Krauthammer: Benghazi emails the 'smoking document'

Published April 29, 2014

FoxNews.com

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Charles Krauthammer Tuesday called newly released emails showing a senior White House aide communicated directly with then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to prepare for a series of talk show appearances where she blamed the Benghazi attack on an Internet video “the smoking document” behind the administration’s attempt to divert blame.
The email sent by Ben Rhodes –an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for strategic communication -- to various officials listed goals for Rice in explaining the Sep. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate. One goal was "to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy."
The email was part of more than 100 pages of documents released to conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.
Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor, said on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that the newly released information is proof that the Obama administration sought to deflect blame away from the White House in the months before the 2012 election.
“With what Jay Carney has been saying and that is their story has always been this stuff all came from the CIA, from intelligence, so it was completely clean,” said Krauthammer.
“Now we know from (Michael) Morell, who testified under oath, he at the time was the Deputy Director of the CIA, that he never brought up the video. So, it didn't come from him, that leaves only the White House and the State Department. We now have the smoking document, which is the White House saying 'we're pushing the video because we don't want to blame it on the failure of our policies.' Which is what anybody who's looked at this assumes all the way through.
“Before an election, Obama saying 'Al Qaeda is dead, GM is alive, Al Qaeda is dead.' He's running, essentially, the foreign policy issue on which the whole campaign is based, is one that says he killed bin Laden, Al Qaeda is on the run. So, this undermines the whole narrative, therefore, they have to invent the video.”
Krauthammer also acknowledged that while the documents raise new questions about the administration’s explanation of the causes behind the attack, it is unlikely those questions will receive much scrutiny in the mainstream media.
“The mainstream media are going to say, 'oh it's so complicated' and they're not going to look into this, and without it, it's going to be quite a struggle” Krauthammer noted, adding, “ I think the Republicans have something here that really ought to be looked at, I just don't know if there's going to be any interest in the mainstream media.
“They should, because this exposes a cover up of a cover up. The fact that it was redacted when the documents were asked for, and only revealed by a court order is telling you this is a classic cover up of a cover up. And that is a serious offense.”