Fox's Karl Rove Shouts Lies About Benghazi

Fox News contributor Karl Rove repeated long-debunked falsehoods about the military response to the September 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya.

During Fox News Sunday on September 8, a panel discussion turned to the upcoming anniversary of the attacks in Benghazi. During the segment, Rove falsely asserted that no military assets were ordered to assist the Americans under attack in Benghazi. Rove soon raised his voice and, over and over again, repeated his false claim that no help was sent to Benghazi.

In fact, one of the Americans killed that night was part of a response team from the embassy in Tripoli.* The remaining security forces in Tripoli were not told to “stand down” -- they were ordered to protect the Americans in Tripoli and aid the Benghazi survivors when they arrived.

Then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified in a February 7 Senate hearing that President Obama ordered him and General Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to "[d]o whatever you need to do to be able to protect our people there" that night. Following their discussion, Panetta ordered two anti-terrorism security teams stationed in Spain to deploy to Libya and another special operations team to deploy to the region. But as a new book about Benghazi by former diplomatic security agent Fred Burton and journalist Samuel M. Katz makes clear, no outside military forces were able to arrive in time.

*Note: This post has been edited for clarity.