Fox News used doctored video of an interview with President Obama to claim his description of briefings he received on the night of the Benghazi attack contrasts with former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's. In reality, their accounts are consistent.

Panetta discussed the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi during a September 7 interview with Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. The Factor -- and subsequently the October 8 edition of Fox & Friends -- exploited the interview to revive the debunked claim that Obama didn't describe the Benghazi attacks as terrorism and conclude “the administration did not want to talk about terror.” To make their point, each program featured a clip of the president's interview with O'Reilly in February in which the Fox host asked the president about the “terror” designation. The clip egregiously omits Obama's response to the dialogue, in which the president explicitly says, “When somebody is attacking our compound ... that's an act of terror, which is how I characterized it the day after it happened.”

Here's a more complete transcript of the the February 2 interview [omitted portion in bold]:  

O'REILLY:  Did he tell you, Secretary Panetta, it was a terrorist attack?

OBAMA:  You know what he told me was that there was an attack on our compound...

O'REILLY:  He didn't tell you [...] he didn't use the word “terror?”

OBAMA:  You know, in -- in the heat of the moment, Bill, what folks are focused on is what's happening on the ground, do we have eyes on it, how can we make sure our folks are secure...

O'REILLY:  Because I just want to get this on the record...

OBAMA:  So, I...

O'REILLY:  -- did he tell you it was a terror attack?

OBAMA:  Bill -- and what I'm -- I'm answering your question.  What he said to me was, we've got an attack on our compound.  We don't know yet...

O'REILLY:  No terror attack?

OBAMA:  -- we don't know yet who's doing it.  Understand, by definition, Bill, when somebody is attacking our compound...

O'REILLY:  Yes?

OBAMA:  -- that's an act of terror, which is how I characterized it the day after it happened.  

Fox has spent more than two years and 244 segments propping up baseless allegations that the White House engaged in a Benghazi “cover-up” with accusations that the administration waited weeks to admit to the attacks were “terror” or a “terrorist act,” though in reality, Obama called the Benghazi attack an “act of terror” during his Rose Garden speech on September 12, the morning after the attacks and repeated the reference twice the next day, during speeches in Colorado and Nevada.