Hillary Clinton Denies She Blamed the Video when Meeting with Benghazi Families

On ABC News’ This Week Sunday, Hillary Clinton was asked by host George Stephanopoulos if she had told family members of the victims of the Benghazi terrorist attacks that a YouTube video was responsible for their loved ones’ deaths.

It was an important question to ask because a) we now know thanks to recently released emails that on the night of the attacks Clinton understood perfectly well that it was a terrorist attack; b) several family members have publicly claimed that she blamed the video in meetings with them three days later; and c) Clinton invoked the video during her public remarks that same day.

Although President Obama, then-White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, and then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice also peddled the false YouTube video narrative publicly for weeks, Hillary is the only one who pushed the lie directly to the families.

She  answered the question by saying “no” in direct contradiction to the family members’ explicit claims.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Did you tell them it was about the film? And what’s your response?

CLINTON: No. You know, look I understand the continuing grief at the loss that parents experienced with the loss of these four brave Americans. And I did testify, as you know, for 11 hours. And I answered all of these questions. Now, I can’t — I can’t help it the people think there has to be something else there. I said very clearly there had been a terrorist group, uh, that had taken responsibility on Facebook, um, between the time that, uh, I – you know, when I talked to my daughter, that was the latest information; we were, uh, giving it credibility. And then we learned the next day it wasn’t true. In fact, they retracted it. This was a fast-moving series of events in the fog of war and I think most Americans understand that.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAUDS-aLGjI]

Clinton Foundation contributor Stephanopoulos did not ask her any follow-up questions, but other journalists should, because Hillary Clinton on Sunday essentially accused the Benghazi victims’ family members of lying — and they had no reason to lie.

Via Guy Benson at Townhall:

 At the now-infamous Andrews Air Force base ceremony on September 14, 2012, Hillary Clinton told grieving family members that their loved ones had been murdered by a bloodthirsty mob incited by an online anti-Islam video.  Four different relatives of three separate victims have publicly shared that recollection, including one who jotted down notes shortly after the meeting:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkpZzlZBI3M]

“I gave Hillary a hug and shook her hand. And she said ‘we are going to have the film maker arrested who was responsible for the death of your son,'” recalls Tyrone Woods’ father, reading directly from his written record from that day. Sean Smith’s mother and uncle remember the same thing, as does Glen Doherty’s sister.

As Benson notes, it is highly unlikely that they all “forgot” in exactly the same way, and that their “lies” all match up.

No, there can be only one awful conclusion: the current frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination had no compunction about lying to the Benghazi families in 2012, and no compunction about lying about them in 2015.