Politics

Hume: ‘Ludicrous overreaction’ to Romney Libya remarks ‘not a great moment for the national media’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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Following the death of U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, many pundits jumped to criticize Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for labeling the Obama administration’s response to the crisis “disgraceful.”

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume said that, although Romney’s remarks were ill-timed, the media’s reaction was the real problem.

“I think what he said was correct but it was clumsy,” Hume said. “And it opened him up to charges that he made a terrible mistake. We had an almost ludicrous overreaction in a lot of the media about it in which what he did became the big story rather than what was happening over there, which was not a great moment for the national media, I’m sad to say. You know, he could have waited, it might have been better if he had.”

Hume said Romney was ultimately proven right when the White House walked back an apologetic statement issued by the U.S. embassy in Egypt just before Stevens’ death. In the statement, the embassy condemned an anti-Islam film that continues to outrage Muslims in the Middle East and voiced concern for the “religious feelings” of Muslims.

“Look, what [Romney] was criticizing there was a statement that we were talking about in the first panel, which is the administration emphasis on this video and attacking it and reiterating that — the Cairo embassy not only said that, but it reiterated it later after these events unfolded,” Hume said. “So they doubled down on it. Eventually the White House walked it back and so on. But the next thing you know the White House is saying the same thing — that it is all about the video. So, my sense is that he was on the mark. He might have timed it better or said it better.”

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Jeff Poor