Fox National Security Analyst Baselessly Faults Clinton Email Server For Benghazi Attacks

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Fox News national security analyst KT MacFarland repeated dubious and debunked claims about Hillary Clinton’s private email on America's Newsroom. MacFarland suggested that Clinton's private email may have been linked to the Benghazi attacks, referencing the debunked myth that the CIA compound in Benghazi did not receive additional security because Clinton didn't have a State Department email address at which Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the 2012 attacks, could contact her. Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass has explained that requests for security do “not rise to the level of the secretary of state” and that it is not unusual for ambassadors to not have the email address of a secretary of state.

MacFarland also speculated that Clinton may have “compromised secure information” like “the name of the spy that we have operating at the highest levels of Al Qaeda” if her server was hacked. In fact, an FBI review of Clinton's email records has found no evidence of hacking and emails released that reference a CIA asset are reportedly discussions of articles that were already published by The New York Times.

From the June 3 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom:

MARTHA MACCALLUM (CO-HOST): Two quick things here, Madeleine Albright was discussing Hillary Clinton's emails and that whole debacle on CNN this morning and here's what she said. Let's put this quote on the screen from Madeleine Albright. She has said she made a mistake and nobody is going to die as a result of anything that happened on emails.

KT MACFARLAND: Wrong on two accounts. Four people did die in Benghazi, and we don't know why or under what circumstances or why they weren't given adequate protection at that embassy. And the second thing, if Hillary Clinton compromised secure information, some of that secure information was things like, this is the name of the spy we have operating at the highest levels of Al Qaeda. That's the kind of thing that's in compartmentalized top secret, secure information. If that was compromised or hacked into, if some bad guy, some other country got their hands on it, that probably did cost lives.