Univision's Jorge Ramos Asks Clinton If She Intentionally Misled The Public About The Cause of The Benghazi Attacks

Ramos: Families Claim “That You Lied To Them” About The Cause Of The Attacks. During the March 9 Univision/Washington Post Democratic presidential debate, co-moderator and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos asked Hillary Clinton if she lied to the families of the Benghazi victims because she “sent an email to [her] daughter Chelsea saying that an Al Qaeda-like group was responsible for” the attacks:

JORGE RAMOS (MODERATOR): I want to continue with the issue of trust. Secretary Clinton, on the night of the attacks in Benghazi, you sent an email to your daughter Chelsea saying that an “Al Qaeda-like group” was responsible for the killing of the Americans. However some of the families claim that you lied to them. Here's Pat Smith, the mother of the information officer Sean Smith. Let's listen. [BEGIN VIDEO CLIP] PATRICIA SMITH: Hillary, and Obama, and Panetta, and Biden, and Susan Rice all told me it was a video when they knew, they knew it was not the video. And they said that they would call me and let me know what the outcome was. [END VIDEO CLIP] RAMOS: Secretary Clinton, did you lie to them? HILLARY CLINTON: You know look, I feel a great deal of sympathy for the families of the four brave Americans that we lost at Benghazi, and I certainly can't even imagine the grief that she has for losing her son. But she's wrong. She's absolutely wrong. I and everybody in the administration, all the people she named, the president, the vice president, Susan Rice, we were scrambling to get information that was changing literally by the hour. And when we had information, we made it public but then sometimes we had to go back and say we have new information that contradicts it. So I testified for eleven hours. Anybody who watched that and listened to it knows that I answered every question that I was asked and when it was over the Republicans had to admit they didn't learn anything. Why? Because there had already been one independent investigation, there had been seven or eight congressional investigations, mostly led by Republicans, who all reached the same conclusions: that there were lessons to learned. And this is not the first time we lost Americans in a terrorist attack. We lost 3,000 people on 9/11. We lost Americans serving in embassies in Tanzania and Kenya when my husband was president. We lost over 250 Americans both military and civilian when Ronald Reagan was president in Beirut. And at no other time of those tragedies were they politicized. Instead people said let's learn the lesson and save lives. And that's what I did. RAMOS: What the families are saying is that you told your daughter Chelsea one thing and a different thing to them. CLINTON: Well, Jorge, but that makes my point. At the time I emailed with my daughter, a terrorist group had taken credit for the attacks on our facility in Benghazi. Within 16, 18 hours, they rescinded taking credit. They did it all on social media. And the video did play a role. We have captured one of the lead terrorists and he admits it was both a terrorist attack and it was influenced by the video. This was fog of war. This was complicated. The most effective, comprehensive reports and studies demonstrate that. And look, as I said in the beginning, I deeply regret that we lost four Americans and I of course sympathize with members of the families who are still very much grieving and I wish that there could be an easy answer at the time but we learned a lot and the intelligence kept improving and we learned enough to say what we think happened at Benghazi. [CNN, Univision Democratic Presidential Debate, 3/9/16]

Ramos' Baseless Line Of Questioning Originated With A Benghazi Committee Myth Parroted By Fox News

During Her Benghazi Committee Testimony, Rep. Jim Jordan Accused Clinton Of Deliberately Starting A “False Narrative” That The Attacks Were Inspired By An Anti-Muslim Video. During Clinton's October 22 appearance before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) accused Clinton of intentionally spreading a “false narrative” that the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, were triggered by an anti-Muslim video posted on the Internet. According to Jordan, comments Clinton made about the attack being a response to that video contradicted her comment to her family on the night of the attack that Americans had been killed “by an Al Qaeda-like group.” From the hearing:

JORDAN: Everything points to a terrorist attack. We just heard from Mr. Pompeo about the long history of terrorist incidents, terrorist violence in the country. And yet five days later Susan Rice goes on five TV shows and she says this, “Benghazi was a spontaneous reaction as a consequence of a video,” a statement we all know is false. But don't take my word for it. Here's what others have said. “Rice was off the reservation,” off the reservation on five networks, White House worried about the politics. Republicans didn't make those statements. They were made by the people who worked for you in the Near Eastern Affairs bureau, the actual experts on Libya in the State Department. So if there's no evidence for a video-inspired protest, then where did the false narrative start? It started with you, Madam Secretary. [...] JORDAN: So here's what troubles me. Your experts knew the truth. Your spokesperson knew the truth. Greg Hicks knew the truth. But what troubles me more is I think you knew the truth. I want to show you a few things here. You're looking at an e- mail you sent to your family. Here's what you said at 11:00 that night, approximately one hour after you told the American people it was a video, you say to your family, “Two officers were killed today in Benghazi by an Al Qaeda-like group.” You tell -- you tell the American people one thing, you tell your family an entirely different story. [Hearing Before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, 10/22/15]

Fox News Hyped The Allegation As “Explosive” Evidence That Clinton's Remarks Were A “Direct Contradiction” To Intelligence. In at least seven segments on October 22 and the morning of October 23, Fox News promoted Jordan's allegation as damning evidence that Clinton had deliberately lied about Benghazi. Fox hosts and commentators said Jordan's allegation was “explosive” “smoking gun” evidence that would “hurt” Clinton and “seals the case” that she deliberately deceived the public. [Media Matters, 10/25/15]