The Other McCain

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Hillary Gets Bitchy on Benghazi: ‘What Difference, at This Point, Does It Make?’

Posted on | January 23, 2013 | 20 Comments

Kinda half-watched this morning’s Senate Benghazi hearings, mainly wondering what was up with those big ugly glasses Hillary was wearing. My favorite part was when she got irritated with Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who was trying to pin her down on why the administration spent so long pushing the bogus “protest” talking points:

SEN. JOHNSON: Yeah. The point I’m making is a very simple phone call to these individuals I think would have ascertained immediately that there was no protest prior to this. I mean, this attack started at 9:40 p.m., Benghazi time, and it was an assault . . . Why wasn’t that known? And again, I appreciate the fact of the transparency of this — of this hearing, but why weren’t we transparent at that point in time?
SEC. CLINTON: Well, first of all, Senator, I would say that once the assault happened and once we got our people rescued and out, our most immediate concern was, number one, taking care of their injuries . .. getting them into Frankfurt, Ramstein . . . to get taken care of, the FBI going over immediately to start talking to them — we did not think it was appropriate for us to talk to them before the FBI conducted their interviews, so — and we did not — I think this is accurate, sir — I certainly did not know of any reports that contradicted the IC talking points at the time that Ambassador Rice went on the TV shows.
And, you know, I just want to say that, you know, people have accused Ambassador Rice and the administration of, you know, misleading Americans. I can say, trying to be in the middle of this and understanding what was going on, nothing could be further from the truth. Was information developing? Was the situation fluid? Would we reach conclusions later that weren’t reached initially? And I appreciate the –
SEN. JOHNSON: But Madam Secretary, do you disagree with me that a simple phone call to those evacuees to determine what happened wouldn’t have — wouldn’t have ascertained immediately that there was no protest?
I mean, that was — that was a piece of information that could have been easily, easily obtained –
SEC. CLINTON: Well, but Senator, again –
SEN. JOHNSON: — within hours, if not days.
SEC. CLINTON: Senator, I — you know, when you’re in these positions, the last thing you want to do is interfere with any other process going on. . . . Now, we have no doubt they were terrorists, they were militants, they attacked us, they killed our people, but what was going on and why they were doing what they were doing is still — is still unknown.
SEN. JOHNSON: No, no, no, no, I’m — I — again, we were misled that there were supposedly protests and then something sprang out of that, an assault sprang out of that. And that was easily ascertained that that was not the fact –
SEC. CLINTON: But could — but, you know –
SEN. JOHNSON: — and the American people could have known that within days, and they didn’t know that.
SEC. CLINTON: And — with all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans.
SEN. JOHNSON: I understand.
SEC. CLINTON: Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator.

Ed Morrissey retorts:

Well, gosh, I can think of a few reasons why it matters. First, it mattered enough for the Obama administration to send Susan Rice to five different Sunday talk shows to insist that the sacking was a spontaneous demonstration of anger over a months-old YouTube video, while saying that there was “no evidence” that it was a terrorist attack. On one of those appearances, the president of Libya told US audiences the exact opposite — that it was the work of terrorists and that they had a pretty good idea of who they were. If it didn’t matter, what was Susan Rice doing when she tried pushing that meme, which the White House had to abandon within days as leaks within State and CIA made plain that there was no demonstration?
It also matters because Barack Obama at the time had been bragging about crippling al-Qaeda while on the campaign trail. That false narrative made it seem as though State and our intel community couldn’t have possibly known that the sacking would have occurred, and got blindsided by a grassroots reaction to the video. Instead, it turned out to be a planned terrorist action about which the US embassy in Libya had warned State for months, repeatedly requesting more security.

Ed, remember (a) it’s only a “scandal” if Republicans do it, and (b) only “humorless, angry opponents of the President” care about Benghazi.

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Category: Hillary Clinton, Libya

Comments

  • Pingback: Hillary Clinton loses it – yells ‘what difference does it make’ if we lied about the Youtube video? : Fire Andrea Mitchell!

