Late last week, it all went down.
HEATHER CHILDERS (5/1/2014): The White House on the defense over a new smoking gun Benghazi e-mail.
FOX NEWS (5/4/2014): ... some are calling a smoking gun ...
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN (4/30/2014): ... the smoking gun ...
Smoking gun! It's one of the worst kinds of guns! A gun that smokes! It's a terrible influence. All the other guns are just having a good time, they're not smoking, they're not drinking, and then that gun walks in and is like, (takes puff) "C'mon, all the cool guns are doing it."
Now we went into Iraq because we didn't want the smoking gun to be in the form of a mushroom cloud. What was this gun smoking?
BRIAN WILLIAMS (4/30/2014): The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained internal White House e-mails that it claims reveal more about the effort to get then-UN ambassador Susan Rice to assert on the Sunday morning talk shows that the attack on the U.S. consulate was a result of a demonstration over an Internet video, and not a failure of administration policy.
Huh. That is different. The White House had said they had very little to do with changing the talking points. Well, now it looks like this Ben Rhodes, a White House national security and communications aide, did add to these talking points, emphasizing that the protests surrounding the Benghazi violence were not coordinated by terrorists, but were instead somehow related to a provocative anti-Muslim video that had caused demonstrations in other countries. By the way, that video? Snow Dogs. (audience laughter) It really is a terrible, terrible video.

Well I will say this. From that e-mail, it sounds like the White House had politics and elections on their mind when they sent Susan Rice to the Sunday shows. It's deplorable. I'm not sure what it means in terms of fixing the initial problems of inadequate communication and protection that caused the tragedy, but OK, good find. Moving on.
MONICA CROWLEY (12/12/2012): Where is the outrage over those four dead Americans?
Wait, what now?
STEVE DOOCY: We now know that the White House had a conspiracy where essentially, what they were trying to do, was change the story.
HEATHER CHILDERS: Will the mainstream media even pay attention?
GREG GUTFIELD: The mainstream media is giving President Obama a pass on Benghazi.
STEPHEN HAYES: Where was that outrage?
BILL O'REILLY: The President and the White House created a political agenda.
STEVE DOOCY: Where's the media outrage?
ERIC SHAWN: They knew it was a terrorist attack from the get-go.
JON SCOTT: Nobody seems to care.
MARC THIESSEN: Fox News is the only one who has stayed on this story, who has not let go of it.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-SC: Where's the outrage there?
(audience laughter)
OK, I think I see the problem. You think people's failure to match your level of outrage is based on ignorance. That after 100 network news stories, hundreds of cable news stories about Benghazi, 13 Congressional hearings, 50 further Congressional briefings, and 25,000 pages of official findings concerning what happened in Benghazi, that if we all only knew about it, (audience laughter) we would care. (audience laughter)
You know, there are very few things we've heard more about in the past year and a half. The only thing we've heard more about in the past year and a half may be the Kardashians, and there is no dispute that this situation was spawned by the release of a video.

I don't think there's any question about that.
(howling audience laughter)
I think I see the problem. Here's your problem. You're asking people to get outraged about an intelligence failure that tragically led to some Americans losing their lives.

One intelligence failure. And then, I mean, imagine the outrage if there had been a second intelligence failure right after that one that tragically led to even more Americans losing their lives!

But you're not concerned about that. You're just concerned about this one intelligence failure. And you're upset that an administration, in its haste to get re-elected, pulled some dodgy,

face-saving shit.

(audience oooohs and applauds)
That's what you're afraid of. Well, I commend you for finally getting in touch with your inner outrage, because if I remember correctly, in the previous decade, it was an emotion you did not seem comfortable addressing. (audience laughter) Or expressing.
Like, for instance, when former Bush Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said he was pressured by Ashcroft and Rumsfeld to raise the nation's terror threat level before the 2004 election to help President Bush's election chances. What'd you say about that?
NICOLLE WALLACE (8/23/2009): Well, Tom Ridge is a good and decent man entitled to his impressions, but they're just that. And there's some facts that stand between Tom Ridge and the smoking gun.
BRET BAIER (8/21/2009): If former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge was hoping to generate buzz about his upcoming book, mission accomplished.
D'oh! (audience laughter) Zing! That's not outrage, that's snark! Snark's not outrage, silly.
And when the Bush administration planted a story about Saddam Hussein buying aluminum tubes in The New York Times, so that the same day the Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the National Security Advisor could go on TV and say this.
9/8/2002:
DICK CHENEY: There's a story in The New York Times this morning.
COLIN POWELL: ... reporting just this morning ...
CONDOLEEZZA RICE: ... high-quality aluminum tubes that are really only suited for nuclear weapons programs ...
They knew a year in advance that what they were saying on the show that day was not true. Where was that outrage?
11/3/2005:
ALAN COLMES: Where is the apology from the administration for all this?
MICHAEL REAGAN: Why should there be an apology?
....
ALAN COLMES: We know about fradulent....
MICHAEL REAGAN: Hindsight is always 20/20.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER (11/11/2005): Of course there's going to be a dissenter, and saying aluminum tubes aren't nuclear material, and you have eight others saying it is. You make a judgment. ... It's a matter of assumptions, but not a question of lying.
No! It's not a question of lying. It's a statement... of lying. It's not an assumption, because... (audience cheering and applause) No, let me explain! All I know is this. When you assume, it makes an ass out of THEY WERE LYING!!!!! (audience laughter And they knew they were lying when they said that!
But now, Benghazi, the State Department and the CIA had information that things were dangerous. Should've had more protection, that is true. I mean, imagine, that'd be like sending soldiers to the front lines in a war of choice without properly up-armored vehicles. And not only taking way too long to fix that problem, but answering a soldier's question about that problem like this.
DONALD RUMSFELD (12/8/2004): As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want.
Ah, zing! I forgot just how many catchphrases came out of Iraq. I tell ya, that thing was like the Steve Urkel of wars. (audience laughter)
So if you are upset about Benghazi, that Rumsfeld thing must've really massaged your O-spot. You know what I mean? Your outrage spot, which totally doesn't exist? (audience laughter)
SEAN HANNITY (12/9/2004): They want to jump on the military, they want to jump on Don Rumsfeld, they want to jump on the administration. ... It was a plant! It was a plant by the media!
Yeah, that's the real outrage of that Rumsfeld quote. The media bastards! I mean, why would a guy in the front lines in Iraq even be concerned about not having a properly up-armored vehicle? Doesn't make sense! Wake up, sheeple! (audience laughter)
But that's just Fox News. I'm sure our elected officials like your Lindsey Grahams there, seemingly dedicated the rest of his career to keeping alive the memory of the four we lost at Benghazi, was just as outraged and eager at this flagrant inability to provide for Americans in harm's way.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-SC (12/12/2004): Let's get the people what they need, let's press on and learn from our past mistakes. ... I don't want to play politics with this.
(in Southern accent) "I would much rather play a nice game of pinochle." (audience laughter) "Rather than play politics, I'd rather pass this lovely summer afternoon before Colonel Beauregard arrives to escort me to a ball at Tara Manor." (audience laughter)
So, if I may say, your hypocritical outrage and sanctimony aside, the reason it's hard for everybody to get outraged by this terribly tragic and ultimately preventable disaster that was Benghazi is that everybody in this country has seen this movie before. Only that movie was on an IMAX. We'll be right back.
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