Ed Klein, terrible journalist and prurient hack, writes today for the Daily Caller (naturally) that Hillary Clinton's statement taking responsibility for security lapses at the American consulate in Benghazi were motivated by a secret plan to capture the White House in 2016.

Sourcing his report to “a member of Hillary's inner circle to whom I have spoken” (Klein has a remarkable gift for retaining access to Clinton insiders despite years of peddling trashy nonsense about the former first lady), Klein writes that Clinton threatened to resign if the White House “continued to make her the scapegoat for Benghazi,” but her secret team of lawyers and strategists came up with a more “rational” course of action.

Here's how he describes the plan:

After the Clinton legal team had a chance to review the State Department cable traffic between Benghazi and Washington, the experts came to the conclusion that the cables proved that Hillary had in fact given specific instructions to beef up security in Libya, and that if those orders had been carried out -- which they weren't -- they could conceivably have avoided the tragedy.

Clearly, someone in the Obama administration dropped the ball -- and the president was still insisting that it was not his fault.

In the end, then, Hillary decided to assume responsibility to show that she was acting more presidential than the president.

I am told by my sources that she firmly believes that when the State Department cable traffic is made public, either through leaks to the press or during formal House committee hearings, it will exonerate her and shift the blame for the entire mess onto the president.

Let's break this down this “rational” scheme, shall we?

According to Klein, Clinton knowingly and falsely accepted responsibility for Benghazi security in order to cover for President Obama so that he might stand a better chance at reelection. Clinton was also fully aware that there are secret State Department cables showing that, in taking responsibility for Benghazi, she was not telling the truth, and that these cables will soon see the light of day. This calculated effort to cover up the alleged truth about Benghazi under the assumption that the truth will eventually be exposed is, per Klein's telling, all part of a plan to make Clinton seem presidential. Because if there's anything that screams “leadership,” it's complicity in a cover-up.

This makes absolutely no sense. None whatsoever.

Nevertheless, Fox News “straight journalist” Bret Baier is on the case, taking his cues from a credibility-vacant huckster's axe-grinding nonsense.