Appearing on The Steve Malzberg Show on Newsmax, Eleanor Clift, writer for The Daily Beast, repeated her assertion that Ambassador Chris Stevens “was not murdered” in the Benghazi terrorist attack.
Clift made her initial comments on the PBS program The McLaughlin Group on May 11 and despite being pressed by Malzberg on Tuesday, May 13, she insisted that Ambassador Stevens was not murdered: “Dying of smoke inhalation in the safe room of a CIA outpost has a slightly different feeling.” [See video below.]
Clift maintained that “It was a very chaotic event, the CIA was involved which I why there was a lot of confusion initially. And that all the questions that this special committee is raising have been asked and answered in previous investigations.”
Malzberg attempted to persuade Clift to take her statement back or to “redo the answer” before asking his guest “What about the people at 9/11 who were incinerated, some died of smoke inhalation or some jumped, some disintegrated. Were they not murdered?”
The Daily Beast writer deflected Malzberg’s question by insisting “I was just trying to add a little bit of complexity and I’m going to stick with what I’ve said.” Despite Clift’s attempts to ignore Malzberg’s question, the Newsmax host asked her “If someone set your building on fire with the intent to attack you and you die in the fire, smoke inhalation or being burned to a crisp, you’re not murdered?”
Once again, Clift dodged the question and asserted “I realize this causes a lot of emotion. As I’ve said. I’m just going to stick with the answer I gave sir...The way the word [murdered] has been sort of tossed around I think leaves a different image in people’s minds. When you tell people, most people, how the ambassador died they appear not to have understood what happened.”
As the segment concluded, Malzberg wondered how Ms. Clift would classify Stevens’ death if he were a relative, to which Clift maintained “I would say that he died of smoke inhalation and there was another person in that room who did get out and tried to get back in. I just wanted to add a little complexity.”
