In the House hearing on Benghazi on Capitol Hill today, Hillary Clinton argued that she and President Obama had not obfuscated on the true nature of the Benghazi attack.
“I said the very next morning that it was an attack by heavily armed militants,” Clinton said. “The president said that morning it was an act of terror. At the same time, however, I was dealing with protest against our facilities that were clearly connected to that video.”
Yes, Obama did use the phrase “acts of terror” in his remarks on September 12, but phrased in such a way that it wasn’t clear it applied to Benghazi:
No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America.
Furthermore, in an interview that same day, Obama was asked by CBS if Benghazi was a terrorist act, and he didn’t use the word terrorist in his response:
KROFT: Mr. President, this morning you went out of your way to avoid the use of the word terrorism in connection with the Libya Attack, do you believe that this was a terrorism attack?
OBAMA: Well it’s too early to tell exactly how this came about, what group was involved, but obviously it was an attack on Americans. And we are going to be working with the Libyan government to make sure that we bring these folks to justice, one way or the other.
Doesn’t sound like the administration was calling it a terrorist attack that early in the game.