President put on notice by House GOP over Benghazi attack

Why are there still no answers on security lapse?

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 19, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST OF "HANNITY": Seventy two hours from this very moment, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney will meet for the final debate of the 2012 election season. And with the end drawing near, more good news for Republicans in the polls as Romney continues to boast an impressive lead over his opponent. Gallup now has the gap at six points among likely voters. Fifty one percent to Obama's 45 percent. Now, we're going to have more on those numbers as well as some fresh polling data from the battleground states with Karl Rove that's coming up later this hour. But first, breaking developments regarding the administration wide effort to cover up the truth about the Benghazi terror attack. Today, a letter today from House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Congressman Jason Chaffetz was delivered to the White House. Now, ten-page document includes a comprehensive list of the warning signs that this president either missed or flat-out ignored in the months leading up to the assassination of Ambassador Chris Stevens and his three colleagues. Now more importantly, accompanying that letter are more than 100 memos, reports, cables, and e-mails sent by the ambassador and his security team alerting Washington about the rise of radical extremism in Libya. Now today, we dug very deep in to each and every one of the haunting documents. We have reached this conclusion. The four Americans that were killed in that orchestrated terror attack on 9/11; they knew they were in grave danger. They reported their concerns to government officials. And nothing, nothing was done to save them. Now, in addition to the release of this information, it now proves that we have been lied to and lied to repeatedly by numerous members of this administration. Including, well, the vice president himself. Do you remember this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: And they wanted more security there.

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, we weren't told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Well, that's not so. Countless requests for more security were sent and received by the State Department. And thanks to today's document dump, well, we now have the proof. Now, let's review some of the key findings. Way back in December of 2011, Under-Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy signed off on a memo that extended America's presence in Benghazi through 2012. And he did so even though the memo stated, quote, "Because of budget constraints and the reduced footprint, diplomatic securities current presence consists of two special agents with an additional three slots currently unfilled." Now the same document also reports that the compound itself is unsafe. Quote, "The electrical, plumbing and physical security work needed to bring this facility up to an acceptable standard would negate any cost savings of the move." A June 2012 memo from ambassador himself is ominously titled, "Libya's fragile security deteriorates, as tribal rivalries, power plays and extremism intensifies." Then in August, approximately one month before he was killed, Stevens personally e-mailed the State Department writing, quote, "What we have not seen are random crimes of opportunity but rather targeted an discriminate attacks." And what was likely the last e-mail he would ever pen on September the 11th, Stevens eerily warned at great length about the quote, "growing problems" with the security situation in Eastern Libya. Yet even noting that quote, "The British withdrew their presence from Benghazi after the widely reported June 11th RPG attack on the British ambassador's motorcade." Now sadly, that was the final sentence of the final memo that the ambassador would ever send. And even worse, everything you just heard was readily available to the president and his national security team, which makes their claims that this tragedy was in any way related to a YouTube video. Or was spontaneous even that more disgusting. And joining me now to talk about the letter that he sent to the President and what he's now demanding from the White House is Congressman Jason Chaffetz. Along with Senator Lindsey Graham. Gentlemen, welcome back to "Hannity."

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, R-UTAH: Thanks, Sean.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Thank you.

HANNITY: We played what the vice president said. So, my question is, coupled with what the president said last night on Jon Stewart, I'll going to play it for you. The question will be did they lie to the American people? Watch what he said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Every piece of information that we get, as we got it, we laid it out for the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Congressman, did the vice president and the president of the United States lie?

CHAFFETZ: I come to that conclusion, Sean. I look at what the vice president said, what the president has said, what the Ambassador Rice has said, what Secretary Clinton said, they have not been honest with the American people. The intelligence community was foreshadowing for months that terrorism was abound, terrorism was happening. They attacked our compound twice. The Brits have to get up and leave. There were hundreds of terrorist incidents. Al Qaeda was flying flags aback buildings, government buildings there in Eastern Libya. And then they come out after this attack and say, we think it was a video?

HANNITY: Yes.

CHAFFETZ: Look at all this -- this is all unclassified intelligence.

