Giuliani Pushes Benghazi Myths During Fox Interview

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

In a Fox News interview, Rudy Giuliani repeated long-debunked myths about the deployment of military assistance and President Obama's location during the September 2012 Benghazi attacks.

The attacks against a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans and took place one year ago today have spawned countless myths and falsehoods throughout the conservative media. Fox News operated as a driving force behind many of these claims.

On the September 11 edition of Fox & Friends, Giuliani pushed two of these myths when he said, “I have significant questions about the action of the United States government that night, including our president -- I still don't know where he was that night. And why we didn't immediately deploy as much force as possible to the area.”

These falsehoods aren't new to Fox's airwaves. Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer and Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade have also expressed ignorance of President Obama's whereabouts the night of September 11, 2012, despite the fact that, since October 11, 2012, the White House Flickr page has displayed this photo of Obama discussing the situation in Benghazi that night in the White House:

Obama meeting in White House about Benghazi

Additionally, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta testified before Congress in February that he and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were in a meeting with Obama when they received word of the attacks in Benghazi. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also testified in January that she was in contact with Obama throughout that night.

In his congressional testimony, Panetta also said that President Obama ordered him and Dempsey 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 those forces, along with other military forces that conservatives have insisted could have helped out, could not arrive in time.