Democratic representative Elijah Cummings today blamed a “full-scale media campaign” for eliciting unwarranted accusations against the Obama administration with regard to its response to the 9/11 attack on the American diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya.

“What we have seen over the past two weeks is a full-scale media campaign that is not designed to investigate what happened in a responsible and bipartisan way, but rather a launch unfounded of unfounded accusations to smear public officials,” Cummings said at today’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the Benghazi attack. Cummings, the committee’s ranking member, indicated that he was not impugning the motives of the witnesses before the comittee, but rather, those who “want to use their statements for political purposes.”


The Maryland congressman defended the adminstration’s response to the attack, pointing out that the highest officials in the American military, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, have indicated there were no American forces close enough to intervene as events unfolded that evening.