You may have seen Bret Baier’s interview with former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor on Fox News Thursday evening. The conversation dealt with the Benghazi attack, and it was combative at times. Vietor spun hard for the administration, even smugly calling Baier “dude” at one point. But Baier appeared to be well-prepared for Vietor’s spin with a wide array of relevant video clips and sound bites.
On Friday, Baier went on Mornings on the Mall, a Washington, D.C. radio program, to talk about the Vietor interview. [See YouTube video embedded below.] He explained to the hosts how he prepared so well:
Yeah, so here’s how on these kinds of interviews I prepare. I set up things that I know I want to ask about in general, and then I think about where they, the person, may go, and I give my staff – and my staff is fantastic – a whole list of things, I mean a sheet full of elements that I could potentially call for if we go down a certain road of questioning. And they’re really good. They have everything on, ready to go. So if we start talking about Mike Morell testifying on the Hill, they’re ready with that sound bite.
The hosts also asked Baier what questions he still wants answered about Benghazi. Unlike many incurious mainstream media figures, who only want to shout down anyone who dares to question the administration on Benghazi, Baier still had a long list of questions that have piqued his journalistic interest:
Well, I think first this week. Why did it take so long for this other element to come out of the White House? Why did it take a judge and a FOIA request to get this email that says, you know, they were briefing Susan Rice about a video when they knew, according to the CIA station chief on the ground, the military, that this was a full-scale, military-style terrorist attack? And they knew it in the early hours. In fact, the CIA station chief essentially was making target lists for potential people in Ansar-al Sharia, the terrorist group, in the early hours. So why? Why does the president go out to the United Nations on September 25, two weeks later, and give a speech tied to the video? Why does Hillary Clinton first put out that statement on 9/11 at 10 p.m., while the attack’s still going on, blaming the video?... There’s also the why of why this place was so unprotected and why was Ambassador Stevens there in the first place?
