By Bill O'Reilly
Today a House committee held hearings on the giant screw up that occurred immediately after our Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was assassinated in Benghazi on September 11th.
Many believe the Obama administration initially covered up what was a terrorist attack by saying the violence might have been generated by an anti-Muslim tape. We now know Ambassador Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, former Navy SEALs Glenn Doherty and Tyron Wood were killed in a planned terrorist attack. The situation has the potential, the potential to damage President Obama's re-election chances.
So let's take it step by step in a very methodical way. On September 12th, President Obama reacted to the murder of Ambassador Stevens by first discussing the anti-Muslim tape.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, but there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None.
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O'REILLY: Now the next day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a public statement again emphasizing the tape.
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HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its content and message. America's commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.
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O'REILLY: Notice no mention of the possibility that terrorists attacked us in Libya. On September 14th, White House spokesman Jay Carney stepped up with this explanation.
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JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have no information to suggest that it was a pre-planned attack. The unrest we've seen around the region has been in reaction to a video that Muslims, many Muslims find offensive.
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O'REILLY: Again with the video. Two days later, UN Ambassador Susan Rice makes a crucial mistake.
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SUSAN RICE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: The best information and the best assessment we have today is that, in fact, this was not a pre-planned, premeditated attack. That what happened initially was that it was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video.
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O'REILLY: So we are now five days into investigating what happened to Ambassador Stevens and the videotape is still dominating the administration's reaction. On September 17th, Hillary Clinton spokesperson reiterated that.
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VICTORIA NULAND, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: Ambassador Rice, in her comments on every network over the weekend, was very clear, very precise about what our initial assessment of what happened is. And this was not just her assessment, it was also an assessment that you heard in comments coming from the intelligence community, in comments coming from the White House.
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O'REILLY: But two days later, two days later, things changed drastically when the president's director of counterterrorism said this.
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MATTHEW OLSEN, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM CENTER: Certainly on that particular question I would say yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy.
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O'REILLY: So it took eight days, eight days for the administration to classify Ambassador Stevens' death as a terror attack. Eight days.
On September 25th, President Obama addressed the issue on "The View".
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OBAMA: We're still doing an investigation. There is no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault that it wasn't just a mob action. Now, we don't have all the information yet and so we're still gathering it.
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O'REILLY: Well, now it's CYA time in Washington. The State Department held a conference call yesterday saying it's not their fault -- not our fault -- others in the administration misled the public. Apparently Secretary of State Clinton not about to take responsibility. One footnote to that conference call, Fox News was excluded.
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BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: This is a "Fox News Alert" as you look at the White House, just finished up a phone call, conference call with two senior State Department officials. Fox News was not invited on to this conference call for reporters -- we usually are on this list -- but we were not invited to this conference call.
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O'REILLY: Today the former head of the U.S. military team in Libya testified in front of Congress. Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood, angry about what happened, telling CBS News that two security teams were withdrawn from Libya in August by Hillary Clinton's State Department. And that put everybody over there in danger, according to the Colonel.
Also today, FNC White House correspondent Ed Henry grilled Jay Carney.
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ED HENRY, FOX NEW CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Did you and others mislead the public because you didn't want to admit there was a terrorist attack?
CARNEY: Absolutely not. The President of the United States referred to it as an act of terror immediately after it occurred.
HENRY: Then why were you at this podium for several days after that saying we don't know if it's a terrorist attack -- .
CARNEY: I never said that. I never said that we don't know if it's terrorism. There is an issue about the definition of terrorism and this the definition an act of terrorism. The President made clear.
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O'REILLY: Spin aside there is no question that the Obama administration screwed this up. There is no question. They screwed it up. We simply did not have enough security in Libya to protect the American Ambassador. The big question going forward is, was there a conscious effort to cover up that poor security situation? The answer to that question could decide the election.
And that's "The Memo."
- You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.
