Romney vs. Crowley: Who Got It Wrong on Libya During Presidential Debate?
Mitt Romney and Barack Obama Met Tuesday Night While CNN's Candy Crowley Moderated
Viewers of the second presidential debate Tuesday night between GOP candidate Mitt Romney and Barack Obama were surprised to see what many have described as the former Massachusetts governor being caught in a lie about the president's response to last month's deadly attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya. However, it seemed that the Republican presidential hopeful was not the one who got the facts wrong.
The Huffington Post called the moment in which Crowley "fact checked" Romney "the debate stumble that will be replayed for years." Harry Blodget, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Business Insider, also weighed in, writing on Twitter, "Boy did Romney blow himself up on the Libya 'act of terror' thing."
A video of the exchange between Romney, Crowley and Obama during the presidential debate Tuesday night can be seen here (a transcript is also included below):
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However, it was revealed after the debate during a round-table discussion on CNN that it was not Romney who may have embarrassed himself Tuesday night. Moderator Candy Crowley, the first woman to moderate a presidential debate in 20 years, attempted to explain her frame of thought during the post-debate discussion.
Crowley told fellow CNN anchor Anderson Cooper that Romney was "right in the main" but that he "just picked the wrong word," and admitted that both Romney and Obama would parse her words.
NewsBusters categorized Crowley's explanation as "admitting she simply couldn't help herself from unprofessionally inserting herself into a heated dispute that Obama and Romney were having."
Some commenting on the apparent fiasco shared a CNN transcript from Sept. 28 in which Crowley, during Wolf Blitzer's "The Situation Room", insists that the administration needed to explain why it claimed the Libya attacks were not terrorism much earlier.
Watch Crowley's post-debate explanation in the video clip below:
The confusion came Tuesday night when the candidates and Crowlely started speaking over each after a question was asked about the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the consulate in Benghazi that killed three Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
An audience member at the town-hall styled debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., named Kerry Ladka asked President Obama about security at the U.S. consulate.
After Obama offered his response, Crowley turned to Romney, who said: "There were many days that passed before we knew whether this was a spontaneous demonstration, or actually whether it was a terrorist attack. .. It was a terrorist attack and it took a long time for that to be told to the American people."
President Obama challenged Romney's remarks, saying: "The day after the attack, governor, I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people in the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. That this was an act of terror and I also said that we're going to hunt down those who committed this crime. ... And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the Secretary of State, our U.N. Ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, governor, is offensive. That's not what we do. That's not what I do as president, that's not what I do as Commander in Chief."
Romney hit back, asking Obama if he was certain that it was the day following the attack that he referred to the act as "terrorism", to which the president replied, "That's what I said."
"I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror," Romney countered.
At that point, moderator Crowley interjected, seemingly saying Romney was wrong and right.
"He -- he did call it an act of terror. It did as well take -- it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. You are correct about that," the CNN journalist said.
It was unclear if that "fact check" from Crowley adversely affected Romney during the presidential debate Tuesday night. Polls indicated Wednesday morning that most viewers thought President Obama had won the town-hall style debate. A CNN poll revealed that 46 percent of viewers held the opinion that Obama was victorious, while 39 percent believed Romney did a much better job.
This is a stark contrast to the first presidential debate on Oct. 3 that left many of Obama's supporters confused and disappointed by his showing -- with CNN polls indicating that 67 percent of viewers thought Romney dominated the event, and only 25 percent expressing that view of Obama.
The Romney-Ryan campaign had not yet responded to the Libya "fact check" from Candy Crowley by publication time.
A transcript provided by ABC News highlights the exchange:
QUESTION: It's Kerry, Kerry Ladka.
OBAMA: Great to see you.
QUESTION: This question actually comes from a brain trust of my friends at Global Telecom Supply (ph) in Minneola yesterday.
OBAMA: Ah.
QUESTION: We were sitting around, talking about Libya, and we were reading and became aware of reports that the State Department refused extra security for our embassy in Benghazi, Libya, prior to the attacks that killed four Americans.
Who was it that denied enhanced security and why?
OBAMA: Well, let me first of all talk about our diplomats, because they serve all around the world and do an incredible job in a very dangerous situation. And these aren't just representatives of the United States, they are my representatives. I send them there, oftentimes into harm's way. I know these folks and I know their families. So nobody is more concerned about their safety and security than I am.
So as soon as we found out that the Benghazi consulate was being overrun, I was on the phone with my national security team and I gave them three instructions.
Number one, beef up our security and procedures, not just in Libya, but at every embassy and consulate in the region.
Number two, investigate exactly what happened, regardless of where the facts lead us, to make sure folks are held accountable and it doesn't happen again.
And number three, we are going to find out who did this and we're going to hunt them down, because one of the things that I've said throughout my presidency is when folks mess with Americans, we go after them.
OBAMA: Now Governor Romney had a very different response. While we were still dealing with our diplomats being threatened, Governor Romney put out a press release, trying to make political points, and that's not how a commander in chief operates. You don't turn national security into a political issue. Certainly not right when it's happening. And people -- not everybody agrees with some of the decisions I've made. But when it comes to our national security, I mean what I say. I said I'd end the war in Libya -- in -- in Iraq, and I did.
I said that we'd go after al-Qaeda and bin Laden, we have. I said we'd transition out of Afghanistan, and start making sure that Afghans are responsible for their own security, that's what I'm doing. And when it comes to this issue, when I say that we are going to find out exactly what happened, everybody will be held accountable. And I am ultimately responsible for what's taking place there because these are my folks, and I'm the one who has to greet those coffins when they come home. You know that I mean what I say.
CROWLEY: Mr. President, I'm going to move us along. Governor?
