WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans swung back yesterday at President Obama for dismissing their probe into the Benghazi consulate attack as “a political circus” — claiming e-mails show the administration lied to the public seven weeks before the election.
“This is a story about the manipulation by the government, with the president being implicit,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News.
Republicans contend that the administration intentionally chose not to call the Sept. 11, 2012, assault that killed four Americans a terrorist attack so that voters would not question their effectiveness in fighting the war on terror before last fall’s election.
UN Ambassador Susan Rice went on five Sunday talk shows and said the incident grew out of a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islam film made in America.
Recently released e-mails revealed that at least one State Department staffer expressed concern about calling the assault a terrorist attack while putting together Rice’s talking points because it would give Congress ammunition to bash the administration for failing to heed advance warnings.
“The 12 changes that took a CIA report from true to lie to the American people, these are not things any Republican is making up — these are the facts,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said on CBS’s “This Morning.”
Obama made the “political circus” remark during a Monday press conference.
White House spokesman Jay Carney continued to deflect blame yesterday, saying that “the CIA had the lead” on putting together the Rice memo.