Courtesy of Glenn Beck and Fox News White House reporter Ed Henry, the Obama White House continued to deal yesterday with the David Petraeus resignation and the U.S. Embassy attack in Libya, which has become an obsession of the conservative right, even after Obama’s resounding victory in last week’s election.
While Beck was over on Fox News telling viewers that the entire Petreaus scandal was orchestrated by the White House, reporter Ed Henry was trying to push Obama by implying that he hadn’t responded to the families of the four Americans who were killed in the Sept. 11 Benghazi attacks.
“I wanted to ask about the families of these four Americans who were killed,” Henry said. “Sean Smith’s father Ray said he believes his son called 9-1-1 for help and they didn’t get it. I know you said you grieve for the four Americans, that it is being investigated, but the families have been waiting for more than two months. So I would like for you to address the families, if you can: On 9/11, as Commander-in-Chief, did you issue any orders to try to protect their lives?
Obama was not pleased with the implications of the question.
“Ed, I’ll address the families not through the press,” the president responded, “I’ll address the families directly, as I already have. And we will provide all the information that is available about what happened on that day. That’s what the investigation is for.”
But he wasn’t done on the matter of Benghazi.
“If people don’t think that we did everything we can to make sure that we saved the lives of folks who I sent there, and who were carrying out missions on behalf of the United States, then you don’t know how our Defense Department thinks or our State Department thinks or our CIA thinks,” he said. “Their number one priority is obviously to protect American lives.”
Henry tried to ask another question, but the president continued. “I can can tell you that immediately upon finding out that our folks were in danger, that my orders to my national security team were do whatever we need to do to make sure they’re safe,” he said. “And that’s the same order I would give any time that I see Americans are in danger — whether they’re civilian or military — because that’s our number one priority.”
As for Beck’s craziness, he said Petraeus was “set up” by the Obama administration, with the goal of “discrediting the military.”
Petreaus resigned after succumbing to temptation in the form of his lovely biographer, former Army officer and fellow West Point graduate Broadwell, who spent a considerable amount of time “embedded” with Petraeus working on her book, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus” and whose relationship with Petraeus was viewed as inappropriate by several of the officers around him, according to published reports. Broadwell, 40, is married to a doctor and lives in Charlotte with her husband and two kids.
“This is a set up,” Beck said. “This is spontaneous, they just found out? Bull crap. They have known. The White House knew during the vetting process that Petraeus was carrying on an inappropriate relationship. They knew it. They knew that he could be easily compromised, but they appointed him anyway.”
Why? “Because when you have the goods on someone, you need a pressure point.”
“And now he’s being discredited,” Beck said. “This whole scandal is doing what? How’s your opinion of the military? Discredit the last-standing, honorable institution we have: the military.”
The people in Washington are “really bad people,” Beck said. And “this, today, is all about discrediting the military while distracting the media.”
