Sen. Graham to Sec. Panetta: Obama Didn’t Care About Dead Americans in Benghazi
The right wing blogs and Republican politicians are still pushing their demented conspiracy theories about Benghazi, and the Daily Caller has yet another stupid post riling up their goonish audience. Every President delegates authority in situations like Benghazi, but for some reason (I bet you can guess what it is) the Republican Party is trying to imply that there’s something special going on when President Obama does it: Panetta Can’t Explain Why Obama Never Called Back During Benghazi Attack [VIDEO] | the Daily Caller.
Panetta can’t explain why Obama didn’t call him (after their initial conversation) because he isn’t Obama and doesn’t want to speak for him. Obviously. So the right takes this statement and tries to make into something sinister.
Sen. Lindsey Graham reveals what’s really underneath these murky insinuations with a question to Sec. Panetta:
SEN. GRAHAM: Mr. Secretary, you didn’t know how long the attack would last. Did you ever call him and say, Mr. President, it looks like we don’t have anything to get there anytime soon?
SEC. PANETTA: The event was over before we could move any assets.
SEN. GRAHAM: It lasted almost eight hours. And my question to you is during that eight-hour period, did the president show any curiosity about how’s this going, what kind of assets do you have helping these people? Did he ever make that phone call?
SEC. PANETTA: Look, there is no question in my mind that the president of the United States was concerned about American lives and, frankly, all of us were concerned about American lives.
SEN. GRAHAM: With all due respect, I don’t believe that’s a credible statement if he never called and asked you, are we helping these people; what’s happening to them?
Yes, that’s right; Lindsey Graham is actually saying that President Obama is not concerned when Americans are killed overseas. It’s an outrageous statement, but totally in keeping with the racist assumptions encouraged by the Republican Party about Obama — that he’s a secret angry black radical who rejoices when terrorists attack America.
This is the deranged thinking behind the Benghazi-gate fake outrage. Sen. Graham feels no hesitation about making such hateful claims, because he knows he’ll be rewarded for it by the GOP base.