Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked NBC's David Gregory a question Sunday that should be asked of virtually every media member in this country.
During a heated exchange about the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year, McCain said to his Meet the Press host, "Do you care whether four Americans died?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
DAVID GREGORY, HOST: The president said this week on the issue of Benghazi, "You guys are running out of things to ask about." So let me ask you, at the end of the day here on Benghazi, if the worst thing is true, what is that truth about how the president handled the-- this crisis?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-ARIZONA): Well, I don't know the answer to that question. I do know that there are so many answers we don't know. For example, what did the president do the night of the attack? We know that-- well the-- well, the secretary of defense and the cha-- chairman of joint chiefs of staff on-- another issue and then never talked to them again.
We know that the secretary of state, who said she was clear-eyed never saw the warnings about the fact that the consulate could not-- s-- withstand an attack. Why was that? We don't even still know who's-- we've had five different versions of who put together the talking points. We want to know why the president alleged to Mitt Romney in the debate that he had called it a terrorist attack when he hadn't, and an interview that very night of September 12th, he'd said he didn't know what it was.
And for two weeks later, kept saying he didn't know what kind of an attack it was. And in testimony with secretary of defense and chief of sta-- the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff both said they knew that night. There's-- so many questions about Benghazi. We've had two movies-- about getting bin Laden and we don't even know who the people were who were evacuated from-- the consulate the next day after the attack. So there are many, many questions. And we have had-- a massive cover-up on the part of--
DAVID GREGORY: But a massive cover-up of what?
(OVERTALK)
DAVID GREGORY: --I mean, Susan Ri-- wait a minute--
(OVERTALK)
DAVID GREGORY: Susan Rice said there was a lot of--
JOHN MCCAIN: Do you care--
DAVID GREGORY: --confusion.
JOHN MCCAIN: Do you care--
(OVERTALK)
DAVID GREGORY: I'm asking you--
JOHN MCCAIN: Do you care to--
DAVID GREGORY: --what is the Republican way--
JOHN MCCAIN: I'm asking you, do you care-- I-- I'm-- I'm asking you, do you care whether four Americans died? Or do you-- the reasons for that? And-- and shouldn't pe-- people be held accountable for the fact that four Americans died--
DAVID GREGORY: Well, what you said was the cover-up--
(OVERTALK)
DAVID GREGORY: A cover-up of what?
JOHN MCCAIN: Of the information-- concerning the deaths of four brave Americans. The information has not been forthcoming. You can obviously believe that it has. I know that it hasn't. And I'll be glad to send you a list of the questions that have not been answered, including what did the president do and who did he talk to the night of the attack on Benghazi?
And why was it? Why was it that we-- that the f-- the people who were evacuated from the-- from the consulate the next day were not interviewed the next day. And then they would've known that it was not a spontaneous demonstration. Why did the president for two weeks, for two weeks during the heat of the campaign continue to say he didn't know whether it was a terrorist attack or not?
Is it because it interfered with the line of Al Qaeda has decimated? And everything's fine in that-- in that part of the world? Maybe. We don't know. But we need the answers. Then we'll reach conclusions. But we have not received the answers. And that's a fact.
Indeed it is.
Yet for over five months media members such as Gregory have done everything in their power to protect the Obama administration from scrutiny regarding this matter so much so they're willing to fight anyone - on national television no less! - that deigns to ask the very questions investigative journalists would be asking if there was such a thing anymore.
Kudos to McCain for standing up Sunday and pointing out the hypocrisy for all to see.
Hopefully this clip will be played over and over in newsrooms across the fruited plain in the coming days so that Gregory's colleagues will be similarly shamed.
That of course assumes that any of these folks has any shame anymore, which given their behavior of late seems highly unlikely.
