This could be the worst whitewashing since Tom Sawyer suckered people into helping him with that fence . . . On today's Morning Joe, Joe Klein cleared Hillary of responsibility for American deaths in Benghazi, and blamed the CIA.
According to Klein, "this really was a CIA station there, not so much a consulate, and those guys should be able to protect themselves in most circumstances." Klein doesn't think Hillary should even be called to testify: "this is something that does not rise to the level of the Secretary of State." He suggested instead that David Petraeus be hauled before the committee.
Klein's bald-faced attempt to shift the blame away from Hillary and to the CIA elicited a "wow" of surprise from Mika Brzezinski. When Klein blithely went on to say that "diplomats get killed in every administraton," Joe Scarborough shot back that this was the first ambassador killed since 1979. Watch the video to see Klein rumble, bumble and stumble in response.
JOE KLEIN: I think that Benghazi, most of the questions have been answered. I think that we haven't heard enough about the fact that this really was a CIA station there, not so much a consulate, and those guys should be able to protect themselves in most circumstances.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Wow.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: So then what is your 30-second summary of what happened in Benghazi?
KLEIN: What happened in Benghazi is a couple of things, joined. One was the video which was affecting the entire Islamic world. There were riots across the entire Islamic world. Why should Libya be any different? And number two, you had a street gang which called itself a militia that was heavily armed, the way many of them are in that part of the world, who chose that moment to attack our facilities there.
And, you know, this is something that does not rise to the level of a -- of the Secretary of State for sure. I mean, there are other people who should be questioned. David Petraeus was the CIA director at that point and I think that he had a significant role in how this thing was rolled out after it happened. But you got to remember that diplomats get killed in every administration.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, this is the first ambassador killed since '79.
KLEIN: Yes, but, uh, but, but there are an awful lot of diplomats killed. You could talk to Ryan Crocker, who is probably our greatest Middle East diplomat, and he was digging his colleagues out of the rubble of the embassy in Lebanon.
