MSNBC Guests: Benghazi Scandal Makes White House ‘Look Terrible,’ Possibly An ‘Impeachment Issue’

The Mohne Dam breaks...

Wow.  Just wow...

By Noah Rothman

After examining all the details that emerged on Friday relating to the efforts by members of President Barack Obama’s administration to remove references to Islamic terrorism when explaining the reasons behind the 2012 attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, the panel guests on MSNBC’s Now agreed that the appearance of a scandal makes the White House “look terrible.” One guest even suggested that the controversy could lead to impeachment proceedings against the president.

NBC Reporter Kelly O’Donnell read from portions of emails in which high ranking State Department officials coordinated with the CIA to alter the official talking points on the Benghazi attack to remove any references to prior warnings or Islamic terrorism.

“This is quite the window into what is usually the hush-hush process about how to deal with these types of attacks and the spin that irrevocably comes afterwards,” NBC reporter Luke Russert opined.

“This is not good for the White House right now,” Russert said to BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith. “Does it stick?”

“Well, sure,” Smith replied. “They look terrible.”

Smith said that the emails indicate that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have been directly involved in the process of “scrubbing” references to Islamic terrorism from her department’s talking points.

“Does this become then an election politics thing?” Russert asked. He said that the Republican Party has been trying to link Clinton to the Benghazi scandal for some time.

The Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky said it does. He invoked “that word that starts with ‘I’” to describe the potentially significant political fallout that could result from the Benghazi scandal.

“It becomes a potentially impeachment issue as long as the Republicans are in control of the House,” Tomasky added.

“I think, for Clinton, it looks Clintonian,” submitted Washington Post reporter Nia-Malika Henderson. “It also, I think, reminds us that there is only one person that the far right-wing hates more than Obama, and that’s Hillary Clinton.” 

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

SoRo:  On Wednesday, MSNBC ran ZERO minutes of live coverage of the hearing and even yesterday morning, its presenters were claiming Benghazi was a big nothingburger. How fast they have changed.

I know that the Senate is a backstop. I’ve REPEATEDLY – on this site and others – pointed out the futility of impeaching Obama in the House. If only 45 Senators voted to convict and remove Clinton for perjury and 50 for obstruction of justice, it is patently obvious that Democrats will NEVER vote to convict and remove the first black President…unless he slits Michelle’s throat on live television and that’s still a ‘maybe.’
Barry Goldwater and two other GOP ‘statesmen’ went to Nixon and told him to resign; otherwise, he would be convicted and removed and he would destroy the Republican party. There are no Goldwater, et al, counterparts in the Democratic Party. They do not care how many legal eggs have to be broken to make a good, Socialist omelet.

Nevertheless, there has been a discernible shift in media’s attitude...and, that's a start:  No Republic or democracy can survive with a media that acts as a Praetorian Guard.  It is imperative that the MSM start acting like journalists instead of cheerleaders.  Scott Pelley of CBS said recently that the media has blown several big stories in the recent past and its 'house is on fire.'  I submit that this is what happens when journalists decide to become spokespeople for any regime.  They, inevitably, spout the latest talking points without nary a minute of reasoned debate and rationality.  When the truth invariably comes out, it destroys their credibility.  Remember how the media bought hook, line, and sinker that Benghazi was caused by a YouTube video and TEA Party activists were wearing tinfoil hats when they alleged that they were being systematically targeted by this Administration?  Who's embarrassed now? 

Hopefully, the Benghazi matter has left enough egg on the faces of the media that they will begin to treat Obama and any of his future Democratic predecessors with the same razors and salt that they do Republicans.  Our country requires it for survival.

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