President Obama’s spokesman said that “there was not security enough to protect those four Americans” today as he acknowledged ‘mistakes’ in protecting the U.S. mission in Benghazi, where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed on September 11.
“I think there is no question that when four Americans are killed at a diplomatic facility that something went wrong and that is why we need to asses through the accountability review board the security posture there,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today. “There is no question that the security was not enough to prevent that tragedy from happening.
Asked if he would “acknowledge mistakes” with respect to the security situation, Carney reiterated that position. “I think I have said that . . . the security there was not adequate to prevent that from happening,” he said.
Later in the briefing, Carney added that “There was not security enough to protect those four Americans.”
Carney demurred when asked why the State Department did not grant requests for addition security, directing those questions to the State Department and the ongoing hearing at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“I’m not prepared to preview the results of an investigation or review that are not complete or to second guess what the experts in the field are going to conclude,” Carney said.
ABC’s Jake Tapper turned President Obama’s attack on Mitt Romney against the president. “Didn’t President Obama shoot first and aim later?” Tapper asked, referring to the White House claims that the Benghazi attack developed out of a spontaneous protest against an anti-Islam video. (The State Department acknowledged yesterday that no protest took place before the attack.)
