Obama Administration Continues to Dodge Benghazi Inquiries

Four years past and four American lives lost, still with no answers and very little concern (beyond saving his legacy) from the Obama administration.

From POLITICO today:

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The White House and the House Select Committee on Benghazi are at a stand-off over whether President Barack Obama should answer a series of questions about the 2012 terrorist attack in Libya that left four Americans dead.

Neil Eggleston, counsel to the president, blasted the committee for sending the president a list of questions about the attack — an inquiry the administration deemed inappropriate and a partisan attempt to frame the White House as uncooperative.

So resentful is the Obama administration over being framed as “uncooperative” that they have consistently refused to cooperate.

Only to liberals does that make sense.

I’m just a lowly political blogger, so forgive me if I miss some of the finer points of government with my petty commonsense thinking, but it would seem an attack on an American consulate abroad, resulting in the deaths of four Americans would be one of those issues that crossed partisan boundaries and inspired an all-hands-on-deck approach to finding answers.

In fact, I’ll go so far as to suggest that this could have been sewed up at least two years ago, with the responsible parties either brought to justice or sent straight to Hell, by now.

Instead, we get an uncooperative administration, that leaves us with more questions than answers. Eggleston has suggested to President Obama that he not cooperate, and that should bother a lot of people.

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“Constitutional separation of powers” was the reason cited in a letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC).

“If the president were to answer your questions, his response would suggest that Congress has the unilateral power to demand answers from the president about his official acts,” the letter reads.

Something about separate, but equal branches comes to mind.

“It’s no surprise President Obama would rather take questions from Derek Jeter than answer questions for the American people about the Benghazi terrorist attacks, which followed what he himself has called his worst mistake — failing to plan for what happened after the State Department pushed U.S. intervention in Libya,” said committee spokesman Jamal Ware, referring to Obama’s chat a few days ago with the New York Yankee. “The White House’s fictional narrative today is the latest chapter of the fictional narrative it has been spinning since 2012, when four of our fellow citizens were murdered by Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in the tragic terrorist attacks in Benghazi.”

Indeed, while President Obama, in recent weeks, has taking shots at the GOP for offering up a reality TV star as nominee (ugh), and has stated that the presidency is not entertainment, it really is a case of Pot, meet Kettle, as he has been more about selfies, hashtag wars, and smarmy, late night talk show appearances (in between lavish family vacays, of course) than actually governing. He is desperately out of his element, and possibly, criminally indictable.

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The Benghazi panel is set to release its findings sometime in July, according to reports, but admit there are still questions to be answered by the administration, and so far, they are being met with what amounts to a brick wall.

Gowdy told Eggleston two years ago, in 2014, that he would at some point wish to ask the president a series of questions about the attack — not by compelling an appearance but via written inquiry. Gowdy again brought it up at a face-to-face meeting with Eggleston, his deputy and a top White House congressional liaison in Charlotte, N.C., in January 2016. He even offered to show the White House the questions in advance and provide the underlying testimony that led them to asks such questions, sources say.

Eggleston responded by insisting that President Obama was fully engaged and aware on the night of the attacks.

Gowdy on June 7 sent more than a dozen questions seeking more detail on various questions about Benghazi. He wanted to know, for example, if Obama ever authorized covert actions to provide weapons to Libyan rebels; if the president had ever personally viewed the surveillance footage of the attack; when Obama learned of the identities of terrorists involved that day; and whether he was aware of “any efforts by White House and Department of Defense official during [the attack] to reach out to YouTube and Terry Jones regarding an anti-Muslim video?”

Gowdy never got a response. Eggleston instead sharply criticized the panel’s motives for sending the inquiry.

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So while the Obama administration continues to harp on partisanship, there are still questions lingering and the deaths of four Americans go unanswered.

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