Benghazi Hearing: Rep. Jordan Nails Clinton on False Video Narrative

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OzrFDBMd0g

Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) nailed Hillary Clinton on her false YouTube video narrative during his questioning at the Benghazi Select Committee Thursday.

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Jordan read newly released emails that prove Clinton knew immediately that the attack on the compound had been a planned by terrorists and was not the result of a spontaneous demonstration gone awry.

On the night of the Benghazi attacks, Hillary emailed Chelsea Clinton (who went by the pseudonym Diane Reynolds on the ClintonEmail.com server) that the compound had been attacked by an “al Queda-like group.” (Note that the secretary of State did not know how to spell al-Qaeda.)

“You tell the American people one thing. You tell your family an entirely different story,” Jordan said.

Since there was never any evidence for a video-inspired protest, where did the false narrative start? Jordan asked. “It started with YOU, Madam Secretary.”

He proceeded to read her statement from the night of 9/11/2012 blaming the attack (that was still ongoing) on the video: “Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet.”

He read another email from Hillary to the president of Libya that night in which she stated that Ansar al Sharia had claimed responsibility.

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Jordan then read the most damning email of all from Clinton to the Egyptian prime minister on Sept. 12:

“We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack. Not a protest. Let me read that one more time. We know, not we think, not it might be, we know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with a film. It was a planned attack. Not a protest. State Department experts knew the truth. You knew the truth, but that’s not what the American people got. Again, the American people want to know why. Why didn’t you tell the American people exactly what you told the Egyptian prime minister?”

“Well, I think if you look at the statement that I made, I clearly said that it was an attack, and I also said that there were some who tried to justify it on the basis of the video, Congressman,” Clinton answered defensively.

“Real quick, calling it an attack is like saying the sky’s blue. Of course it was an attack,” Jordan shot back. “We want to know the truth. The statement you sent out was a statement on Benghazi and you say vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material on the internet. If that’s not pointing as the motive being a video, I don’t know what is, and that’s certainly how the American people saw it.”

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“Well, congressman, there was a lot of conflicting information that we were trying to make sense of,” she said. “The situation was very fluid. It was fast-moving.”

Jordan said there was NOT conflicting information on the day of the attack. The truth of what happened was clear. “YOU’RE the one who muddied it up!” he  exclaimed.

Jordan displayed other emails that show her top staffers discussing a political response to the attack.

“You did it because Libya was supposed to be this great success story for the Obama White House and the Clinton State Department, and a key campaign theme that year was GM’s alive, bin Laden’s dead, al-Qaeda’s on the run,” Jordan said. “Now you have a terrorist attack, and it’s a terrorist attack in Libya and it’s just 56 days before an election. You can live with the protest about a video. That won’t hurt you, but a terrorist attack will. So you can’t be square with the American people.”

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