State Department email on Benghazi emphasizes goal to reinforce Obama's 'strength and steadiness'

Brett T. | 3:53 PM on July 01, 2015

Last night’s massive 9 p.m. dump of State Department emails has kept more than a few reporters up most of the night searching for gems, from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s struggles to operate a fax machine to her method of going through multiple staffers to fetch her an iced tea.

Of course, there is some serious and anger-inducing material in there as well. Aaron Robinow, for example, presents an email from Benjamin Rhodes detailing the State Department’s goals in blaming the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, on a YouTube video.

https://twitter.com/aaronrobinow/status/616072328733179905

We have to assume “Susan” is Susan Rice, as the Saturday afternoon prep call was scheduled the day before Rice would make the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows the following day, Sept. 16.

Did we say anger-inducing? Among Rice’s goals were to underscore that the “protests” were not a failure of policy but the fault of a YouTube video, and to “reinforce the President and Administration’s strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges.” That’s right; among the primary goals was to make the president look good.

@aaronrobinow @redsteeze @rhodes44 The 'goals' look like the agenda of a typical NYT editorial board meeting.

— Joseph Aiello (@PepAiello) July 1, 2015