who apologizes to Muslim religious fanatics. 0:12:52.670 --> 0:12:54.111 Can we stop apologizing? 0:12:54.190 --> 0:12:56.710 I'm tired of the apologies. When it came time for 0:12:57.030 --> 0:12:59.590 Romney to put out a campaign book, he even named 0:12:59.590 --> 0:13:01.391 it after this idea that. 0:13:01.430 --> 0:13:05.111 Colmit Romney his book No Apology, The Case for American Greatness. 0:13:05.351 --> 0:13:07.711 The Obama argument was that they were looking for a 0:13:07.751 --> 0:13:10.631 more nuanced view of the Islamic world. 0:13:10.790 --> 0:13:12.710 Again, Romney advisor Lanhi Chen. 0:13:13.231 --> 0:13:18.830 They took pains, for example, to distinguish between Islamic fundamentalism 0:13:19.190 --> 0:13:23.030 or Islamic terrorism. And they were very careful about how 0:13:23.070 --> 0:13:25.471 they approached the region and what they wanted to do, 0:13:25.511 --> 0:13:27.830 in part because I think President Obama felt that there 0:13:27.871 --> 0:13:31.751 could be common cause made with parts of the Islamic world. 0:13:32.511 --> 0:13:35.910 Obama's insistence on making common cause with the Muslim world 0:13:35.991 --> 0:13:39.190 gave Romney an opening during the twenty twelve race, an 0:13:39.190 --> 0:13:41.871 easy way to communicate to voters how he and the 0:13:41.910 --> 0:13:42.950 incumbent were different. 0:13:43.151 --> 0:13:47.830 Think about this internationally, President Obama has adopted an appeasement strategy. 0:13:48.030 --> 0:13:52.191 In Barack Obama's profoundly mistaken view, there's nothing unique about 0:13:52.190 --> 0:13:52.950 the United States. 0:13:54.430 --> 0:13:57.551 Obama did have one massive advantage when it came to 0:13:57.590 --> 0:13:59.711 his record on fighting terrorism. 0:14:00.430 --> 0:14:03.591 Tonight, I can report to the American people and to 0:14:03.670 --> 0:14:07.271 the world, the United States has conducted an operation that 0:14:07.391 --> 0:14:10.830 killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaida. 0:14:11.471 --> 0:14:14.230 A little over a year before the attack in Benghazi, 0:14:14.511 --> 0:14:17.591 Obama had ordered the raid that killed Osamam bin Laden. 0:14:18.231 --> 0:14:21.031 He had eliminated the leader of al Qaida and dealt 0:14:21.071 --> 0:14:26.431 the organization in existential blow. Naturally, Obama's reelection campaign placed 0:14:26.431 --> 0:14:28.951 this achievement at the center of his foreign policy record. 0:14:29.311 --> 0:14:32.191 I said, we go after al Qaeda and Bin Laden. 0:14:32.351 --> 0:14:32.750 We did. 0:14:34.311 --> 0:14:37.631 Obama's vice president made hay of it as well, Osama 0:14:37.710 --> 0:14:41.671 bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. By 0:14:41.710 --> 0:14:44.230 the end of the summer, polling showed that Obama was 0:14:44.311 --> 0:14:47.431 leading Romney on foreign policy, and the race was widely 0:14:47.471 --> 0:14:55.471 seen as his to lose. On September twelfth, the morning 0:14:55.511 --> 0:14:58.991 after the attack in Benghazi, Lanhi Chen started his day 0:14:59.071 --> 0:15:01.831 the same way he always did, by pouring through news 0:15:01.911 --> 0:15:04.871 coverage to see what people were saying about his candidate. 0:15:04.751 --> 0:15:07.351 On an ordinary day. By the time I'd wake up, 0:15:07.391 --> 0:15:10.031 you know, there might be twenty five thirty thirty five 0:15:10.111 --> 0:15:13.830 five articles on that morning. I recall waking up and 0:15:14.111 --> 0:15:16.830 clips were coming fast and furious. 0:15:17.551 --> 0:15:20.631 Chen was curious to see whether the aggressive stance Romney 0:15:20.631 --> 0:15:23.431 had taken the night before was having its desired effect. 0:15:24.671 --> 0:15:26.991 The statement did seem to be getting a lot of attention, 0:15:27.671 --> 0:15:30.071 but not in the way the Romney campaign had hoped. 0:15:30.351 --> 0:15:33.071 Whether you agree or don't agree with the Romney statement, 0:15:33.191 --> 0:15:35.231 it just sounds cynical and gross. 0:15:34.911 --> 0:15:37.311 And I have to say I'm stun they put out 0:15:37.311 --> 0:15:39.830 this release when they did, before we knew all the 0:15:39.830 --> 0:15:41.871 facts before daybreak. 0:15:41.391 --> 0:15:42.671 Just so patently political. 