Shortly after President Obama responded to the Benghazi “sideshow” during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron this morning, the man leading the investigation gave his reaction to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) began by saying, “only the president could tell us with a straight face there’s never been any confusion.”

“As you go through the facts as they were,” Issa continued, “yes, in real time we knew this was an Al Qaeda-backed terrorist attack and everything else in between is simply revisionist history.” Following the testimony of Gregory Hicks and the other Benghazi “whistleblowers,” Issa challenged President Obama’s assertion that no one in the initial days after the attack knew exactly what had happened. Now that he has more information, Issa called the administration’s response, “just, plain, a cover-up.”

Last week, Rep. Issa suggested that the major takeaway of the congressional hearings on the Benghazi attack is that we now know it was a “terrorist attack.” Pressed by Kelly today to elaborate on why the administration’s response constitutes a “cover-up,” Issa focused on the difference between a “terrorist attack” and an “act of terror.” While he admits that Obama called the incident an “act of terror” he sees a sharp distinction between that phrase and the words “terrorist attack.”

“The president sent a letter to the President of Libya where he didn’t call it a terrorist attack even when at the time the President of Libya was calling that a pre-planned Sept. 11 terrorist attack. So, when you look at official correspondence from the president through the acting ambassador to the president of Libya, which came out in our hearing and was testified to under oath, the words that are being used carefully — like you just said, ‘act of terror’ — an ‘act of terror’ is different than a ‘terrorist attack.’ The truth is, this was a terrorist attack, this had Al Qaeda at it.”

Issa appears to be implying that the words “terrorist attack” connote pre-meditation and advance planning, whereas an “act of terror” could be spontaneous. Was President Obama really trying to make that distinction when he spoke about the Benghazi attack the day after it occurred?

Watch video below, via Fox News:

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