  • http://marezilla.com/ Zilla of the Resistance

    I bet it matter to “Sam Bacile”, the guy who made the mo video that Barry & Hilly used as a scapegoat – you know, the guy who is now rotting away in PRISON, I bet it matters to him.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shawny-Lee/100001989148504 Shawny Lee

    Yeah, I’ll bet she’d just like nothing better than to make it go away and be over. And from the looks of the weak ass questioning, maybe it will. But her defensiveness and indignant demeaner at even having to answer for her actions is just wrong, much the same as when Holder or Napolitano have been questioned. There’s no indication of a sincere remorse that should accompany her acceptance of the blame for the loss of lives and I believe that’s because she knows the blame isn’t all hers. But as long as she persists in covering for the abject failure of both Obama and Panetta then she deserves all the denegration which can be heaped upon her and even harsher consequences. Sorry isn’t good enough, we’ll fix it now isn’t good enough, Hillary’s answer to the grieving families not to prosecute or punish those who had murdered their loved ones but to prosecute the maker of the video on which they placed the fraudulent blame for the attack isn’t good enough. Deliberate lies to divert blame and cover the truth isn’t good enough. These actions would have been criminal even if no lives were lost. How do we keep THAT from happening again?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shawny-Lee/100001989148504 Shawny Lee

    I was enjoying Rand Paul hauling Hill’s ass to the woodshed but watch the inappropriate psycho smile on her face as he states the obvious.
    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/01/rand-paul-brings-it-tells-hillary-clinton-you-are-to-blame-with-your-leaving-you-take-culpability-for-benghazi-video/

  • benning

    My sister used to do that arm-flapping thing when she got thoroughly flustered. She was in her late teens at the time. She outgrew it.

    Hilary has had how long to work up her act? And this is the best she could do? Feigned umbrage? Ahhh, for the good old days of Slick Willy’s finger-pointing, and “… that woman, Miz Lewinski.”

    *sigh*

    Our Gubmint in action. :(

  • http://twitter.com/JoeGremlin joe

    she’s right, it doesn’t matter, Obama already won re-election and was inaugurated

  • dacamafamily

    “our people rescued.” ?????
    How about recovered the bodies you fucking bitch!!!!

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  • DaveO

    The ‘protest’ talking point was published before the last 2 men were killed. The AQIM spokesman had to be prompted to add the video as the cause of the attack.

    Almost like it was scripted between DC-Cairo-Benghazi, but the AQIM leader who was in on it was killed before he could pass the instructions on to his Malian reinforcements.

  • Beeblebrocs

    Democrat Senator to Liddy during Watergate hearings: “and what was your involvement Mr. Liddy?”

    Liddy: “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

    Democrat Senator to Ollie North during Iran Conta hearings: “so did you shred thos documents colonel?”

    North: ” What difference, at this point, does it make?”

    If only these guys had know how to respond like Hillary.

    In the future, Republicans and other enemies of the state hauled before a Dem controlled congressional panel now have a template from which to work. It’s much better than what Hillary used during Whitewater: “I don’t recall.”

  • DaveO

    The MSM has already filed its stories villifying the GOP for gutting the budget of Diplomatic Security and the gratuitous chickenhawk attacks. Nothing to see here.

  • AnonymousDrivel

    Exactly. She needed to be hammered over this. Absolutely hammered.

    She even had the chutzpah to ask that “Look, (what does it matter) Squirrel!” question knowing damn well the video story was a manufactured lie/cover-up — a lie she even spread to the families of those killed while she et al. choreographed an event with dead bodies in caskets as a backdrop.

    Shameless liar… like her husband.

  • Pingback: Moonbattery » What Difference It Makes What Happened in Benghazi

  • Pingback: Moonbattery » What Difference It Makes What Happened in Benghazi

  • Doug

    “Inaugurated” you say? How about “crowned?”

  • flyingfox88

    That is what Bill said to Hillary afer being caught – What difference does it make?

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