NYT Reporter: Blumenthal 'Very Important' in Swaying Hillary to Take Credit for Libyan Intervention

May 7th, 2016 11:44 PM

New York Times correspondent Mark Landler has a new book out discussing the foreign-policy ideas of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton titled Alter Egos. On Monday, as part of the book tour, he appeared on The Steve Malzberg Show on Newsmax TV. Landler argued that Mrs. Clinton will run as more centrist and hawkish than Obama....like she did in 2008.

But when Malzberg pressed Landler on her close adviser and friend Sidney Blumenthal, Landler ackonwledged he was “very important” in influencing Hillary into taking credit for the Libyan intervention that deposed Moammar Gadhafi, which devolved into chaos that included the September 11, 2012 terrorist raid on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Here’s how it unfolded:

MARK LANDLER, NEW YORK TIMES: She will come down somewhat to the right of the president, and say, ‘Look, in the case of Ukraine, I would have comfortable if we did more to push back on Putin. In the case of Syria, I would have been in favor of arming the moderate rebels way back in 2012.” When the president wasn’t. In the case of Libya, that’s obviously a difficult one, because she’s very identified with that intervention. It’s really her that persuaded the president to do it. I think you can already see the outlines of how she’ll defend herself. She’ll say “Look, it’s a work in progress. It may still work out. These things take a long time. Don’t judge it right now.”

STEVE MALZBERG: She’ll say Sidney Blumenthal wanted me to do it.

LANDLER: Right, she won’t say that. She won’t say that.

MALZBERG: Do you believe that, though?

LANDLER: I believe that Sidney Blumenthal  was very important in influencing her, particularly in the aftermath of it, in making sure that she positioned herself correctly in taking credit for it. He was one of those who said, “Look, when they finally get Gadhafi, you should go into the driveway of your home and give a press conference. You need to be established in this historical moment.” So I think that, you know, as with a lot of her other advisers, they thought this was going to be a big victory for her.     

Malzberg wasn’t able to get the same confirmation from the Times man on Blumenthal’s financial interest in a Libyan intervention through the firm Osprey Global Solutions, who used Tyler Drumheller as a consultant:

MALZBERG: What was his interest? Financial, from the beginning?

LANDLER: You know I was not able to determine that he had any direct financial interest. I wasn’t, you know, able to ask him because he didn’t speak to me for this book, so I don’t know the answer to that. He was also, you’ll remember, passing along intelligence from an associate of his, a guy named Tyler Drumheller.