What Are the Solutions to This Week's Scandals?
As Scandal Week comes to a close, it's worth reviewing the policy proposals that have followed in the revelations' wake. There aren't many.
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Here's one place where the president didn't have a dramatic week: in his approval ratings.
As Scandal Week comes to a close, it's worth reviewing the policy proposals that have followed in the revelations' wake. There aren't many.
ABC News' Jonathan Karl's revelation of the White House's role in 12 revisions to the Benghazi talking points propelled the story, long percolating in conservative media, into a bona fide scandal. But then CNN's Jake Tapper's revelation of what the emails actually said revealed that to be a fake scandal. So who lied to Karl?
Now that everyone is paying attention to the scandal stories Republicans have been pushing for months against President Obama, they have a bit of stage fright.
The main thrust of all of President Obama's press conferences for the last two years has been to tell Congress to do its job, and that held true on Thursday, when he answered questions about a trio of scandals by repeatedly saying he was looking forward to "fixing a problem" by working with Congress to pass laws he's wanted all along.
To be clear: There are not three scandals plaguing the Obama White House. By embracing the leaked talking points, Obama's opponents may have taken Benghazi off the table completely.
President Obama held a joint press conference today with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, but the press had plenty of other things they wanted to talk about.
If anyone can tie the IRS, Benghazi, and Obamacare into one grand conspiracy, it's Michele Bachmann. And she did.
A new email released by CNN's Jake Tapper raises significant questions about the motivations of the source for ABC's story last Friday revealing draft talking points in response to the attack in Benghazi.
By our count, nearly half of the standing committees of the House of Representatives are looking at some aspect of the Obama administration that offers at least some whiff of political opportunity. You can't tell the players without our handy scorecard.
President Obama answered a question about Benghazi during a press conference on Monday, and hi-def photos reveal that some moisture traveled from the president's eye area to his cheekbone in a thin stream. Was it a tear? It certainly looks like a tear. These images revealing Obama's epiphora raise new and troubling questions.
On Monday, after Obama called the ongoing theories a "sideshow," Rush Limbaugh floated a different theory that would make Obama's actions much worse, if not quite so treasonous. Rush was not alone in his floating; so long as there is an attack's aftermath with which to create more aftermath, he never will be.
Forced to take questions about the event that will not go away, Obama angrily pushed back Monday at the White House on the idea of a coverup of the Benghazi consulate attack, calling newly surfaced emails a "side show" and insisting that the "whole thing defies logic."
Could what happened in Benghazi lead to an impeachment of the president? Yes, because impeachment and allegations of misbehavior have become the Godwin's Law of national politics.
White House press secretary Jay Carney reaffirmed his previous statement that the only edits the White House made to the Benghazi talking points was "a matter of non-substantive factual correction."
Truth has been the watchword of the Benghazi controversy. "The goal here is to get to the truth," said House Speaker John Boehner says. And the truth may indeed be out there, but where it lies depends on who you ask.
According to ABC News, the government talking points on the situation in Benghazi went through eleven versions prior to their final release. We've created an interactive tool allowing you to walk through each individual change.
ABC News has obtained every version of the government talking points that were distributed after the attack on the Benghazi consulate in Libya, along with evidence that the White House and State Department were more involved in the editing they want to admit.
With Fox News continuing its all-out coverage of the ongoing Benghazi hearings in Congress, it was only natural that Stewart go after his least favorite cable-news network on The Daily Show last night.
During an emotional day on the witness stand that otherwise went pretty much as expected, Gregory Hicks got more or less forced into a corner. He suggested that the late ambassador would have told him about the Innocence of Muslims video and a protest, even though it was one of the last phone calls of his life. But maybe that's what happens when you keep travelling down the same rabbit hole in Congress.
The latest round of Capitol Hill hearings picking apart the U.S. response to the attack on its diplomatic mission in Benghazi last September has arrived. There will be big things, apparently. There will be surprises. There will definitely be whistleblowers. And there might be a lot more to come after that. But first, here's an in-depth look at the day ahead.
At least one of three State Department witnesses at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday will testify that Hillary Clinton willfully ignored the advice of his counterterror group within the department, and that he has been threatened about saying as much in public, and that al-Qaeda was involved all along.
Congressional Republicans have had little luck convincing anyone other than Fox News and its viewers that there's something scandalous about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazie. But to keep the story's momentum going a feedback loop has emerged in which Fox reports something, the House holds hearings on it, and then Fox reports on those hearings.
