New Benghazi Testimony Confirms White House Had Time to Respond

Members of the House Intelligence Committee learned in a closed-door briefing yesterday that more contractors are corroborating the report that the Obama administration had plenty of time to respond to the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic facility.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) called the new information “outstanding testimony.”

“And essentially what they were able to prove today, they basically backed up the other contractors who were on the ground in the two previous hearings. So this is an ongoing investigation,” Nunes said Tuesday evening. “And I think they gave us a lot of good leads today and I feel very comfortable moving forward with where we are at today.”

The congressman confirmed the White House claim that the attack was sparked by protest over a YouTube video “was a completely lie, and we always knew that.”

“But what I think, some important testimony came out today. So these gentlemen found out about this right around dusk. And they knew the ambassador was missing, and they were in Tripoli. So, and then you have this whole time, you’re talking about roughly 9 to 10:00 at night, until 5:00 in the morning,” he said. “And at that point, you know, essentially the attack was still ongoing.”

“Because they arrived at the time the mortars hit and killed two additional Americans that were not killed at the embassy compound earlier. So this is — there is just nothing there the administration is standing on anymore, as to what were they doing? How come nobody came to help? I think that was clear, nobody knew even at 5:30 that the attack was going to be over.”

Nunes said the timeline begs the question: “What if the attack had went on for another 24 hours?”

“Would they have eventually sent help then? I mean, there is no accountability in this process that I’ve seen so far. And nobody knows what the president knew and when he knew it,” he said.

The recent testimony, though, hasn’t shed any additional light about what President Obama was doing the night of the attack, as the people testifying Tuesday “are the guys that are on the ground that saved everybody’s life.”

“And they were radioing everything upstairs, they assumed that people knew, but they didn’t know — they were on the ground trying to save people’s lives,” Nunes said.