0:15:43.231 --> 0:15:44.151 It really gives you. 0:15:44.111 --> 0:15:46.630 Pause a political handgrad and I think shame on that 0:15:46.710 --> 0:15:47.671 campaign personally. 0:15:48.351 --> 0:15:51.631 Normally, when a campaign is under this kind of heavy criticism, 0:15:51.871 --> 0:15:55.551 the candidate can marshal a battalion of loyal, credentialed partisans 0:15:55.590 --> 0:15:59.431 to get on TV and mounted defense. They're called surrogates, 0:15:59.830 --> 0:16:03.151 and typically the Romney campaign had a deep bench of 0:16:03.191 --> 0:16:07.111 surrogates at their disposal. In this case, though support was 0:16:07.151 --> 0:16:11.431 slow to come. It appeared that even Romney's fellow Republicans 0:16:11.511 --> 0:16:13.631 thought the campaign had gone too far. 0:16:14.271 --> 0:16:17.511 We found a reticence amongst a number of our key 0:16:17.590 --> 0:16:21.191 national security surrogates who would have been forceful voices on 0:16:21.231 --> 0:16:23.830 the outside. They were either not on board, or they 0:16:23.871 --> 0:16:26.830 wanted to speak to me or someone on the campaign 0:16:26.951 --> 0:16:29.110 to give them some sense of our thinking before they 0:16:29.111 --> 0:16:31.431 were willing to get out there and say something. 0:16:34.791 --> 0:16:37.751 That morning, Chen dialed into a conference call with other 0:16:37.830 --> 0:16:41.791 top campaign officials and Romney himself, who was not happy. 0:16:42.431 --> 0:16:44.871 According to one account, he gripped the armrest of his 0:16:44.951 --> 0:16:45.871 chair as he spoke. 0:16:46.391 --> 0:16:49.470 He expressed his sense that perhaps we had been too 0:16:49.511 --> 0:16:52.470 quick with the statement and that there was a brewing 0:16:52.590 --> 0:16:55.551 controversy over it. It was something to the effect of, guys, 0:16:55.551 --> 0:16:57.271 I think we may have made a mistake here, or 0:16:57.351 --> 0:16:58.870 we may have misfired. 0:16:59.871 --> 0:17:03.951 Romney knew it didn't look good. Four Americans, including an ambassador, 0:17:04.031 --> 0:17:06.711 were dead, and here he was pouncing on it to 0:17:06.751 --> 0:17:09.951 try to win an election. It wasn't just Obama partisan 0:17:10.031 --> 0:17:14.350 who were outraged. Establishment Republicans also seemed to agree that 0:17:14.511 --> 0:17:18.671 Romney campaign had improperly politicized a national security crisis. 0:17:19.150 --> 0:17:21.151 I'm a hawk, but you do not want to have 0:17:21.590 --> 0:17:26.071 this become a political election issue right now. We should 0:17:26.110 --> 0:17:27.830 have one president of the United States at a time 0:17:28.071 --> 0:17:30.110 when it comes to foreign policy. I don't think he 0:17:30.150 --> 0:17:32.431 should be a second force of foreign policy now. 0:17:33.271 --> 0:17:36.870 Mitch McConnell and John Bayner, the two highest ranking Republicans 0:17:36.870 --> 0:17:41.471 in Congress, offered statements condemning the Bengazi attack, but neither 0:17:41.511 --> 0:17:45.870 took the opportunity to criticize Obama or come to Romney's defense. 0:17:46.390 --> 0:17:50.350 John McCain also declined to address Romney's statement, saying only 0:17:50.390 --> 0:17:52.951 that Ambassador Chris Stevens was one of his dear friends, 0:17:54.110 --> 0:17:57.671 but not everyone in the conservative movement had the same qualms. 0:17:58.031 --> 0:17:59.990 But what really is going on right there is a 0:18:00.110 --> 0:18:05.870 coordinated effort by the media in coordination with the White House. 0:18:06.431 --> 0:18:09.630 On talk radio, Rush Limbaugh gave a full throated defense 0:18:09.630 --> 0:18:12.431 of Roma and suggested that the outrage of the campaign 0:18:12.471 --> 0:18:15.750 statement was a distraction from Obama's mishandling of the attack. 0:18:16.150 --> 0:18:22.710 We're in the middle of an absolute disaster, a foreign 0:18:22.711 --> 0:18:26.430 policy disaster, and there's a coordinated effort to make it 0:18:26.471 --> 0:18:30.191 about Romney, whether or not it's presidential for Romney. 0:18:30.350 --> 0:18:33.511 One commentator on the website Breitbart dot Com dismissed the 0:18:33.551 --> 0:18:36.311 notion that Romney had done anything wrong and called on 0:18:36.350 --> 0:18:39.350 the Obama campaign to direct their outrage at the murderers 0:18:39.551 --> 0:18:43.871 instead of Romney. And so the Romney campaign faced a choice. 