Chuck Todd, NBC News Political Director and moderator of Meet the Press, spoke with Senators Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Sunday to discuss a variety of issues including President Obama’s recent executive action on immigration as well as the Benghazi terrorist attack.
After discussing immigration for the majority of the interview, Todd brought up a new House Intelligence Committee report on Benghazi and eagerly asked Republican Senator Jeff Flake “is it time for the Republicans to drop the Benghazi conspiracy theories?”
Todd began his questioning by playing up the findings in the report:
The key findings: no intelligence failure prior to the attacks, security at CIA facilities were sufficient. Yes, security at State Department facilities were inadequate, and yes, some of the developments of the talking points that Susan Rice used were flawed, but no wrongdoing, none of the conspiracies found.
For his part, Senator Flake argued that “the biggest problem with Benghazi is how it was cast by the administration, and the remarks of Susan Rice just really flew in the face of what we knew was going on.”
Chuck Todd’s insistence that Benghazi is a conspiracy theory should come as no surprise given his history of carrying water for the Obama administration. On May 8, 2013 [1] the NBC News Political Director argued that it was “very rational” for the administration not hot have sent more special ops to Benghazi.
On May 1 [2] of this year, Todd did his best to defend the White House blaming the infamous video tape as the primary reason for the Benghazi terrorist attack:
They were overly defensive in the moment. At the time they believed the video was having an impact. This is where the level of belief is, I think and this is such- you’re not going to really be able to rationally have a debate about this…At the time, and I can tell you everybody I’ve ever talked to about this, everything I’ve read about this of original documentation, at the time they did believe the video had something to do with starting that-that it involved some sort of protest in Benghazi too.
Finally, on May 7 [3], Todd dismissed the Benghazi special committee as “nothing more than a partisan stunt”:
This is a select committee and select committees are different. Look I know what the previous history is. I understand that, but my point is--don't you want to -- this has a whiff of politics to it. To some people more than a whiff. Don't you agree that if you accept her terms you actually get more credibility, which I assume is something you’d want.
See relevant transcript below.
NBC’s Meet the Press
November 23, 2014
CHUCK TODD: Alright, I’m going to table immigration for a second, ask you both a quick foreign policy question. Senator Flake, House Republican-led Intelligence Committee released a Benghazi report, and basically it’s pretty exculpatory. The key findings: no intelligence failure prior to the attacks, security at CIA facilities were sufficient. Yes, security at State Department facilities were inadequate, and yes, some of the developments of the talking points that Susan Rice used were flawed, but no wrongdoing, none of the conspiracies found. Is it time for the Republicans to drop the Benghazi conspiracy theories?
JEFF FLAKE: Well, I’ve always thought the biggest problem with Benghazi is how it was cast by the administration, and the remarks of Susan Rice just really flew in the face of what we knew was going on. But with regard to the other things that were addressed by this report, yes I thought that for a long time we ought to move beyond that.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter. [4]