Charles Krauthammer Doubts Director of Intelligence James Clapper Edited CIA Benghazi Talking Points

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 08: James R. Clapper, Director of the National Intelligence Agency, talks with guests during a luncheon hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to honor President of the Republic of the Philippines Benigno S. Aquino III, at the Department of State, on June 8, 2012 in Washington, DC. Later today President Aquino is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House. (Credit: Getty Images)

On Tuesday, CBS sources revealed that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was seemingly responsible for editing the CIA talking points relating to the Benghazi terrorist attack. References to “al Qaeda” and “terrorism” were removed from the unclassified talking points given to UN Ambassador Susan Rice.

However, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer and Fox News host Bill O’Reilly are not “buying it.” Appearing on O’Reilly’s show on Tuesday night, Krauthammer said James Clapper, the head of DNI, apparently had a sudden case of “amnesia” after initially claiming he didn’t know who edited the talking points. Those talking points, which were clearly full of misleading and false information, would shape the Obama administration’s narrative about the Benghazi attack that left four Americans dead on Sept. 11.

“I’m not buying it,” Krauthammer began, “because the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says that a week ago in classified testimony that same Clapper said that he had no idea who changed the talking points. And now a week later, he seems to discover he did? That’s kind of strange. I’ve seen amnesia in my day, in my clinical days, and that one is pretty quick — one week.”

He continued: “All I know is, that in the end the narrative spun by Susan Rice and continued by the president afterwards for days and days afterwards, on Letterman and elsewhere, was that it was a riot out-of-control because they didn’t want the country to know that Obama’s boast that al-Qaeda was on its heels, which is simply not true.”

“So it was all about the campaign?” O’Reilly asked.

“That’s one reason, there might more a lot more nefarious ones but I’ll stop with that one,” Krauthammer replied.

“But they didn’t have to worry about Mitt Romney even bringing it up. So why not just tell the people they got attacked by al-Qaeda?” O’Reilly joked.

Watch the clip via Fox News below:

 

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