Fox's Herridge Inaccurately Suggests Clinton Ignored Warnings About Benghazi Security

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Fox News' Chief Intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reported that there were “multiple warnings that security was inadequate” at the Benghazi diplomatic facility in the lead-up to the 2012 terror attacks, including one cable from August 2012, and that Hillary Clinton “insisted it never crossed her desk, though it was addressed to her.” But, as the Washington Post Fact Checker explained, “only a handful of embassy cables are actually read by top officials at the State Department, even though technically each one is addressed to the secretary of state.”

In the same segment, Herridge claimed that there “seems to be a big black hole as to what was happening with the president on that evening,” but in August 2014, Herridge herself reported that President Obama “was at the White House” the night of the attacks -- a fact that was public knowledge since January 2013. Herridge also claimed that “the idea that a video was to blame for the attacks was entirely a creation of the politicals in Washington,” but the intelligence community, the suspected attackers, and eyewitnesses all linked the inflammatory anti-Islamic video to the attacks at the time.

From the June 27 edition of Fox News' Happening Now:

HEATHER CHILDERS (HOST): Democrats on the Select Committee on Benghazi issuing their own report saying that Hillary Clinton never personally denied any request for additional security ahead of the deadly attack in 2012. This, of course, coming before the long-awaited results of the investigation, which committee Republicans, Catherine, had said could come as early as tomorrow? Correct?

CATHERINE HERRIDGE: Well, that's right, Heather. What we're seeing today in effect is the culmination of this investigation into Benghazi. The Democrats have launched what amounts to a preemptive strike by releasing their own report. The Republicans', as you mentioned, could come as early as tomorrow. One of the main findings of the Democrats is that security was woefully inadequate in Benghazi on the day of the attack, September 11, 2012. But what they do not seem to concede in their release is that there were multiple warnings that security was inadequate, including an Emergency Action Committee meeting in August of 2012 that was so important it was known to the Defense secretary, as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs at that time, though Mrs. Clinton insisted it never crossed her desk, though it was addressed to her. In addition, what we're also seeing today is the leak of letters between the Benghazi Select Committee and the White House. They wanted to question the president about what he was doing that evening, and even two years of further investigation, this seems to be a big black hole as to what was happening with the president on that evening. Based on these letters that we have obtained here at Fox News, the president's lawyer has advised him not to answer these questions, in part because he feels that it would be a violation, if you will, of this separation of powers between the executive branch and Congress. For the Republicans and their part in this, once we get their report, one of the things that we will see is that they did interview dozens of witnesses who had never been interviewed by any other of the committees that were involved in Benghazi, and one of the issues that will be reinforced in their findings is that the idea that a video was to blame for the attacks was entirely a creation of the politicals in Washington, and it never reflected the intelligence on the ground that was immediately available. And that really has been consistent with our reporting here at Fox News, Heather.

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