American Crossroads has dug up a transcript of White House spokesman Jay Carney from Sept 20. Carney held a press gaggle aboard Air Force One, and the subject of Benghazi came up.
On September 20 – eight days after Obama claims to have called the Benghazi attack an “act of terror” – Jay Carney affirmed to reporters that the White House had never called it “a terrorist attack.”
From the gaggle on Air Force One, en route Miami, 9/20/2012:
Q: Can you — have you called it a terrorist attack before? Have you said that?
MR. CARNEY: I haven’t, but – I mean, people attacked our embassy. It’s an act of terror by definition.
Q: Yes, I just hadn’t heard you –
MR. CARNEY: It doesn’t have to do with what date it occurred.
Q: No, I just hadn’t heard the White House say that this was an act of terrorism or a terrorist attack. And I just –
MR. CARNEY: I don’t think the fact that we hadn’t is not — as our NCTC Director testified yesterday, a number of different elements appear to have been involved in the attack, including individuals connected to militant groups that are prevalent in eastern Libya, particularly in the Benghazi area. We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda’s affiliates, in particular al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
So on Sept 20, over a week after the Benghazi assault that left four Americans dead and al Qaeda crowing, the White House’s own spokesman admitted that the Obama administration had not publicly described the sacking as a terrorist attack. Note also that Carney denied any connection between the 9-11-12 attacks and the anniversary of the 9-11-01 attacks.
That the administration mysteriously took quite a while to describe Benghazi as a terrorist attack was Mitt Romney’s position during the debate, with Obama pinning his story on his Rose Garden remarks on 9-12. In those remarks, Obama alluded to “acts of terror” but blamed the YouTube video for that particular action. Romney was was right on the facts, but moderator Candy Crowley corrected him and made hash of everything.
Meanwhile, during the back and forth, the original question was never answered. The sequence began with a question from a man in the audience, who asked why security requests at the consulate had been denied. President Obama managed to dodge that question entirely, as Ben Howe notes by way of video edit.
More: And let’s back up to Sept 14. The Pentagon had already described Benghazi as a pre-planned terrorist attack. But the White House, through Jay Carney, was blaming the film:
Had Candy Crowley paid attention only to what Obama said in the Rose Garden, and only to part of that, and not to the entire sequence of events that have come to be known as a cover-up? Isn’t it her job to report facts?
Update: On Sept 30, Candy Crowley said that Obama administration took weeks to admit that Benghazi was terrorism. Clearly, Candy Crowley needs to get with Candy Crowley to get their story straight.
More: On Sept 25, Obama Refused to Describe Benghazi as a Terrorist Attack
Here job is to help Obama get elected. The different between Crowley and the typical Obama campaign operative is that Crowley gets her paycheck from CNN.
NOT only hadn’t he directly identified Benghazi as a terror attack, but in his Islamist leaning heart, he doesn’t believe they are committing terror! And herein lies the crux of the matter.
On the one hand, the Islamist-in-Chief utters this or that to keep the unwashed masses off his back. On the other hand, when it comes to the biggies, particularly when it involves his Muslim brothers, he walks back their barbaric behavior.
Not only that, but actions always speak louder than empty rhetoric. Now, as far as killing Osama, he did no such thing. He was in the situation room for a photo op, but it was Clinton & Panetta who approved the hit. In fact, the Radical-in-Chief thwarted two kill raids, set up by the SEALS several months apart.
‘The One’ can bob and weave from today till he drops dead from exhaustion. Obama hearts with the Islamists he is helping to empower – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/10/11/the-islamist-in-chief-his-kenyan-wahhabi-relatives-obamas-inner-roots-addendum-to-the-ties-that-bind-the-islamist-in-chief-to-sunni-islam-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
Whether in Libya, Egypt, Iran, Syria or parts in between, Barack HUSSEIN Obama seems to have a penchant for letting Islamists know he has their back.
Coincidence? Never and never.
You nailed it, Adina.
Excellent comment [as always].
Unfreakingbelievable!
As if all that were not enough, Joe Biden lied about Syria in the VP debate:
US consulate in Benghazi was a hub for recruiting jihadis to fight for al Qaeda in Syria
Islamist leaning heart….
Wow. You chugged the crazy juice, didnt you?
Will Candy Crowley come and lie for him, too?
Speculation Alert:
Obama’s “read the transcript” remark in reply to Romney’s pressing him on the issue may have been a tip-off to Crowley to intervene. It may have been blatant collusion. Obama’s facial reactions and body language seems to give that away.
I totally agree. It was like a mini-courtroom drama. Romney asked Obama a leading question about the Rose Garden remarks; Obama paused and said “proceed” (which seemed to interrupt Romney’s train of thought), followed by Obama hollering “transcript!”. After a rustling of papers–Crowley had to have it right there–she comes to his defense and saves his campaign. Obama yelling “transcript!” HAD to be a cue. He didn’t say , “I think if you check the transcript you’ll find…” or anything like that, he just yelled “transcript!” No wonder Romney was (briefly, but effectively flummoxed.) I’ll bet you a candy bar that Crowley and a member of Obama’s team set this up, with the caveat that she would just say afterward that Romney may have been right…
Sad thing is, she didnt read the transcript, now did she?
On 9/12 he called it AN ATTACK
On 10/16 he called it AN ACT OF TERROR
President Obama uses the indefinite article (an) and defines the article (Sept. 11th bombing of Libyan consulate) in two different ways, clearly noted above. This is 5th grade English, my fellow Americans. Grab a book from your public library. It’s free. I googled the transcripts. They are posted….free, as is our 1st amendment right. So is the free internet. Dan Quayle invented it, remember.
