President Obama said he takes “offense” at “some suggestion in any way we haven’t tried to make sure that the American public knew as information was coming in what we believed happened” on Sept. 11 in Benghazi.
“Well, look, the fact of the matter is that this is a tragedy. There’s all kinds of legitimate questions to ask, because anytime a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans who are serving our country get killed, we’ve got to figure out what happened and fix it,” Obama said in an interview aired on MSNBC this morning. “And most importantly we’ve got to bring those folks who carried that out to justice.”
He said the investigation is going to show whether the intelligence community was giving bad information as the attack unfolded and afterward.
“But the truth is, across the board, when this happened, my No. 1 priority was secure Americans, figure out what happened, bring those folks to justice,” Obama said. “We are in the process of doing that right now. Congress has been getting the flow of information continuously from day one. And what my attitude on this is if we find out if there was a big breakdown and somebody didn’t do their job, they’ll be held accountable.”
Members of Congress, though, have increasingly complained about the information they’ve received being contradicted by new reports.
“Ultimately, as commander in chief, I’m responsible and I don’t shy away from that responsibility. My number one responsibility is to go after folks who did this and we’re going to make sure that we get them. I’ve got a pretty good track record doing it,” Obama said.
Last week, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called on Obama to publicly address Americans with all information he knows on Benghazi. Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) called on Obama over the weekend to “come clean.”
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