On Fox & Friends this morning, Steve Doocy lamented that a surveillance video of what happened in Benghazi on September 11 will probably not be released until after the election. But that was no impediment for him and his co-hosts to adjudge President Obama guilty of allowing Americans to die in the attack on the consulate there.
Interestingly, the comments today very much echoed those of Fox News’ Peter Johnson, Jr. who “asked” last week whether Obama had deliberately allowed Americans to die for political purposes. Since then, Gabriel Sherman, in New York Magazine, has suggested that Johnson was acting as a surrogate for Fox chief Roger Ailes. The fact that such similar sentiments re-emerged today – still without evidence to support them – gives further credence to that theory.
Today’s accusations were based around a report that requests for help made by Americans under siege at Benghazi had not been granted. Clayton Morris acknowledged that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had said, “That zone seemed too hot to send in additional forces.” But Morris quickly cast doubt on that based on vague speculation:
There’s others who say it wasn’t hot and by simply allowing a helicopter gunship that had laser locked on these targets could have actually intervened and stopped this brutal slaying that was unfolding there.
Who those “others” were, Morris didn’t bother to say.
According to host Alisyn Camerota, the CIA “categorically denies that any request for backup was denied.” But everybody immediately ignored that. Even as she spoke a banner on the screen blared, ‘WHY DID THEY ALLOW HIM TO DIE?”
Steve Doocy said, “Apparently, there was a guy on the embassy roof who had a laser pointer and he was painting where the mortars were coming from and they were on the radio and they were begging, 'Please send us a gunship.' It never came.”
Camerota said, “It’s hard to know what happened… We need names.”
But why wait for names and hard information when it’s less than two weeks before a tight election? Clayton Morris pointed his finger directly at Obama:
Michael Scheuer on the show yesterday says, “Look, the buck stops with the president. This sort of thing goes up the chain of command and it would be odd or almost impossible for it not to enter the White House.”
What Morris didn’t tell the “we report, you decide” network’s viewers is that Scheuer is hardly a voice of credibility. He has longed for a terrorist attack to “save America,” characterized President Obama as a racist and suggested that Civil War might be justified. Or maybe that’s what passes for credibility on Fox these days.
Fox also aired a bizarre clip of the father of one of the slain SEALs directing comments to President Obama: “For your benefit I would want you to turn your life around and head the other direction so that blessings can continue to flow into your life. I want the best for you and that means you need to stand up, admit your fault and then change the direction of your life. I love this country of ours.”
Although I’m sure everyone’s heart goes out to that father, he didn’t have any direct information about what happened or what President Obama knew or did, either. But it’s a safe bet that clip will be played repeatedly on Fox.
The summation for the prosecution was left to Doocy. He didn’t need any more information to render a verdict:
It’s been six weeks. There are tapes that exist of exactly what went down. I believe the people who say that we asked for backup and it never came and it was denied. Somebody – look, the White House has thrown the intelligence community under the bus. They’ve tried the same with the Pentagon. I believe those guys.
Two days ago, Geraldo Rivera ripped the Curvy Couch Crew over the politicization of the tragedy at Benghazi. He also revealed the names of three like-minded Republican Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee who think hearings should wait until after the election. But that piece of information was excluded from evidence today and Rivera’s objections overruled in Fox’s kangaroo court.
