Two weeks ago House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa said it was “undeniable” that military personnel were ordered to stand down after the American embassy in Benghazi was attacked.
Issa said this despite the recent release of a House Armed Services Committee report, a report authored by his fellow Republicans, which clearly stated that there was no stand down order given.
The committee report concluded that there was “no ‘stand down’ order issued to U.S. military personnel in Tripoli who sought to join the fight in Benghazi.”
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace called Issa out on this yesterday and Issa denied calling it a stand down but not really.
“But to be honest, do you not have any evidence that Secretary Clinton told Leon Panetta to stand down?” he asked.
“Well, the use in answering questions in a political fundraiser,” Issa responded, “that was in response to a question, the term ‘stand down’ is not used in some sort of an explicit way, but rather the failure to react, the fact that only State Department assets and only assets inside the country were ever used, that members of the armed forces, gun carrying, trained people were not allowed to get on the aircraft to go and attempt to rescue. Those kinds of things through State Department resources represent a stand-down. Not maybe on the technical terms of ‘stand down, soldier,’ but on what the American people believe is a failure to respond what they could have.”
Here’s what Issa said two weeks ago at a fundraiser.
“I have my suspicions, which is Secretary Clinton told Leon to stand down, and we all heard about the stand down order for two military personnel. That order is undeniable.”
It’s undeniable but Issa himself denied it yesterday on Fox News Sunday.
According to him, when he said “stand down” what he really meant was no one did anything to help. But two weeks ago Issa clearly stated that “two military personnel” were ordered to stand down. That order is undeniable, right?
There may not be a more contemptible member of Congress than Darrell Issa. He’s terrible at his job, too. You could drive a school bus through the gaps in his narratives.