White House advisor Dan Pfeiffer talks Benghazi, Obama in situation room is ‘irrelevant fact’ and ‘offensive’ attack
White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer made the Sunday show rounds this week, including a stop at Fox News Sunday, where Chris Wallace pressed him on the administration’s handling of and response to the Benghazi attack.
Wallace persisted on the topic of the emails and the administrations talking points.
President Barack Obama talks with Vice President Joe Biden, Chief of Staff Jack Lew, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough regarding the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in the Oval Office, Sept. 11, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Wallace began by questioning Pfeiffer about what President Obama did the night of the attack and whether he was in the situation room. Pfeiffer seems agitated, saying that the President was kept updated before stating thatwhich room Obama was in is “a largely irrelevant fact.”
“Where is he while all this is going on?” Wallace asked. As Pfeiffer replied that “this has been testified to,” Wallace argued, “No. No one knows where he was or how he was involved.”
“The assertion from Republicans that somehow the president allowed this to happen or didn’t take action is offensive,” Pfeiffer stated. “There’s no evidence to support it.”
The topic of talking points the emails the White House has released were next and Wallace inquired about the adjustments made by the White House.“Any fair reading of the emails, just the two I read — that’s totally misleading.”
Pfeiffer’s response pointed to emails “doctored” by Republicans in an effort to “smear the president.”
Wallace countered that his question was based on accurate emails, as Pfeiffer asserted that emails contradict GOP conspiracy theories. The pair clashed over the talking points’ mention of the attack being sparked by protests — whether in Cairo or over a video.
Pfeiffer remained defensive, as Wallace concluding by agreeing to disagree.
“The question here is not what happened that night,” Pfeiffer said, suggesting that numerous investigations and hearings before Congress have resolved that issue. “The question is, what are we going to do to move forward and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“But, with due respect, you didn’t answer my question,” Wallace shot back. “What did the president do that night?”
Wallace eventually asked if Obama ever appeared in the Situation Room, to which Pfeiffer replied that he didn’t remember “what room” Obama was in that night.
He also said it was a “largely irrelevant fact.”
“The suggestion of your question, that somehow the president allowed this to happen — the assertion from Republicans that somehow the president allowed this to happen and didn’t take action is offensive,” Pfeiffer said.
“I’m simply asking a question,” Wallace responded. “Where was he? What did he do? How did he respond? Who told him you can’t deploy forces” to the outpost?
Pfeiffer repeated that Obama was “kept up to date” about the attacks by his national security team.