Of the Senator's latest expert suggestions — that the Boston bombings and Benghazi showed a national security weakness — President Obama said, "No, Mr. Graham is not right on this issue, although I'm sure it generated some headlines." Wrong. What it generated was cable news hits for Graham. And the No. 1 thing Lindsey Graham is an expert on... is getting on TV.
Fox News reports that "at least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency" have retained lawyers after being threatened by the Obama administration.
Like many of the politicians at CPAC with ambitions for higher office, Michele Bachmann offered a vision of a new path forward for Republicans. Bachmann's was unique in that it combined a more inclusive message — "We care about people!" — with her signature cable news-ready attacks on President Obama.
Even when answers seem to arrive on the controversial Benghazi attack, the questions never fade away: Faraj al-Shibli, a man thought to be involved in the September 2012 attacks on the American consulate, has been captured in Libya, according to two sources speaking to CNN, as Republicans back home refused to let the issue fade.
Sen. Lindsey Graham cares more about Benghazi than John Brennan, but more about drones than Benghazi.
Now that Chuck Hagel's confirmation has gone off without a hitch (for the most part), it's John Brennan's turn to take the spotlight, and it look like those drone memos will be a real roadblock.
Is there a way to calm Republican obsession with the attacks in Libya? If so, the Daily Show host hasn't found one.
As the Obama Administration maneuvers to secure John Brennan's appointment to CIA director, they are reportedly offering to give Republicans new information about the attack on Benghazi, in the hopes that Senators will back off on demanding more information about its drone program.
Republican senators filibustered Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel on Thursday (though they'd rather you didn't call it that) for one reason, but they're hoping the delay gives them enough time to find another reason to block his nomination.
The two newest targets of John McCain's barbs over the attack on the Benghazi are the outgoing Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who McCain essentially called a liar.
While exploring some of the absurdities of surrounding her Benghazi testimony, the Daily Show host took the opportunity to explain how Clinton is like X-Men's Magneto.
Susan Rice may be defeated, and Hillary Clinton may be leaving Foggy Bottom, but John McCain isn't giving up on the idea that someone, someday is going to answer is questions about Benghazi.
Margaret Carlson on Hillary Clinton's Benghazi testimony, Susan Crawford on speeding up America's Internet, Alex Pareene on electoral vote rejiggering, E.J. Dionne on Obama's Reaganisms, and Amy Davidson on child-abuse victims.
The British Foreign Office has issued a travel warning to Westerners who might be in Benghazi, urging all its citizens to leave the city immediately.
As Republicans grilled Hillary Clinton on the Obama administration's response to Benghazi in congressional hearings Wednesday, they repeatedly hit on a talking point that doesn't seem like it'd do them a lot of good: It's been four months.
Now we have a brief glimpse of what his tenure in the Oval Office might look like, thanks to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations — of which Paul is a brand-new member.
Here's our full breakdown of the Secretary of State's two-part testimony, featuring all the back-and-forth, important quotes now on the congressional record, video clips of the most heated moments, and some reactions from the chattering class.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got into a fairly loud — if brief — shouting match with Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson Wednesday morning during her Senate testimony.
Jill and Scott Kelley on privacy and Petraeus, Mark Bittman on Coke's obesity awareness ads, Simon Jenkins on Prince Harry's Afghanistan story, Sarah Chayes on Benghazi and bureaucrats, and Aaron David Miller on Israel's election results.
Before Hillary Clinton ends her tenure at the State Department she'll deal with one final piece of unfinished business today—answering Congress's questions about the Benghazi attack.
Senator Bob Corker, who serves on the Senate's Foreign Service Committee, revealed the date during an on-air interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell.
The only suspect to be arrested over the Benghazi embassy attack was released from jail on Tuesday after authorities declared that they did not have enough evidence to hold him further.
Even though Hillary Clinton will return to her office at the State Department as soon as next week, imaginative people still think her concussion was a convenient cover-up. Which led one sarcastic commenter to ask today: What else is she not telling us about?
After leaving the hospital where she was already conducting official State Department business, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will return to Foggy Bottom next week, although when, exactly, she will testify on the Benghazi attacks, remains unclear.
As if the "Where's Hillary?" meme hadn't picked up enough conspiratorial steam, it appears some believe Kerry somehow might not get confirmed as Clinton's successor until GOP Senators successfully drag her to testify about the Benghazi attacks.
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