On Tuesday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer’s message was very similar to Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol’s message on Sunday: On Benghazi, let the facts speak for themselves.
Krauthammer laid out the three problem areas for the Obama administration on Benghazi: the lack of security, the U.S. response and President Barack Obama’s whereabouts the night of the attack and the talking points that did not reveal that the attack was a terrorist attack in the days following the incident.
“They are extremely important issues and the administration is hugely on the defensive,” Krauthammer said. “Why were their requests for security denied including the desperate ones of the ambassador who ultimately was killed? Second, what happened on the night? How could America not have at least made an attempt of rescue? And the response by Democrats, ‘Well, it wouldn’t have arrived in time.’ How in the hell do you know in advance that it’s not going to arrive in time? How do you know it would be seven-and-a-half hours and not 17-and-a-half hours?”
“That’s not a response,” Krauthammer continued. “And where was the president that night? We’ve all seen the videos and pictures in the situation room of Obama on the night of the Osama raid. Everybody looks at that, he was really involved in that. Show me a picture of where he was on the night of the attack in Libya. Give me a timeline. Who did he talk to and what did he do? And lastly, the talking points — which are a fiction and compounded by the fact that the president now say, ‘I said it was a terror attack on the day after.’ That is not true. Even The Washington Post has said today it was absolutely a falsehood.”
The Washington Post columnist then encouraged Republicans and conservative groups to not exaggerate the scandal. Otherwise, he said, the GOP could discount the seriousness of the Benghazi attack and make it out to be nothing more than a political issue.
“But the one advice I give to Republicans is stop calling it a huge scandal,” Krauthammer said. “Stop saying it’s a Watergate. Stop saying it’s Iran-Contra. Let the facts speak for themselves. Have a special committee, a select committee. The facts will speak for themselves. Pile them on but don’t exaggerate. Don’t run ads about Hillary. It feed the narrative for the other side that it’s only a political event. It’s not. Just be quiet and present the facts.”