Mitt Romney Continues Smear Campaign Against the President
by THINKPROGRESS
On Tuesday evening — the evening of September 11th — as violence was still unfolding in Libya, Mitt Romney issued a statement accusing President Obama of “sympathizing” with those who murdered four Americans, including the American ambassador to Libya. After the full scope of the attacks including the deaths of four Americans became clear, Romney then held a press conference Wednesday morning during which he doubled down on these false and outrageous smears against the president and other members of his administration. The Romney campaign’s official talking points even blamed the president for the attacks.
Here’s how the fact checkers at the Associated Press assessed Romney’s claims:
“The gunfire at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, had barely ceased when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seriously mischaracterized what had happened in a statement accusing President Barack Obama of “disgraceful” handling of violence there and at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. [...]
“In fact, neither a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo earlier in the day nor a later statement from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered sympathy for attackers. The statement from the Cairo Embassy had condemned anti-Muslim religious incitement before the embassy walls were breached. In her statement, issued minutes before Romney’s, Clinton had offered the administration’s first response to the violence in Libya, explicitly condemning the attack there and confirming the death of a State Department official.”
In a widely circulated photo, Romney was seen walking away from the podium at his press conference, which was ostensibly about the murder of four Americans, with a smirk on his face.
Romney Roundly Criticized
The criticism of Romney was swift and severe.
