Following Wednesday night’s CNBC Republican presidential debate, on Thursday’s CBS This Morning, co-host Charlie Rose repeatedly tried to lecture Senator Marco Rubio over Hillary Clinton’s role in the 2012 Benghazi attack.
After Rubio stated that he had not engaged in personal attacks throughout this campaign, Rose immediately rushed to defend Clinton and proclaimed that on the issue of Benghazi “[w]ell, well, you called Hillary Clinton a liar, senator. You called Hillary Clinton a liar.”
Rubio shot back and explained “Hillary Clinton lied about Benghazi” before he launched into a full-throated rejection of the CBS host’s defense of Clinton:
There is no doubt about that, Charlie. I mean, there are e-mails in which she was talking to her family and she was telling them that there was an attack on that consulate that was due to a terrorist attack by Al Qaeda elements and then she was going around the country talking to the families of the victims, and to the American people and saying, no, no. This is because of some video that someone produced.
Rose continued to lecture the Florida senator and claimed “Senator, you know -- you know that -- The CIA was changing its own assessment of what happened there during that time zone” but Rubio continued to push back against Rose’s talking points:
That's not -- that's not accurate. It was clear from the very early moments after that attack that it was not a spontaneous uprising. It was a planned attack. Well orchestrated by people that brought armaments to that attack that you would never see as part of a spontaneous up rising.
Rose continued to question Rubio over his criticism of Clinton and sharply challenged him if such accusations were warranted:
If you're calling her a liar by saying she perpetuated a lie, then why do you think she did that? What was her motive?...So, you’re saying that Hillary Clinton lied -- you were saying, senator, that Hillary Clinton lied because she wanted to help Barack Obama in his re-election campaign? That's a serious charge.
Once again, Rubio pushed back against Rose’s line of questioning and maintained that he had no doubt Clinton mislead the nation about the Benghazi attack:
[W]ell, it's the truth. I mean, that is not only why she did it, that’s why everyone in the administration did it. The narrative of their campaign at the time, Charlie, was that Al Qaeda was on the run and had been defeated. That was their narrative and this countered that narrative.
See relevant transcript below.
CBS This Morning
October 29, 2015
NORAH O’DONNELL: But did you make that attack toward Jeb Bush? I mean, he was once your mentor.
MARCO RUBIO: Yeah, again I’ve great regard for him. I said that on the debate stage. I think what we should do is every candidate should run on who they are and what they stand for and what they’ll do if they can become president and let the Republican voters across this country decide who the nominee should be. If there are policy differences between us, we should discuss those differences. But I've never personally attacked anybody in this race and I'm not going to start now. If other people decide they want to change who they are--
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, well, you called Hillary Clinton a liar, senator. You called Hillary Clinton a liar.
RUBIO: Well, no. I said Hillary Clinton lied about Benghazi. There is no doubt about that, Charlie. I mean, there are e-mails in which she was talking to her family and she was telling them that there was an attack on that consulate that was due to a terrorist attack by Al Qaeda elements and then she was going around the country talking to the families of the victims, and to the American people and saying, no, no. This is because of some video that someone produced.
ROSE: Senator, you know -- you know that --
RUBIO: She absolutely lied about it.
ROSE: The CIA was changing its own assessment of what happened there during that time zone.
RUBIO: That's not -- that's not accurate. It was clear from the very early moments after that attack that it was not a spontaneous uprising. It was a planned attack. Well orchestrated by people that brought armaments to that attack that you would never see as part of a spontaneous up rising. What was very clear is that from the very early moments of that attack, she knew that it was a terrorist attack as she shared by e-mail with various people. And yet she continued to perpetuate the lie.
ROSE: If you're calling her a liar by saying she perpetuated a lie, then why do you think she did that? What was her motive?
RUBIO: Well, that’s very clear why. Because they were in the middle of a 2012 re-election in which President Obama had made the claim that Al Qaeda was being defeated and --
ROSE: So, you’re saying that Hillary Clinton lied -- you were saying, senator, that Hillary Clinton lied because she wanted to help Barack Obama in his re-election campaign? That's a serious charge.
RUBIO: Yes. Is that -- well, it's the truth. I mean, that is not only why she did it, that’s why everyone in the administration did it. The narrative of their campaign at the time, Charlie, was that Al Qaeda was on the run and had been defeated. That was their narrative and this countered that narrative. They didn't want that out there and that’s why they didn't tell the truth of what truly happened and the families of those victims deserve better.
ROSE: But are you denying that the CIA was sending different information as they assessed it and providing different information to the leaders of our government? And that was part of the reason that they made different assessments.
RUBIO: Let me tell you Charlie, without violating any --
ROSE: Because David Petraeus and others have said that.
RUBIO: I don't want to violate anything that’s confidential and that’s classified but I'll tell you this. It was clear from the earliest moments after that attack that everyone on the ground and everyone closest to that attack knew, almost instantly, that this was an organized effort, not part of a spontaneous uprising and there was never, ever any evidence that it had anything to do with a video that was produced by some guy out in California. And for them to further that narrative and continue to do so well after it had become clear that that wasn't the case, it was unacceptable. The American people deserve better. And the families of those victims in Benghazi deserve better.
