Ed Morrissey @ Hot Air:
One of the mysteries in the Benghazi scandal has been the role of David Petraeus, who was then the Director of the CIA but was forced to resign in a personal scandal shortly thereafter. While the White House and State Department tried to cobble together talking points to explain away the terrorist attack that took four American lives, what did Petraeus do? According to new information reported for the first time by Jonathan Karl on ABC News’ This Week earlier this morning, Petraeus rejected the final version as “useless” — and then threw the issue to the White House:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/PEzN9TuN4G8[/youtube]
We already knew that Petraeus was stunned by the revisions; now we know he rejected them personally. ”I would just as soon not use them, but it’s their [the White House] call.” That would contradict the meme over the last few days that this was an intramural fight between State and CIA with the White House just serving as bystanders. The CIA Director called the “demonstration” talking points useless the day before Susan Rice went on five Sunday talk shows, but the White House apparently disagreed. They, evidently, found the false narrative very useful.
Earlier on today’s show, John McCain demanded a select committee to investigate the cover-up, and specifically called for Hillary Clinton to return to testify:
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., this morning described the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi controversy as a “cover up,” following exclusive reporting by ABC News that showed the State Department was involved in editing the CIA’s Benghazi talking points used in the days after the attack on the American diplomatic compound in Libya last year.
“I’d call it a cover-up,” McCain said this morning on “This Week.” “I would call it a cover-up in the extent that there was willful removal of information which was obvious.” …
McCain also singled out former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who he suggested would have been aware of the State Department’s emails requesting changes to the talking points.
