Former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said this week that changing administration talking points on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and that a newly unearthed email showing a top national security aide coaching others on how to respond to questions on the attack “tells us nothing new.”
Mr. Vietor said Thursday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that he was among the aides who prepped National Security Adviser Susan Rice on talking points and that the prep referenced ongoing protests around the world, not Benghazi specifically — an argument that’s been repeated by the White House this week.
Did you change the word “attacks” to “demonstrations” in the talking points? Mr. Baier asked.
“Maybe — I don’t really remember,” Mr. Vietor said. “Dude, this was like two years ago — we’re still talking about the most mundane process.”
“Dude — it is the thing everybody’s talking about!” Mr. Baier interjected.
“We’re talking about the process of editing talking points,” Mr. Vietor said. “That’s what bureaucrats do all day long. Your producers edit scripts multiple times.”
Mr. Vietor said that the deaths of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans that day are a “tragedy.”
“What we should be worried about is making sure that never happens again,” he said. “Instead, this ridiculous political game about talking points.”
Mr. Vietor said he wished the email from another aide coaching others on how to respond to questions in the wake of the Benghazi attacks and urging that the focus be placed on an anti-Islam video had been released earlier, “because it tells us nothing new.”
“It tells us that what we said privately is what we said publicly, because that’s what we thought had occurred,” Mr. Vietor said. “And [the] email clearly references protests, plural, because there were countless across the world.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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