White House scrambling to do damage control over Joe Biden and Benghazi
Via BuzzFeed:
During the vice presidential debate Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said the administration “did not know” that personnel working at the American embassy in Libya had requested more security before the deadly attack on Sept. 11.
As Biden was discussing the attack, Martha Raddatz, the debate moderator, cut in.
“And they wanted more security there,” Raddatz said.
“But we weren’t told they wanted more security there,” Biden responded. “We did not know they wanted more security there.”
That assertion runs counter to evidence and testimonies that were presented at a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday, where the committee released five memos requesting additional security, and witnesses from the State Department confirmed that those requests had been denied.
So, what is the White Houses response? This doozy:
Vice President Joseph Biden speaks only for himself and President Barack Obama, and neither man was aware that U.S. officials in Libya had asked the State Department for more security before the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, a top White House official told The Cable.
Biden has come under fire for saying at Thursday night’s debate, “We weren’t told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there.”
The Cable asked Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications Ben Rhodes whether Biden was speaking for the entire Obama administration, including the State Department, which acknowledged receiving multiple requests for more Libya security in the months before the attacks. Rhodes said that Biden speaks only for himself and the president and neither of them knew about the requests at the time.
Obviously Biden was speaking for the administration not just himself. Hopefully the media doesn’t let the Obama administration get away with this.
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