Steve Benen directs my attention to Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who has a whole new criticism of President Obama’s handling of the Benghazi attacks:
As far as it being an act of terror, the president was almost four minutes into his statement on September 12th before he mentioned an act of terror…. It wasn’t until he was well into the remarks.
Uh huh. This is a new record. Republicans have been trying for weeks to gin up national outrage over the fact that it was several days before we knew for sure what had happened in Benghazi. They never got much traction with this line of faux umbrage — largely because there really was legitimate confusion about what happened — and fairly or not, Candy Crowley put a stake through its heart on Tuesday when Mitt Romney stupidly repeated an echo chamber attack without bothering to check whether it was actually true.
Now, instead of moving on, King is doubling down. For some reason, Republicans think it’s outrageous that Obama didn’t instantly know what had happened in Benghazi. They think it’s outrageous that he didn’t immediately jump to conclusions in the absence of firm facts. And now King thinks it’s outrageous that in his Rose Garden speech, Obama took four full minutes to suggest that it was an act of terror.
Conservatives are obsessed with the idea that we demonstrate weakness unless the word “terror” is applied instantly to every attack against the United States. But it’s a loser. It worked great during the Bush years, but not so much anymore. Give it a rest, guys.
