Fox News Is Still Angry Over Candy Crowley's Benghazi Fact-Check In 2012

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Fox host Steve Doocy, while previewing the upcoming 2016 presidential debates, falsely claimed CNN's Candy Crowley “was wrong” when she fact-checked then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in a 2012 debate. Doocy, discussing a September 22 conversation with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump where Trump said he didn't want fact-checking, said Crowley was incorrect to tell Romney he was wrong when he claimed that Obama waited “14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.” Trump in that September 22 conversation also claimed Crowley was wrong. In fact, Crowley's claim was correct. Doocy's claim comes as Trump has been trying to influence the debate moderators by claiming they will be "rigged" against him and praising Fox host and debate moderator Chris Wallace's promise not to fact-check the candidates. From the September 23 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

STEVE DOOCY (HOST): We were talking to Donald Trump yesterday about whether or not he would prefer a moderator or a fact-checker? He said a moderator. You don't want a fact-checker like 2012 and Candy Crowley. Watch this.

[BEGIN VIDEO]

MITT ROMNEY: It took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror

BARACK OBAMA: Get the transcript.

CANDY CROWLEY: He did, in fact, sir, so let me -- call it an act of terror.

OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?

CROWLEY: He did call it an act of terror.

[END VIDEO]

DOOCY: She was wrong, and it cost Romney because he just sat there.

JAY TOWNSEND: You cannot let something like that stand. She corrected him. She was wrong. He was right. He stood there and took it like an admonished school boy, and you can't allow that to happen in front of a national audience. That's not presidential. It was not strong.