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Obama Campaign Official Stephanie Cutter: Benghazi Terrorist Attack ‘Only an Issue because of Romney and Ryan’

Here’s the video (transcript below):

STEPHANIE CUTTER: In terms of the politicization of this — you know, we are here at a debate, and I hope we get to talk about the debate — but the entire reason this has become the political topic it is, is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. It’s a big part of their stump speech. And it’s reckless and irresponsible what they’re doing.

BROOKE BALDWIN: But, Stephanie, this is national security. As we witnessed this revolution last year, we covered it–

CUTTER: It is absolutely national security–

BALDWIN: –it is absolutely pertinent. People in the American public absolutely have a right to get answers.

Cutter immediately took to Twitter to double down on her declaration:

As if that wasn’t enough, the Obama campaign continued its slog through the muck of Chicago-style, values-free politics, sending wannabe-journalism outlet BuzzFeed a statement further defending Cutter’s despicable declaration:

From the time of the attack in Libya, Mitt Romney has stopped at nothing to politicize these events. While Mitt Romney, Congressman Ryan, and their Republican allies in Congress have turned a national tragedy into a political circus, the President has been focused on getting the facts, finding the terrorists responsible, and bringing them to justice. Our nation’s security and how we handle the transitions in the Middle East and North Africa are critical issues in this campaign, and just 26 days before an election, the American people deserve real ideas and specifics from Mitt Romney.

Of course, as CBS’s Jan Crawford points out, Romney rarely mentions Benghazi on the campaign trail, even when presented the opportunity to do so:

Further, as the Heritage Foundation pointed out in a video produced by our own Ben Howe, “getting the facts and bringing terrorists to justice” hasn’t exactly been central to the administration’s agenda in the weeks following the attack by Ansar al-Shariah on our consulate in Benghazi.

In the weeks since America’s Ambassador to Libya was murdered in a terrorist attack, the Obama administration has done its best to ignore the attack – and, when forced to address it, to blame it on a ridiculous YouTube video, despite clear evidence to the contrary. The administration has been so intent on stonewalling on the issue that it took a House Oversight Committee hearing to pry from the State Department the fact that the protest outside the Benghazi consulate – which the Obama administration has spent weeks blaming for the attack – never existed. But, according to President Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager, the entire issue is only an issue at all because Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan haven’t shut up about it.

It’s disappointing, if altogether unsurprising, to see one of the chief mouthpieces of President Obama’s Chicago machine stoop to this level. Then again, her boss – the President himself – has referred to the Benghazi attack as one of several “bumps in the road” for U.S. policy in the Middle East, so it may be that Obama HQ really does view this as a non-issue that is only being taken note of because the president’s opponents won’t just let it go.

Unless Obama makes the already embarrassing Cutter resign over this statement, he’s tacitly giving his consent and agreement to a despicable declaration. Based on the type of campaign and administration Obama has chosen to run – Chicago-style, values-free, divorced from the truth and willing to do anything to win – it would be very surprising indeed if Cutter were held to account for this remark. Instead, the campaign will continue focusing on Big Issues, like billionaire muppet Big Bird, while their dirty opponents “play politics” by daring to continue mentioning, and requesting answers about, a terrorist attack on Americans.

It’s noteworthy that Cutter isn’t just speaking out of turn here. Obama’s White House press secretary, Jay Carney, made the same statement (though without naming Romney and Ryan) yesterday:

Again, this is a moving picture, and people who on the night of an attack or the day after claim they know all the facts without making clear that what we know is based on preliminary information aren’t being straight, and they’re in some cases trying to politicize a situation that should not be politicized. I think that’s what the president was getting at. And I think many other people felt the same way.

There’s a coordinated effort by President Barack “Bumps in the Road” Obama’s administration and campaign staff to declare this terrorist attack a meaningless issue that’s only being discussed because of “politicization,” while maintaining that billionaire muppet Big Bird is a major, election-deciding issue. That’s what the Obama campaign – and the Obama presidency – has devolved into at this point, three weeks before a presidential election. Amazing.

COMMENTS

  • Bill S

    Yeah, I’m sure Christopher Stevens’ body did create quite a “bump” when Obama ran him over with his incompetent foreign policy.

    This administration is disgusting.

  • sayoung80913

    Disgraceful- but you’ll notice they did bust their a$$es to meet- and photograph meeting- the planes when they brought back the bodies. The mother of one of those returning coffins herself said she had been repeatedly lied to, not only by the state dept’s very own Susan Rice, also by C.I.A director Leon Panetta, and even by Obama himself- just freaking pathetic

  • celador2

    Cutter wants to shut off any news reporting of the terror attack in Benghazi and all events before and after that may have contributed to the four American deaths at the hands of al queda terrorists Sept 11, 2012.. She labels the news out of Benghazi a partisan opinion by Romney and Ryan. Were they not using the terror attack in stump speeches it would not be a news story, Cutter says.
    Therefore Benghazi and how the Obama administration handled security is not newsworthy as real or nonpartisan news.
    That dodge line will not fly, lazy campaign hack.

