Axelrod: Romney 'Cravenly Trying to Exploit' Benghazi Murders

On the Benghazi attack, senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod told Fox News’ Chris Wallace yesterday “there is nobody in this planet who is more concerned and more interested in getting to the bottom of this than the president of the United States.”

“The president is responsible for everything that happens on his watch,” Axelrod said on Fox News Sunday. “…And, it’s not a matter of blaming. That’s just the fact. Sometimes intelligence has to catch up with the reality on the ground. This was one of those cases.”

Even with different timelines coming from the State Department, the White House, and Joe Biden on who knew what when, Axelrod claimed “the president was in contact with all those who had information and responsibility in the national security chain about this incident.”

“There is a separate issue of how Governor Romney handled it. I refer you back to the famous 47 percent tape in the spring, where Governor Romney told in private, told his supporters that he was waiting for a crisis, waiting for an incident, to jump in on national security, and, he did,” he continued. “He jumped in right away the day of these attacks, with half information in a way that was denounced by both Republicans and Democrats. And there is no doubt he is working hard to exploit this issue and I would point to the fact that this morning, in Bloomberg News, Chris Stevens’ dad said that he regretted that people were trying to exploit this issue.”

“The security matters are being adequately investigated,” Jan Stevens told Bloomberg. “We don’t pretend to be experts in security. It has to be objectively examined. That’s where it belongs. It does not belong in the campaign arena.”

Axelrod told Wallace he was happy to discuss the case, but “I think that’s different than the manner in which Governor Romney has conducted himself.”

“I am just telling you from the beginning of the issue, before any facts were known, he was cravenly trying to exploit it,” he continued. “And look, that’s politics. I understand that, Chris. I understand the whole deal. We’re in the last weeks of the campaign and, of course, Governor Romney is going to be talking about the issue.”