Soledad O’Brien presses Romney surrogate who voted to cut embassy funding but blames Obama for attacks

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has spent the week appearing on news programs promoting Wednesday’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing to investigate a possible cover-up of lax security in Benghazi that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and other Americans.

“The heart of what I’m concerned about in this situation is there was a conscious decision: Politics were driving the decisions rather than security,” Chaffetz recently told The Hill.

During his multiple appearances on CNN and Fox News, Chaffetz used the same line of attack and met little resistance. That is, until he faced off with O’Brien on Wednesday.

“So where there are complaints that, in fact, that there was not enough security, you’ve just said ‘absolutely’ that you cut — that you were the one to vote against, to increase security for the State Department, which would lead directly to Benghazi,” O’Brien told Chaffetz. “It seems like you are saying you have a hand in the responsibility for this? Right? The funding of the security, you’re happy to cut it.”

“You have to prioritize things,” Chaffetz insisted. “Libya before 9/11, two bombings on our consulate out there. Of course, that’s got to be a higher priority than making sure that we’re protecting some other interest.”