Plouffe: Politicization Of Benghazi Attack 'Has Been Unprecedented'
It seems David Gregory didn't think the media has spent quite enough time beating the dead horse on the embassy attack in Benghazi. I'm not sure what else he thought Obama advisor David Plouffe was going to tell him that he hasn't already read about
Plouffe to his credit, pushed back and pointed out the fact that the incident has been nothing more than a political punching bag used by Republicans:
GREGORY: Before you go, I want to ask you about what is still a-- both a highly politicized but very important question about this raid in Libya on our consulate in Benghazi that killed our ambassador Chris Stevens. A lot of misinformation about this and a politicization of this in the final days but still important questions that seem to boil down to this, why was security at our consulate so inadequate, particularly when there had been warnings in advance about an attack on the consulate? Why was there such little force nearby to respond to the kind of attack that ultimately took place?
PLOUFFE: Well, David, that’s exactly why the State Department has an accountability review board that’s going to-- right now is undertaking a very thorough investigation. Obviously, as facts come out, those have been released. But, you know, Admiral Mullen and Mr. Pickering, these are-- are respected leaders who are going to see what happened, what lessons can we learn from this?
GREGORY: Why not put out the facts before the election? Are you deliberately waiting until after Election Day before you respond to these questions in a detailed fashion?
PLOUFFE: Absolutely not. You know, all the information, obviously that-- that has been commented on has been, you know, because we’ve released it. The-- an investigation like this is very important. We have to get it right so we can learn lessons here. And-- and I think the president has been very clear. He wants to understand-- make sure the country understands fully what happened, what lessons do we learn from that and hold folks accountable. I will speak for one minute, David, on the politics. It is remarkable. You look back at the 2000 in October. The USS Cole bombing took place in the weeks before that presidential election. Seventeen of our sailors were died or killed tragically. And what president, then Governor Bush said was, we need to speak as one voice. And-- and really for that entire campaign, President Bush then-- then Dick Cheney said we need to speak with one voice. We need to find out what happened here. And I do think the politicization of this has been unprecedented. But the important thing here is we have to fully understand what happened here and take those lessons forward so that we can protect these diplomats who are doing such heroic work.