Eleanor Clift stunned the McLaughlin Group panel over the weekend when she shockingly claimed that Ambassador Chris Stevens “was not murdered” in the Benghazi terrorist attacks.
The Daily Beast contributor, in full White House spin control mode, gallingly spewed: “I would like to point out that Ambassador [Chris] Stevens was not murdered. He died of smoke-inhalation in the safe room in that CIA installation.”
Fellow panelists Susan Ferrechio and Pat Buchanan, not surprisingly, let Clift have it.
The following exchange was aired on the May 11 edition of The McLaughlin Group:
ELEANOR CLIFT: Every media organization has investigated this to death. This animates the right-wing of the Republican Party. And I would like to point out that Ambassador [Chris] Stevens was not murdered. He died of smoke-inhalation in the safe room in that CIA installation and was -
[crosstalk]
SUSAN FERRECHIO, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: No I think I’ve heard a drastically different story than people who are also in the know about that. So I don’t think, I don’t think -
PAT BUCHANAN: It was a terrorist attack Eleanor! He was murdered in a terrorist attack!
CLIFT: It was an opportunistic terrorist attack that grew-
BUCHANAN: Opportunistic?!
CLIFT: -opportunistic that grew out of that video.
BUCHANAN: The video had nothing to do with it!
CLIFT: There were demonstrations across the world because of that.
BUCHANAN: There were not in Benghazi! Not in Benghazi! There was no video related to it at all. That’s why you’re investigating!
CLIFT: Still opportunistic and it’s still a CIA. And if you’re gonna put people on trial we should put David Petraeus on trial, not Hillary Clinton.
— Geoffrey Dickens is Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter. [1]