Thom Hartmann: The GOP Punks ABC News...

[thomhartmann]

Dan Bongino, Conservative Commentator, joins Thom Hartmann. Here's the real Benghazi scandal. Some Republican - we’re not sure who yet - gave ABC altered and edited documents - essentially filled with lies - to smear the President and Hillary Clinton. Someone in the Republican Party decided that taking down President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was more important than telling the American people the truth. Since day one - Republicans and their allies over at Fox-So Called News have said that their obsession with Benghazi isn’t about politics but about proving that President Obama lied to the country about the true nature of the September 11, 2012 attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 others. But it’s not the President who is lying to the American people - it’s the Republicans.

When ABC’s Jonathan Karl first reported on May 10 that Administration email chains showed that the White House was responsible for editing the initial Benghazi talking points to make Clinton's State Department look good - Republicans went on the attack. They argued that those emails proved once and for all that the President and his advisors underplayed the role of Al-Qaeda linked militants in the attack on an American diplomatic installation, and did so to protect Clinton. In one particularly damning passage from ABC's Republican-edited emails - Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes supposedly wrote that “We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation. We thus will work through the talking points tomorrow morning at the Deputies Committee meeting.” In ABC’s version of the Benghazi email chain - Rhodes’ comment appeared to agree with concerns expressed by State Department officials that any reference to terrorist groups in the planned talking points would be politically damaging for Clinton's State Department.

However - as Jake Tapper of CNN revealed last week - an as-yet unknown Republican gave to ABC News an altered version of the email that had words inserted into it that weren't in the original. The real version of Rhodes’ email read like this: “Sorry to be late to this discussion. We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.” The White House’s release of all the Benghazi emails later last week confirmed what Tapper’s report suggested - that Rhodes’ comments were actually just an attempt to moderate bickering between the two agencies - the CIA and the State Department - most connected to the Benghazi attacks. Hardly the stuff of a nefarious conspiracy. So why the difference between the two sets of emails? As Tapper wrote: “Whoever provided those accounts [to ABC’s Jonathan Karl] seemingly invented the notion that Rhodes wanted the concerns of the State Department specifically addressed.”

So - who gave ABC bad information? Who else - Republicans! John Karl based his report on notes taken by a likely Republican source during Benghazi related Senate and House briefings held earlier this year. A Congressional source who was at these briefings told Talking Points Memo this Friday, “The House Republican report [on Benghazi] so distorted its coverage of the talking points changes...I see no reason to believe it wouldn’t be the same thing with regard to the Ben Rhodes email.” Another source added that “Some of them [Republicans and their staffers] could’ve taken really bad notes, but to me this looks more intentional.” The GOP doesn’t care about the truth or the facts - it just cares about smearing the President and obstructing the legislative process.

You want a scandal? There’s your real scandal. Which Republican edited those White House emails and handed off false emails to ABC news? Which Republicans then promoted those lies to try to hurt the President and Hillary Clinton? And which Republicans are continuing to push these lies? Inquiring minds want to know. However - despite all this - Republicans continue to say that the Obama Administration tried to cover up the truth about the Benghazi attacks prior to the November elections.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[DhhD]

1. It seems that we have a De-Facto President in the Middle East that keeps going into the regions of

unrest then saying that he has been there to talk. IMO, the Obama Administration is being sidetracked by Republicans wanting MIC contracts. And he is being punished for reducing the Defense budget.

I guess some people can work for the CIA and be a part of the De-Facto MIC at the same time.