HANNITY: All right, now, Senator Graham. There are videos of all of this. That prove, they knew from day one, our intelligence knew it was not spontaneous.

GRAHAM: Yes.

HANNITY: Our intelligence knew it was not related to this video. Will -- did they lie in your opinion and should those tapes be released?

GRAHAM: The tapes should be released. They're either incredibly incompetent. But they're stone walling us all. Thank God for Republican-controlled House. Do you think we'd know much of anything if it hadn't been for Jason and Darrell? So, they're not being forthcoming. Have to drag it out of them. I’ve written a letter along with Senator McCain ten days ago asking the intelligence community to provide us the information you gave to Secretary Rice to make her believe this was the result of a riot five days later. Haven't gotten one word back.

HANNITY: Yes. But did they lie, senator? I mean, because here is -- we know the president 14 days later on "The View" and before the United Nations, he was asked directly on "The View." Was this terrorism?

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: We don't know yet. Well, the State Department knew it was terrorism in real-time, didn't they?

GRAHAM: Right. Well, they either -- they are either the most incompetent people in the world or they're misleading us. Here is the question for me. What did the president know about the deteriorating situation in Benghazi months before this happened? Lieutenant Colonel Woods' testimony comes back and it kind of haunts my soul. He said Benghazi; it was inevitable we would get attacked. Almost inevitable. We were the last flag flying. Everybody left there. And we’re trying to normalize relationships with the government that has no capacity.

And I can't believe the White House would allow the president of the United States to go out and be among the public after our consulate was attacked June the sixth. Blowing a hole in the wall that 40 people could have gotten through. I don't think anybody is that incompetent? So, I'm assuming that the president knew about the deteriorating situation; the comeback of Al Qaeda and did nothing about it.

HANNITY: Well, we got proof of that. Let's put it up on the screen here. In August 8, this is more than a month before, memo from Stevens, call security forces understaffed, he says it directly there.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: If you look at, you know, he also warns in the same memo of Islamic extremism rising. And then we have an image of the consulate before it was attacked showing the security cameras, you know, were present. You know, where's the footage in other words?

CHAFFETZ: Sean, what I don't understand is, our consulate was bombed twice. That was terrorism; we never called it terrorism then. They didn't follow through. Where else in the world did that happen? And on September 1st, the interior minister, the Libyan interior minister puts Eastern Libya on high alert. The ambassador sends a cable back to Washington, D.C. on September 4th and says we're losing control out there. And this guy walks into Benghazi with two armed people and three other people on the compound. And then we wonder that it was some video. It just doesn't add up.

HANNITY: All right. So now we know that they were warned. And they did nothing. Now we also know that this was not spontaneous as they said from the very beginning. And they knew within hours in real time the State Department knew.

GRAHAM: We got a video.

HANNITY: We got video.

GRAHAM: Right. We got a video.

HANNITY: They were watching it in real time. This woman testified. So the question is, why would the president two weeks later tell the American people we're still investigating? And keep apologizing for the video. And keep telling everybody it's spontaneous. Why?

CHAFFETZ: I think, I think Governor Romney should ask him that question. And if he doesn't, it's a missed opportunity. Paul Ryan did a great job. But you should turn to Vice President Biden when he said; I didn't know anything about the security requests. He should ask him, did you know that the consulate was bombed in April and June? Did you know that the British had to leave Benghazi? Did you know that the Red Cross office was closed? Did you know that Al Qaeda was coming back in droves?

HANNITY: Is there any reason why, I mean, that we can't show this video to the American people? Is there any reason?

CHAFFETZ: The president said in that hard-hitting interview with Jon Stewart that as the information becomes available, we share it with the American people. Then Mr. President, show us that video.

HANNITY: Yes. And what he said about, you know, well, four Americans died. It's not optimal. We're going to deal with that. But guys thank you very much.

GRAHAM: I hope Governor Romney will ask questions about what the president knew when he knew it and what he did about it.

HANNITY: Yes. Don't count on the media to do that job. Thank you both for being with us.

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