Hillary Rodham Clinton jokes during her keynote address at the Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 24, 2015. (Photo: AP)
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic frontrunner, more than suggested that the Benghazi victims’ families are lying about her blaming the 2012 terrorist attack on a YouTube video. Mrs. Clinton made the allegation during an interview last month with the Conway Daily Sun:
Sun Columnist Tom McLaughlin said she told an Egyptian diplomat the Benghazi attack was planned and not a protest but that she told family members of the deceased that the attack was the result of a demonstration. He said she then told George Stephanopoulos that she didn’t tell the families the attack was a demonstration about a film.
“Somebody is lying,” said McLaughlin.”Who is it?
Clinton replied, “Not me, that’s all I can tell you.”
At the time, Clinton said, everyone was emotionally distraught. She said some families didn’t know their sons were working for the CIA or were in Benghazi. Clinton said the information she had about the attack was from the intelligence community.
“What happened is people were doing the best they could with information that was changing,” said Clinton. “The CIA wrote and approved the talking points that were used. It was also true that from Egypt to Tunisia to Pakistan, the video was the primary spark that was sending people into protesting against our facilities. All of this was happening simultaneously.”
However, as PPD has repeatedly reported (here and here), then-Secretary of State Clinton repeatedly and conscientiously lied to the Benghazi victims’ families in the wake of the attack. In fact, Mrs. Clinton issued an official statement claiming the assault that killed four Americans, including Chris Stevens, was the result of “a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet.” Stevens is the first U.S. ambassador killed in an attack since Adolph Dubs was killed in 1979.
Just a few days after releasing the statement, while speaking at the ceremonial return of the victims’ bodies at Andrews Air Force Base on Sept. 14, 2012, Clinton said that the attack was prompted by “an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with.” She then promised the families that the man who made the video would pay.
“Oh yes, they all told me about the reason that this happened was the video,” said Pat Smith, the mother of information management officer Sean Smith, who was killed during the attack on the U.S. consulate. “Every one of them told me that. Yes, they actually did, and Susan Rice also. Nose to nose. I was with – they were hugging me!”
Charles Woods, father of former Navy SEAL and then-CIA contractor Tyrone Woods, has also on multiple accounts verified Mrs. Smith’s story, claiming he was told the same tall tale.
Adding more insult to injury, Mrs. Clinton recently claimed during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that she did not lie to the families but instead was caught up in “the fog of war.” George Stephanopoulos, a longtime Clinton ally now posing as a journalist, asked about the uncovered email showing Clinton had told the Egyptian prime minister that “we know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film,” prior to telling the families it was a YouTube video that caused the terror attack.
Clinton’s claim was reminiscent of her past 2008 claim that she once arrived in Bosnia under sniper fire, which she blamed on being exhausted.
In addition to the aforementioned emails previously obtained by PPD, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, hit Hillary Clinton with the smoking gun at the House Select Committee on Benghazi hearing in October. Jordan introduced those very e-mails.
Consequently, never has Mrs. Clinton publicly denied the victims’ families version of the story prior to last month, including during her marathon testimony in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
Armand / January 13, 2016
She is a habitual liar.
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