On Thursday morning, CNN's John Berman hammered a Democratic
congressman who said the cause of the Benghazi attacks doesn't make a
difference at this point. In contrast, anchor Soledad O'Brien didn't ask
about the controversy over that remark first shouted by Secretary
Clinton.
"But, Congressman – don't the facts always make a difference
and doesn't knowing the facts and knowing them quickly always help in
evaluating the situation so it can be prevented in the future?" Berman pressed.
[Video below. Audio here [1].]
In the next hour during Starting Point, anchor Soledad O'Brien
deflected scrutiny away from Clinton in her interview with Sen. Ron
Johnson (R-Wisc.). O'Brien focused instead on remarks Johnson made on
Clinton after Wednesday's Senate hearing.
When Johnson accused the Obama administration of "playing election
politics" after the Benghazi attacks, O'Brien fired back, "And someone
could argue, Senator, that you're playing politics too," before quoting
him from a BuzzFeed interview saying Clinton used her emotions to
sidestep answering his question.
Johnson soon returned to the Benghazi issue, but O'Brien forced him
back to his BuzzFeed comments: "Let's go back to the question though."
The rest of the interview went the same way; O'Brien hammering Johnson
for accusing Clinton of faking her emotions, and Johnson wanting to hit
the Obama administration for not coming out fully on Benghazi.
O'Brien has been friendly [2]
to the Obama administration on Benghazi in the past. Back in November,
she grilled a Republican for hypocrisy in his opposition to Susan Rice's
candidacy for Secretary of State; however, she failed to be equally
tough with her Democratic guest on Rice's qualifications.
And a few days later, O'Brien teed up [3] liberal Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) to cry racism over the GOP's opposition to Susan Rice.
A transcript of O'Brien's interview with Johnson, which aired on January 24 on Starting Point at 7:39 p.m. EST, is as follows:
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, two things. First, she said to you that what
does it really matter if the goal is looking forward, and the second
thing she said, to which when you pointed out that you thought -- when she said I didn't want to interfere in the process, you said, well, that's a good excuse.
Sen. RON JOHNSON (R-Wisc.): That is a dodge but let's go back to "what
difference does it make?" I believe the American people deserve to be
told the truth. I believe the American people need to understand what
happened. And I really think the American people do have an expectation
that this President, this administration is honest with them. So I think
it makes a great deal of difference. And the fact of the matter is this
administration has been hiding behind an FBI investigation and then a
60-day accountability review board report just happened to land past the
election. So they were playing election politics, no doubt about it.
But listen –
O'BRIEN: And someone could argue, Senator, that you're playing politics
too, because one of the things you said to BuzzFeed, let me read it to
you, you said to BuzzFeed, "I think she just decided before she was
going to describe emotionally the four dead Americans" – that's when she
was really choking up – "the heroes and used that as her trump card to
get out of the questions. It was a good way of getting out of really
having to respond to me." And then the other question I point out where
you said – when she said she didn't want to interfere in the process,
you said, well, that's a good excuse. So it sounds to me like you're
saying, a lot of that was just faked.
JOHNSON: Well, listen. I was responding to a question, maybe I
shouldn't have speculated. The bottom line is, I agree with Secretary
Clinton that we need to understand what happened so we can prevent it in
the future. But again, we do need to get to the bottom of what actually
happened. What is the truth of the matter here? Did the administration
mislead us? I absolutely believe they did. And I think that's important
for the American people to understand.
O'BRIEN: Let's go back to the question though, and I hear you. But
respectfully, here's what you told BuzzFeed. "It was a good way of
getting out of having to respond to me," and the question to the
Secretary right before she really said "With all due respect, Senator,"
and kind of went at you a little bit, you said, "well, that's a good
excuse." So to me both of those things read, I think fairly, as someone
who's saying "you're faking it. This is fake."
JOHNSON: Listen, they were hiding behind the FBI investigation. They
were hiding behind this Accountability Review Board report, so they
weren't answering any questions. It's taken four months. And I
understand she had health problems, I'm glad she's returned to health.
But the fact of the matter is this administration has not been
straightforward with the American public. And again, I'm getting
pressure from my constituents to find out the truth. The American people
deserve the truth. That is why this matters. But it also matters
enormously. And this is where I agree with Secretary Clinton. The main
point is let's find out what happened. Let's prevent it from happening
in the future. There is a failure of leadership before this and
certainly after this, and we need to correct those problems.
O'BRIEN: You accuse her of crying and being emotional as a good way of getting out.
JOHNSON: I did not – no, I did not accuse her of crying or – no.
O'BRIEN: You said, "she was going to describe emotionally the four dead
Americans, the heroes. It was a good way of getting out of having to
really respond to me. How am I misreading that?"
JOHNSON: I was responding to a question, Soledad. I probably speculated
and I shouldn't have. The bottom line here again is the reason it makes
a difference is the American people deserve the truth from their
president and from this administration, and they haven't gotten it yet.
And I'm going to continue to try and figure out what the truth is. Why
haven't we been able to question those evacuees? That's one of the
questions we're going to be asking. Can those folks be made available so
we can find out what happened, who they were talking to, who in the
administration might have actually known what happened as they were
misleading the American people for those couple of weeks, probably for
the last couple months?
-- Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center