After endlessly politicizing the Benghazi terror attack for the past 20 months, Fox News is doing an about face, accusing Hillary Clinton of politicizing the issue after she called out the media and politicians for exploiting the tragedy.
On May 30, Politico released an excerpt from Hillary Clinton's forthcoming book, in which the former-secretary of state wrote that she refuses to “be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans” and denounces using Benghazi as a “political tool.” Clinton also described the “regrettable amount of misinformation, speculation, and flat-out deceit by some in politics and the media” that has contributed to the politicization of the crisis.
The excerpt provoked the ire of Fox News, which has led the charge in politicizing the Benghazi attacks. In particular, the network has leveraged the Benghazi attacks in a transparent attempt to smear Clinton's credibility and tarnish her image in expectation of a 2016 presidential bid. But rather than address Clinton's attempt to call out media misinformation, Fox simply flipped the script, accusing Clinton of politicizing the tragedy.
On the May 30 edition of Fox News' Outnumbered, co-host Sandra Smith claimed that Clinton is “politicizing the issue in this book by pointing fingers at Republicans for trying to politicize it.” Later that day, The Real Story host Gretchen Carlson wondered if Clinton's remarks on coverage of Benghazi in her book were merely a way to “turn the tables on the people who are asking the questions as politicizing it.” Fox regular Sergeant Jessie Jane Duff followed suit on June 2, accusing Clinton of “turning this into a political bandwagon,” and trying to “make it look like anybody who wants answers is a politician”:
Fox's knee-jerk reaction evidences the accuracy of Clinton's accusation, which has even recently been acknowledged by one of Fox's own hosts: the same day Smith and Carlson attempted to flip the script on Benghazi, The Five host Bob Beckel called out his network for its Benghazi misinformation and vowed never to talk about the Benghazi hoax again.