  • jiminga

    At least it’s not Bush’s fault. So today they’ve switched from blaming the security agencies for their screw-up. I wonder who they’ll blame tomorrow.

  • celador2

    Romney has made Benghazi an issue while Obama has not made the deadly attack an issue as much. Obama administration officials have often mentioned a you tube trailer as the cause of a demo that never happened in Libya. The deadly attack was not part of a demo.

    How we deal with national secuirty is a partisan issue only in that the president handles foreign policy. But the topic as news of the death of four Americans is not a cheap shot line made up by Romney but one that happened on Clinton and Obama’s watch.
    Benghazi concerns us all.

    .

  • tnfriendofcoal101368

    They actually started a soft rollout of this pushback yesterday. From Jay Carney’s press briefing

    Again, this is a moving picture, and people who, on the night of an attack or
    the day after, claim they know all the facts without making clear that what we
    know is based on preliminary information, aren’t being straight, and they’re in
    some cases trying to politicize a situation that should not be politicized. I
    think that’s what the President was getting at. And I think many other people
    felt the same way.

    and

    We’re focused on the facts as we get them. We’re not focused on opinions about
    what happened, and we’re certainly not focused on efforts to politicize this
    matter.

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/10/10/press-briefing-press-secretary-jay-carney-10102012

  • Viet71

    I’m amazed there’s not a revolt among consulate officers.

    Politics aside, Hillary Clinton’s subordinates (and maybe Hillary herself) acted with reckless disregard of Stevens’s safety.

    The cover-up may be always worse than the crime. But the recklessness here is inexcusable.

  • celador2

    We know they will never blame al queda, don’t we?

  • celador2

    They can criticize Romney but must stand on their own record.
    Uncritical support of Arab Spring is the Obama foreign policy. Paul Ryan noted US policy in ME is one where we embrace adversaries but friends no longer know where they stand. Obama jumped on a bandwagon hyped by CNN in Egypt called Arab Spring and never checked who they were 2011. Copts, tourists, small business, women all have had set backs as a result of Arab Spring. Camp David accords betwen Israel and Egypt are not as secure as they were with Mubarak.
    I look forward to Obama and Biden’s explaining the advantages to peace and security in the region as a result of Arab Spring in their opinions. i do not see it as anything but chaos and regression. These new allies of Obama are deadly in some cases.

  • commonsenseobserver

    The incompetence of Carter and the mendacity of Clinton.

  • bobmark

    I get it that they think the end justifies the means, but I just can’t help but wonder what they see when they look in the mirror, They can swear there’s no heaven, but they better pray there’s no hell.

  • jimmaloney

    …when America elected “that person” to be the President each one of us put his personal reputation into the person of the officeholder so when Obama or his agents act in a certain manner he represents us and acts in our names….think of that, America, when you step behind that curtain…

  • Tbone

    People getting killed has never been of much concern to liberals.

  • http://hehasfailed.wordpress.com/ HopeHeFails

    The beauty of the epic fall from grace is that it is always the little things that take them down. This is an administration full of small-minded, big wannabes all in over their heads. 70 Million people saw that with their own eyes last week. And now that the GOP has decent candidates the contrast is pure.

  • dbecraft

    If not for the seriousness of the situation, her comments would belong on a liberal comedy show.

  • http://hehasfailed.wordpress.com/ HopeHeFails

    I’m amazed there’s not a revolt among consulate officers.
    The political evening is still young. Things are just getting interesting.

  • http://hehasfailed.wordpress.com/ HopeHeFails

    They’ll probably claim now that Bush’s security infrastructure (that Obama opposed) wasn’t up to their standards.

  • gunnyg2002

    If we had a REAL press, Obama and half of his admin would be in prison or on their way there.

  • http://www4.webng.com/rickbull/lostlucky/ rickbull

    Except when a Republican is president.

  • daniel22

    The thing that really irks the administration is they were cayght in a lie they cannot back away from. As noted Romney/Ryan are not politicizing this so it is up to Obama to politicize it so that he can show how tasteless R/R is. I guess you could call Benghazi politicizing if you just listen to this administration.
    When Obama referred to Benghazi as bumps in the road I nearly blew at how cavalier he was as if the bodies were mere speed bumps to his design. The fact that Benghazi happened is disturbing enough. It has been even more disturbing watching the administration cover up, obfuscate, denigrate, minimize, shift blame, and even outright lie that has me upset. It is not the so called politicizing that had done it. It was the administrations’ handling that did it. They have shown us how much an American’s life is worth.

  • CarolT

    We do need a real press, this should be on the front page of all newspapers. Obama made it an issue by lying, and trying to cover up the requests for additional security. O and Hillary should be ashamed of themselves.
    I know I do not have to say what would happen if this occurred in a republican administration. I”m sick of the double standard.
    IBD editorials cover it, along with the WSJ. Rush mentioned yesterday that Obama must have done something to CNN because they covered it yesterday during his show but I was not near a television to watch it.

  • cwfoster

    If I had not come to DETEST the mainstream media for their total fealty to the far left wing of the Democrat Party, I would feel sorry for them. They have finally had to start throwing their “Golden Boy” under the bus, because they are starting to realize (way to late to save them) that their own credibility is in shreds around them from covering up his blunders so far. Cutter is RIGHT to a point. If it were not an election year, the administration would simply duck the issue until it went away. I wonder what the Obama/Clinton people offered the “State Department career staffers” who stepped in front of the bullet and took responsibility for refusing the requests for beefed up security. (Wasn’t it Harry Truman, a DEMOCRAT, who had a plaque on his desk that said “The Buck Stops HERE”? -rhetorical question, of course it was-) It’s shocking that CNN’s reporters actually retained the character to report on the contents of Ambassador Stevens’ diary, AND it’s contents, in the face of the administrations blatant lies. THAT source told us that Stevens’ had warned of bombings in the months leading up to 9/11, he had requested and been denied additional security, he had informed them that his name was on an Al Queda ‘hit list’. So much for a lack of intelligence! The intelligence this administration is lacking is has nothing to do with the CIA, NSA, or information about our enemies. It has to do with their own ability to understand what Abraham Lincoln said: “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”. OH, WAIT, HE was from Illinois, but was a REPUBLICAN! Michelle Malkin had it nailed! A den of lying liars and crap weasels!

  • ipeduto

    The Chicago, mob-style way of doing things is embarrassing for America. This president, his surrogates, and the MSM are all in the tank for O’s re-election. They have no integrity, & I hope & pray they will soon be off the airways – for good.

  • celador2

    Good post, cw. I’d like to see Biden and Michele Malkin debate. LOL

  • celador2

    Ryan was cut off all night by Biden and Raddatz but Ryan did get to finish one sentence uninterrupted. He said,
    “If there is a terrorist attack, we will call it a terrorist attack.”

  • celador2

    if we had a press corp that held power to scruitiny the Obama campaign would stop all its law suits in states to stop Voter ID laws. Obama would no longer be pushing early voting if the press were doing its job. Libya and lack of secuirty is not an issue Obama-BIden care to have driving a voter to polls imo.
    Well, we get state TVUSA 2012 instead when a Democrat is in White House as we saw last night with tag team Biden-and mod Raddatz. Cut of Ryan whenever possible and let Joe roll.

  • celador2

    Benghazi and the lack of security followed by a cover up by Obama administration may be the issue that pushes Romney Ryan over the finish line.
    National security is the ground zero issue. AL queda is alive. And a president who is in denial on al queda in North Africa needs be defeated Nov 6, 2012.
    ROMNEY-RYAN 2012

  • drawer22

    Mr O’Bama has continued to prove that he and his supporters did not receive an elementary school education in arithmetic. Count ‘em: 1+1+1+1=4 (not 1) “bump[s] in the road” unless we only count American ambassadors as people over which to run. As a combat Veteran, I count even enemy combatants as human beings, which this Emperor with No Clothes hasn’t the decency to acknowledge when in comes to “fellow” Americans!

    Listen up, people: If this pretender to an American throne doesn’t classify even an appointee of his own and three “lesser” pawns as more than a single “bump” in his own progress toward ascendency as Messiah, just what status do you think the Emperor think YOU have in his schemes? Figure it out! To the Narcissist-in-Chief, you are NOTHING! (If I’d have thought of my Team members so lightly, I’d have been fragged!)

    De Oppresso Liber

  • celador2

    Yes the broadcast of leaders in grief was a moment that brought the US together with Hillary and Obama leading us in grief. Stoic as Spartans they were standing there in the starkness of Andrews AFB welcoming the coffins of the fallen from Benghazi after a Sept 11 terror attack on an unprotected consulate. .
    For whatever reasons the Obama adminisration capitalized on the warm, glow of that ceremony of four murdered Americans who did not have to die. They blamed a you tube trailer not al queda for the longest time.

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