White House blows off Benghazi emails: We get email about lots of stuff
http://twitter.com/#!/ProudoftheUSA/status/261117095255867392
Hey, you silly wingnuts, you know those emails showing that the White House knew within two hours that a militant Islamist group claimed responsibility for the Benghzi terror attack on Sept. 11?
9/11/12 – 400pm – emails were sent to intel, State, WH, Situation Room. 607pm – emails indicated Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility
— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) October 24, 2012
Totally no biggie, says White House press secretary Jay Carney. Not even “bumps in the road.” Behold the dizzying spin:
Carney on AF1: “There were emails about all sorts of information that was coming available in the aftermath of the attack…”
— Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) October 24, 2012
Carney: “This is an open source, unclassified email about a posting on a Facebook site…within a few hours the organization…”
— Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) October 24, 2012
Carney: “…claimed that it had not been responsible. Neither should be taken as fact. That is why there is an investigation.”
— Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) October 24, 2012
Of course. The White House gets loads of emails about a whole lotta stuff and prioritizing is hard work. Why, you should’ve seen the one about Romney bending over in front of a kid. Hilarious! And you know, one of these days, responding to those Nigerian princes is gonna pay off big time.
Jake Tapper has more on the White House’s revolting CYA attempt.
White House officials maintained that the emails don’t contradict what the White House believed at that point, based on the intelligence community’s assessment of the attack. The views of the intelligence community are valued far more than Facebook and twitter claims, officials said, describing that email as an unclassified ops alert email, not a vetted intelligence assessment. It was not definitive, but rather the act of flagging open source reporting referencing a Facebook post, and – officials noted — on September 17, Ansar al-Sharia denied responsibility for the attack.
Carney today told reporters that there were emails about all sorts of information that was coming available in the aftermath of the attack. “There was a variety of information coming in,” Carney said. “The whole point of an intelligence community and what they do is to assess strands of information and make judgments about what happened and who was responsible.”
Moreover, officials said, the intelligence community still believes there wasn’t a tremendous amount of planning before the attack. A terrorist group carrying it out doesn’t mean it wasn’t an opportunistic attack, officials said.
But the notion that a YouTube video was responsible for “spontaneous protests” was a “vetted intelligence assessment”?
Jay Carney still spinning the lies, saying “Yeah…we saw those emails.” I still want an explanation for the blatant video lie. #waiting
— Eye on Politics (@EyeOnPolitics) October 24, 2012
Twitter users helpfully explain the craven, arrogant spin:
Shorter Carney: We get a lot of emails.abcn.ws/PqNeZr
— RedBrightandTrue (@RedBrightandTru) October 24, 2012
At WH Carney effectively say, “Yeah, we got those emails. So what. We didn’t believe them.” arrogance #notuptothejob
— OBAMAGATE (@OBAMA_GATE) October 24, 2012
.@whitehouse on #Benghazi emails: “move along, nothing to see here.” erik.gs/QXexp3
— Erik Soderstrom (@soderstrom) October 24, 2012
Bingo! Shut your traps; the election is just two weeks away and this news is “not optimal.” And don’t forget, Benghazi is only an issue because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
The Twitterverse is disgusted and rightfully so.
Obama WH opens its nefarious mouth this morning & hyperbolic drool comes out regarding #Benghazi e-mails => abcn.ws/TG8qWK #tcot
— Rick SoC (@StrokesofCandor) October 24, 2012
Jay Carney says the emails don’t change anything. Doubling down isn’t going to save them from criminal negligence. #Benghazi
— Mike Behrens (@Mike_Behrens) October 24, 2012
Obama mouthpiece, Jay Carney, says the emails “don’t matter”… doesn’t change anything.#That‘s our Lie and we’re sticking to it!!!
— Adam Stansfield (@AngloSaxon78) October 24, 2012
So now Carney is saying the WH had seen the emails but didn’t believe them. How is that any better?
— joshbranson (@joshbranson) October 24, 2012
Ah, all good then! RT @zbyronwolf: WH argues Benghazi emails don’t contradict original protest not terror narrative – abcn.ws/RVNzPp
— el SOOPer (@SooperMexican) October 24, 2012
Just read what Carney said on Benghazi emails. Wish they put same effort in small biz job creation as they do in ‘Refutation Creation’ #tcot
— Roderick Rideout (@rodrideout) October 24, 2012
Of course they would down play it! Everything is a big joke to them. abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics…
— Casey (@caseys31) October 24, 2012
Downright shameless #tcot #p2 —> White House Responds to Release of Real-Time Emails About Benghazi Attack abcn.ws/S4AsPp (via @abc)
— Little Miss Rightie (@LilMissRightie) October 24, 2012
Anyone feel that? It’s the rush of wind from President Obama’s palace guard media frantically working to spin the downplaying of these emails as bold and brave leadership.