The Obama administration is certainly taking its time in admitting what everyone else already knew: that the attack which killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others on Sept. 11 wasn’t the act of a crappy YouTube video, but of terrorists.
For whatever reason, President Obama only seems comfortable addressing the issue from a comfy couch in a television studio. A week ago on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” he laid the violence at the feet of a “sort of a shadowy character” in the U.S. who made an “extremely offensive video directed at Mohammed.” While taping “The View” on Monday, he evolved a bit in his stance, acknowledging at last that the attack was planned and not just a spontaneous uprising.
Sen. John McCain, always eager to reach across the aisle, reached a bit by tweeting that Obama finally used the words “terror attack.”
Nearly 2 weeks after Benghazi attack, Obama finally calls it a terror attack. Why so long to state the obvious?http://t.co/FzWcPeid
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) September 24, 2012
As Fox’s Todd Starnes and others report, the president stopped short of using those words, but he does at last seem to be putting the pieces together, at least in public where the rest of us can see. Maybe attending that intelligence briefing paid off?
Obama on Libya: "There's no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn't just a mob action."
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) September 24, 2012
https://twitter.com/ByronTau/status/250342171042000896
Libya attack "wasn't just a mob action," Obama says. But he doesn't call it "terrorism."
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) September 24, 2012
Per pool: When asked whether Benghazi attack was a terror attack on The View, POTUS wont go that far but says "It wasn't just a mob action."
— Shawna Thomas (@Shawna) September 24, 2012
The president might not yet go that far, but others certainly will.
It was terrorism, Mr. President. MT “@ByronTau: Obama Tells ABC's The View: "it wasn't just a mob action"”
— Sherman Frederick (@shermfrederick) September 24, 2012
https://twitter.com/windflwr/status/250367162546536449
According to The Hill, the president suggested that “the best way to marginalize” the kind of speech found in the “Innocence of Muslims” video “is to ignore it.” Is this why the U.S. spent $70,000 on ads to apologize for the video during Pakistan’s deadly “Day of Love” protests?
Obama is expected to address the video in his remarks to the United Nations Tuesday. Will his warm-up with the ladies of “The View” help toughen up his message?
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