During tonight's presidential debate, moderator Candy Crowley corrected Mitt Romney's false claim that President Obama did not refer to the September 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya as an act of terrorism the day after the attack.

Crowley was right, and Romney was wrong: In his September 12 remarks, the president said: “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America.” Despite this, conservatives in the media are insisting that Obama never said that.

Fox News host Eric Bolling:

Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin:

Blogger Jim Hoft:

Both Malkin and Hoft linked to a September 30 Commentary blog post by Alana Goodman arguing that “at no point” in Obama's remarks responding to the Benghazi attack “was it clear that he was using that term to describe the attack in Benghazi.” Instead, argued Goodman, the line might have been “just a generic, reassuring line he'd added into a speech which did take place, after all, the day after the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.” Even though Obama mentioned the four Americans killed in Benghazi in the very next line.

That makes little sense and is a reed far too thin to stand on. But it's good enough for Fox News and the conservative blogosphere.

Update:

Predictably, Fox News is echoing the misleading defense of Romney. During an interview with Romney surrogate John Sununu, Sean Hannity falsely claimed that when Obama referenced “acts of terror,” he was “talking about September 11, 2001. He doesn't talk about Benghazi being an act of terror.” Hannity then immediately aired video contradicting his supposed “fact check” of Obama:

Fox News host Bret Baier also tried to discredit the fact that Obama referred to the Benghazi attack as an act of terror. During Fox's coverage of the debate, Baier claimed that Obama wasn't “specifically speaking about Benghazi” when he referred to the attack as an act of terror -- that he was speaking “generically.”

Baier also faulted Obama for repeatedly referring to an anti-Islam video as a possible catalyst for the attack and for stressing that an investigation was ongoing.

UPDATE 2: Obama also referred to the Benghazi attack as an “act of terror” while campaigning in Colorado on September 13: