Guy Benson, one of the nation’s outstanding young conservative commentators, lays out the case (here and here) of the White House’s mendacity on the matter of the lethal attacks against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.
It’s now beyond dispute that contrary to its previous claims, the White House (a) had not released all the relevant Benghazi-related material to Congress and (b) did far more than make a single, cosmetic adjustment to the talking points used by then-U.N. ambassador Susan Rice when she went on five Sunday talk shows. In fact it was the White House–in the person of Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications–who urged Rice to “underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.”
One problem: It was widely known within the administration that this was not the case. In addition, the key (fallacious) claim made by Ms. Rice wasn’t the product of what the CIA produced; it’s the result of what the White House invented.
When Mr. Carney was pressed yesterday to defend his previous claim that the White House didn’t play a role in shaping the misleading talking points in light of the September 14, 2012 email from Ben Rhodes, he claimed the email was not about Benghazi.
This is not just a lie; it’s a transparent and stupid lie. And if you watch Mr. Carney’s exchanges with reporters (like this one with ABC’s Jonathan Karl), you’ll find Mr. Obama’s official spokesman to be a particular kind of liar–the smug, patronizing kind. The type who becomes peevish when his lies are challenged. And who takes special pride in placing one lie atop the other, like a child using wooden blocks to build a tower.
It’s been quite a journey for Mr. Carney, from a journalist who once pursued the truth to a White House official now disfiguring it. I wonder if, when he looks back at his corrosive and corrupting tenure, he will feel the slightest shame.
Probably not.
