By Bill O'Reilly
If there is one guy you would not want to be today, it was White House spokesman Jay Carney. The press grilling him over charges that the White House altered the initial CIA reporting of the Benghazi terror attack to downplay the organized terrorism angle playing up the spontaneous anti- American demonstration angle.
Carney denied any and all wrongdoing by the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARNEY: On the substantive issues of what happened in Benghazi and at that time what the intelligence community thought it knew, that was reflected in the talking points that were used again that weekend by Ambassador Rice and by others including Members of Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Now when asked if the White House would release the e-mail correspondents between it and the CIA, Carney said no.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARNEY: Internal deliberations are generally protected, it's generally protected information that is not something that is regularly shared with Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Now, Mr. Carney gave long rambling answers to the questions but he was clear. The White House did nothing wrong, Ambassador Rice did nothing wrong and the whole controversy is being generated by Republicans for political reasons. And that's his story and as they say he is sticking to it.
But ABC News is reporting that there were 12 different versions of talking points on Benghazi. And the final version put out to the public eliminated references to al Qaeda and affiliate terrorist organizations. Mr. Carney said that the White House involvement in those revisions was very minor. Plying the State Department under Hillary Clinton was the primary editing force.
The State says they didn't want to highlight al Qaeda involvement because it might impede the investigation, a fairly incredible assertion. What Jay Carney attempted to do today was to convince the world that there was initial confusion about who attacked the American Ambassador and killed him and that the White House was acting responsibly in avoiding placing direct blame.
The fact remains that Ambassador Rice did place blame for the attack on the anti-Islamic video released in the USA, that was her primary focus. So summing up, no admission of wrongdoing by the Obama administration, charges that the Benghazi controversy is politically motivated and no release of e-mails that might clarify the situation; the White House saying some Congress people have seen them and that's all that's necessary.
And that's "The Memo."
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox