Hagel: Let's Not Go to the Videotape

Last week, Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon discovered a contemporaneous account of a 2007 speech Chuck Hagel gave at Rutgers University. The account, from Hagel supporter George Ajjan, was posted on Ajjan’s website the day after the speech. During the Q&A segment of his appearance, Hagel argued the U.S. State Department had become an adjunct of the Israeli government.

After the Free Beacon’s report, Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte wrote a letter to Hagel asking if Ajjan’s account of the speech was true. Hagel responded that he did not “recall” making the statements Ajjan said he made and that he “disavows” them.