The White House’s horrific handling of the tragic violence in Libya that resulted in the death of four Americans came to a head Tuesday night when Mitt Romney rightly pointed out that President Obama did not in fact call the Benghazi attack an “act of terror” the morning after, despite the president’s claim that he had used those words. American Crossroads used the uncomfortable debate exchange, swirl of lies, and repeated attempts by the White House to blame the attack on spontaneous reaction to a YouTube video in a new hard-hitting ad titled, “Act of Terror.”
The ad begins with the heated exchange from Tuesday night’s debate in which GOP Contender Mitt Romney repeats Obama’s line that he used the words “act of terror” in his September 12, 2012 Rose Garden address. “If President Obama believed on 9/12 that Benghazi was a terrorist attack, then why did he and others bury that fact for two long weeks?” the text of the ad asks viewers.
The video thoroughly chronicles several key instances in which the American people were told by various White House officials that the attack was spawned by reaction to an offensive video, not an “act of terror” against the United States and her people.
In the video, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is seen during three separate press conferences between September 14 and September 19 repeating the lie that the attack was a spontaneous reaction to the anti-Islam video. Hillary Clinton references the video as well on September 14, and Ambassador Susan Rice during an interview on September 16. Even President Obama told the audience during his Univision appearance that the attack resulted from, “natural protests that arose because of the outrage over the video.”
The video ends with presidential debate moderator Candy Crowley later admitting that Romney was correct and that “they spent two weeks telling us this was about a tape and that there was this riot outside the Benghazi consulate which there wasn’t.”
The dramatic ad ends with the line, “Mr. President, It’s time to come clean. What did you know? And when did you know it?”
American Crossroads’ latest ad merely echoes the burning questions that millions of Americans are rightly asking. Let’s hope President Obama comes clean and is straightforward with the American people during next week’s foreign policy debate.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znVqyfxfbRQ]
