Trump Trots Out Grieving Benghazi Mom as Prop For Third Debate

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the deadly September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Sans any ability to win a debate, based on substantive answers and firm, workable policy, Donald Trump will be repeating a trick first tried in the last debate, when he brought several women from Bill Clinton’s past to the debate as his guests.

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The idea was to rattle Hillary, and get her off her game. There’s no evidence that it worked, though some say Trump had a better debate performance than before.

For the third, and final debate, Trump will trot out grieving Benghazi mom, Pat Smith.

Pat Smith is a vocal critic of Hillary Clinton who blames the former secretary of State for her son Sean’s death during the attacks on the U.S. compound. She told Yahoo News on Monday that the Trump campaign invited her, and she believes she will be in the “front row” of the debate in Las Vegas.

The Trump campaign confirmed the invitation to Yahoo with a statement from Michael Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general and Trump adviser who said the campaign hopes Clinton will adequately answer why four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

Smith spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer, where she said, “I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son” and accused the Democratic presidential nominee of pointing the finger at an anti-Islamic internet video as the cause of the attacks.

Four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed on September 11, 2012 in the attack on the Libyan embassy in Benghazi, as they requested, and waited for help that never came.

President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and key members of the administration insisted on lying to the public for weeks about the cause of the attack, only to have it proven later that they knew from the beginning it was a terrorist attack, and not the spontaneous protest that they’d pushed.

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“I want to look in Hillary’s eyes and have her lie to me again,” Smith told Yahoo about confronting Clinton on the cause of her son’s death.

It’s unlikely she’ll get that opportunity.

I really wish there were answers that could give this mother, as well as the loved ones of all the others killed, some peace of mind.

Democrats and the Obama administration quickly circled the wagons and blocked the Benghazi Committee from uncovering much of what would have otherwise brought closure to this situation. They issued their final report in July 2016.

I doubt bringing a still-grieving mother to the debate will do much to turn the tide back to Trump’s favor.

Arguably, a competent candidate could make the case, and wouldn’t need this mom as a prop to do it.

 

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