I agree it was a very quick response from Obama to have Candy check the transcript. How did he know that she had it with her?
The cognitive disjunction between the president’s ability to rapidly spot a racist in two seconds while taking two weeks to spot a terrorist is rather curious. Maybe that cognitive disconnect or disability had something to do with the total lack of response to a surprise attack on an embassy while watching it in real time for six hours? During the first 9/11 surprise attack fighter jets were scrambled and the entire US airspace was shut down in less than three hours, but ten years after the first 9/11 and we can’t even get a ready reaction force to Benghazi in twenty four hours. I bet even Monica–swallow the music–Lewinsky could chew gum, walk, and tie her shoes when four.
Keep an eye on this, it is about damage control for Obama. This is about keeping the Jackson’s silent about what they know about the Obama’s And how Patrick Fitzgerald and the Tribune protect Obama..
Latest Jackson Jr. probe clouds political, legal future
http://touch.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-72918139/
As Obama’s cover story comes down, the curtain goes up on the USAO’s cover-up of J.J., Jr.’s role in the Blago story
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2012/10/05/as-obamas-cover-story-comes-down-the-curtain-goes-up-on-the-usaos-cover-up-of-j-j-jr-s-role-in-the-blago-story/
Candy Commie aside, Romney had a chance for the ultimate contrast moment on Benghazi and blew it. It may not matter because he can clean it up next week, but it was there for a devastating hit last night, one that would have shaken Obumbles.
“Mr President,as Commander in Chief you have the best intelligence flow across your desk every morning. A casual observer could see that Libya remained a war zone. There were 13 seperate requests for enhanced security by your ambassador, yet you and your Secretary of State denied those requests. On September 11th we had Marines guarding the embassy in Barbados, but not the consulate in Benghazi. Maybe you can explain to the American people and the families of the dead tonight why that is not grossly incompetent?”
That’s a 30 second response. My bet is that it would have shaken Obama into a stutering reply and would have about 50 million You tube hits today.
If 1/2 of the undecideds slide to Romney he is going to win in a landslide. He had his chance and couldn’t get the bat off his shoulder. He will have that chance again next week. He better take full advantage of it.
Hillary Clinton Admits the U.S. Government Created al-Qaeda Published on Apr 10, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifZK6SVlQ1Y&feature=related
Wow. Just WOW. *chills*
Ugh
It’s NO wonder this Country is in bad shape. Carney says one thing, Obama another. I believe, for the average voter, you are staring to understand why Gas prices are high, why utility bills are high, why your 401K has been depleted, or why you health insurance premiums are high. The a##clowns in the White House is the answer.
The September 14 press conference by Jay Carney is just shameful. Either they knew it was a terrorist attack and they lied to cover it up, or they didn’t know it was a terrorist attack, in which case the head of the National Security Council should be fired for gross incompetence. We now know that the State Department knew THAT NIGHT that this was a military-style terrorist attack in Benghazi and that the film had nothing to do with it. Are you telling me the State Department didn’t tell ANYONE at the White House, let alone Hillary Clinton, about this? As Hillary Clinton herself once famously said, “That would require a willing suspension of disbelief” to swallow that story. And I don’t think the American public, as well as the mainstream media now, are buying it.
Well said.
We the voting citizens are “hostage”, if you will, to the information leaked or otherwise made available to us by the decision makers and lever pullers behind the screens, and/or sitting along the walls of the closed door sessions and witness to the discussions of these events themselves.
That information is then filtered through the conscious or unconscious agendas of the conduits. Add to this stew – th’ Media.
So, we can’t really know for certain what’s going on.
Further, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, we should be aware of the likes of Charles Evans Hughes, Henry Stimson-only slightly before my time; then Cordell Hull the acerbic Tennessean, and then George C. Marshall, who I do remember as a youth growing up in Washington D.C. during WWII.
Now we have as Secretary of State…….Hillary Clinton.
So, now we’re in a helluva fix.
When she said afterwards that she blurted out the Rose Garden comment without thinking, that is only half the truth. What she means is she planned on having that information made ready in front of her and wasn’t completely sold on whether or not she’d use it (blurt it out). So, if this assumption is valid, which it appears to be, then she, the moderator for a presidential debate, was doing pre-debate research for the Democrats, in their favor.
Candy provided the President with another skirt to hide behind.
More specifically . . . he hid behind her lady parts.
A personal message to Jay Carney; stop BS’ing for the Obama regime while you still have a tiny shred of dignity left, man! Jeez, the whole world is laughing AT you!
When the lies start flying on air force one and land in the rose garden, matastasize to Face the Nation, The View and the UN; picking up steam every day, it gets hard not only remembering them, and keeping them straight, but changing them when change is needed to re-deflect blame from Obama.
I won’t say the White House crew are pathological liars. (Well, if I were in the Rose Garden, I might.)
I’d say the Obamunists are not smart enough to be convincing liars because they have such trouble telling lies that are untraceable; that cannot be investigated and uncovered.
Obama has been exposed as being a serial liar. In fact, sad to say, but I harbor more contempt for serial liars like Obama who direct the future of an entire country than a John Sandusky who’s military grade scum.
No, I didn’t mean that. I have about equal contempt.
Safe to say, I have enormous contempt for Obama. And can’t wait for him to commit the ultimate white collar crime, and be led out of the White House in hand cuffs. I wonder if the secret service people will gather around, and order that no one applaud. The better question: will Michelle be applauding or sporting her own set of shiny accessories with locks.
This campaign is getting interestinger and interestinger.
Jay Carney is Doogie Hauser without a brain