FOX "Hannity" - Benghazi Attacks
Interview
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HANNITY: Not true. Now, let's remember, Susan Rice did not independently decide to appear on those shows nor did she independently come up with the notion that a YouTube video was to blame for Benghazi. Far from it. Because thanks to an investigation conducted by the Weekly Standard, we now have prove that her talking points were developed and edited by top administration officials for days.
Now, let's review the facts. Now we know that on the day of the attack, the State Department Operations Center sent out two alerts. Now, one came just after 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time stating that the consulate was under attack. Now, the other was sent two hours later saying an Al-Qaeda-linked group had already claimed credit for this attack. Now, that was Tuesday, September the 11th. But Rice's talking points weren't sent out until just before 7:00 p.m. on Friday night.
Now, the original draft accurately included references to jihadists, Islamic extremists, experienced fighters and Al Qaeda and details of five recent terror attacks in Benghazi.
But take a look at your screen. On the left, that's draft number two of the talking points. And as you can see, several of the bullet points referencing Al Qaeda were redacted, in other words taken out. And that's how the final version on the right of your screen came to be. It reads in part, quote, "The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protest at the U.S. embassy in Cairo."
And that as we know, was a complete and utter lie.
Now, there are three main things here. Number one, why were repeated requests before the attacks denied? They knew that they were in trouble.
Number two, during the attack why were rescue troops told to stand down? We need answers to that. And why did the president, why did he go to sleep that night without asking about the ambassador, asking about the embassy, and why did he decide to go campaigning the next day?
Also number three, who is responsible for the outright lies after the attack and the cover-up? Now remember, Watergate was about lying and covering up. By the way, in that case, nobody died in Watergate.
Here to talk about these developments, two men who will be on hand for the whistle-blowers' testimony on Wednesday, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman Darrell Issa, along with the member of that committee from Utah, Congressman Jason Chaffetz.
Gentlemen, welcome back to "Hannity."
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, R-UTAH, OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE MEMBER: Thanks, Sean.
REP. DARRELL ISSA, R-CALIF., HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Thanks, Sean.
HANNITY: All right. Congressman Issa, we've been through this. Both of you have been very generous of your time as we've been trying to get answers to all of this. Although, Jay Carney says, "Oh, that's eight months ago." Hillary, "What difference does it make?"
Let's start at the beginning. Requests for a security were denied, Congressman Issa. Why?
ISSA: Well, on October 10th we made the case that it was denied and at that time, people closely associated with these clear professionals really believed that it was based on this concept of normalization. In other words, pretend like Libya was safe and the war on terror was behind us. We still believe that's probably the genesis of so much of the cover-up, if you will, that occurred immediately following it. But you said very well in your intro, there was a campaign going on, there was a president trying to win re-election, and the changes were made at a very high level.
HANNITY: All right. And Congressman Chaffetz, there was -- we now have discovered through testimony, Greg Hicks among others that there was a C-130 ready to bring reinforcements during the attack to help those that were under fire and they were ordered to stand down?
CHAFFETZ: The administration including Secretary Panetta were very crystal clear, there were no military assets, but I got to tell you, we had proximity, we had capability, we had four individuals in Libya armed, ready to go, dressed, about to get into the car to go in the airport to go help their fellow countrymen who were dying and being killed and under attack in Benghazi and they were told to stand down.
And Sean, of all the things I've seen, that's as sickening and depressing and disgusting as anything I have seen. That is not the American way. We had people that were getting killed, we had people who are willing to risk their lives to go save them and somebody told them to stand down.
HANNITY: But we confirmed, that C-130 was on the tarmac, we had people ready to get on the plane willing to say that?
CHAFFETZ: It left without them.
HANNITY: Who gave the order?
CHAFFETZ: Well, that's what we got to still get some more information about. I think, this is what we anticipate on Wednesday at the hearing. We're going to have people who were on the ground there in Libya that will talk directly to this.
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