0:18:44.350 --> 0:18:46.271 Were they going to give in to the criticism they 0:18:46.311 --> 0:18:49.911 were hearing from more moderate Republicans or would they stay 0:18:49.911 --> 0:18:52.271 on message and hope the rest of the party fell 0:18:52.311 --> 0:18:52.911 in line. 0:18:53.110 --> 0:18:56.150 How do we address this now going forward? That was 0:18:56.191 --> 0:18:59.271 really more the focus of that call and the tone 0:18:59.311 --> 0:19:02.951 that Romney took that morning, And it was really a 0:19:03.150 --> 0:19:06.751 division between do we walk it back or do we 0:19:06.791 --> 0:19:07.671 double down on it. 0:19:08.511 --> 0:19:12.071 After some debate, the Romney campaign decided not to backtrack. 0:19:12.791 --> 0:19:15.671 The guy who wrote a book called No Apology simply 0:19:15.711 --> 0:19:16.911 could not apologize. 0:19:17.431 --> 0:19:20.350 It would have been seen as a sign of weakness. 0:19:20.431 --> 0:19:22.991 It would have been seen as a rebuke of our 0:19:23.071 --> 0:19:26.910 own line of thinking about not just this event, but 0:19:26.951 --> 0:19:28.711 perhaps more broadly about Obama. 0:19:30.951 --> 0:19:34.830 So the Romney campaign was going to stay the course. Yes, 0:19:34.911 --> 0:19:37.231 what happened to Benghazi was a tragedy, but it was 0:19:37.271 --> 0:19:40.870 an avoidable one that illustrated the failures of Obama's foreign policy. 0:19:41.951 --> 0:19:44.710 As lnhi Chen told a reporter at the time, the 0:19:44.751 --> 0:19:48.191 attack was a direct result of the Obama administration conducting 0:19:48.231 --> 0:19:52.951 its foreign policy in effeckless manner. That word feckless was 0:19:52.991 --> 0:19:55.430 a callback to a critique that Romney had been leveling 0:19:55.471 --> 0:19:57.630 against Obama for the better part of a year. 0:19:58.110 --> 0:20:01.830 The very real dangers that America faces if we continue 0:20:01.951 --> 0:20:05.431 the effeckless policies of the past three years. 0:20:05.390 --> 0:20:09.711 Knit Romney said, that you are America's most chectless president 0:20:10.551 --> 0:20:11.150 since Carter. 0:20:11.671 --> 0:20:13.791 What would you like to say to mister Romney. 0:20:14.150 --> 0:20:16.231 I tell him to go feck himself. That's an. 0:20:18.951 --> 0:20:22.590 And I think that word feckless describes a timidity. And 0:20:22.791 --> 0:20:24.551 that's the reason why that critique stuck. 0:20:24.870 --> 0:20:28.951 Whatever had happened in Benghazi, it was proof of Obama's fecklessness, 0:20:29.511 --> 0:20:33.350 particularly when viewed alongside the conciliatory statement issued by the 0:20:33.471 --> 0:20:37.110 US Embassy in Cairo. It was true that making this 0:20:37.231 --> 0:20:40.511 point required Romney to conflate the Benghazi attack with the 0:20:40.551 --> 0:20:44.630 administration's response to the Innocence of Muslims video, But the 0:20:44.671 --> 0:20:47.350 point here was to level a general critique of the president, 0:20:47.671 --> 0:20:54.311 not get into specifics. 0:20:54.311 --> 0:20:56.311 Back to our breaking news in a matter of moments, 0:20:56.390 --> 0:20:57.511 live in Jacksonville. 0:20:57.911 --> 0:21:00.871 Governorment Romney is prepared to make a statement. 0:21:00.551 --> 0:21:03.991 And we understand he may take questions now. 0:21:04.071 --> 0:21:07.110 As criticism continued to pour in the day after the attack, 0:21:07.751 --> 0:21:10.751 the Romney campaign pulled together a press conc in which 0:21:10.830 --> 0:21:14.830 Romney would address reporters directly. Hillary Clinton had just done 0:21:14.830 --> 0:21:17.751 the same thing at State Department headquarters, and Obama was 0:21:17.751 --> 0:21:19.871 getting ready to deliver his own statement in the White 0:21:19.911 --> 0:21:23.551 House Rose Garden. The setting for Romney's press conference was 0:21:23.791 --> 0:21:28.151 less official. It took place at a strip mall in Jacksonville, Florida. 0:21:28.471 --> 0:21:33.670 Good morning, Americans woke up this morning with tragic news 0:21:33.711 --> 0:21:36.231 and felt heavy hearts. 0:21:36.551 --> 0:21:39.271 So he was having a press conference in a strip 0:21:39.311 --> 0:21:42.111 mall where there was a reptile store of some kind. 0:21:42.110 --> 0:21:43.870 And I don't know why that sticks with me, but 0:21:43.951 --> 0:21:46.231