WH: 'Irrelevant' Where Obama Was During Benghazi Attacks

WH: 'Irrelevant' Where Obama Was During Benghazi Attacks

on Sun, 19 May 2013

On Fox News Sunday this morning, White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer was asked by Chris Wallace where in the White House President Obama was during the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans. “Question,” asked Wallace. “What did the President do the rest of that night to pursue Benghazi?” Pfeiffer answered, “Look, the President was kept up to date on this as it was happening the entire night, from the moment it started until the very end …. I recognize that there’s a series of conspiracy theories Republicans have been spinning about it since the time it happened.” He then added, “The question here is not what happened that night.”

Wallace pressed him further: “With due respect, you didn’t answer my question: what did the president do that night?” Pfeiffer said that Obama was in touch with his national security team, but as Wallace pointed out, he didn’t talk to the Secretary of State except for one time after the attack was over, didn’t talk to the Secretary of Defense, didn’t talk with the Joint Chiefs of Staff as it developed.

Finally, Wallace asked whether Obama was in the Situation Room. “I don’t remember what room the President was in on that night,” shot back Pfeiffer, “and that’s a largely irrelevant fact.” Wallace continued to press the point, and Pfeiffer continued to evade.  

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).