CBS' Charlie Rose Pushes Back Against Marco Rubio's False Claim That “Hillary Clinton Lied About Benghazi”

Charlie Rose Explains: “The CIA Was Changing Its Own Assessment Of What Happened There During That Time Zone”

From the October 29 edition of CBS' This Morning:

Video file

CHARLIE ROSE: [Y]ou called Hillary Clinton a liar, Senator. You called Hillary Clinton a liar.

MARCO RUBIO: Well, no. I said Hillary Clinton lied about Benghazi. There's no doubt about that, Charlie. I mean there are emails in which she was talking to her family and she was telling them that there was an attack on that consulate that was due to a terrorist attack by Al Qaeda elements and then she was going around the country talking to the families of the victims, and to the American people and saying, “no, no. This is because of some video that someone produced that led to a spontaneous uprising.”

ROSE: Senator, you know -- you know that --

RUBIO: She absolutely lied about it.

ROSE: The CIA was changing its own assessment of what happened there during that time zone.

RUBIO: That's not -- that's not accurate. It was clear from the very early moments after that attack that it was not a spontaneous uprising. It was a planned attack, well-orchestrated by people that brought armaments to that attack that you would never see as part of a spontaneous uprising. What was very clear is that from the very early moments of that attack, she knew that it was a terrorist attack, as she shared by email with various people. And yet she continued to perpetuate the lie that this was something different.

ROSE: If you're calling her a liar by saying she perpetuated a lie, then why do you think she did that? What was her motive?

RUBIO: Well that's very clear why. Because they were in the middle of a 2012 reelection in which President Obama had made the claim that Al Qaeda was being defeated and on the run and this counteracted that narrative--

ROSE: So you were saying that Hillary Clinton lied -- you were saying, Senator, that Hillary Clinton lied because she wanted to help Barack Obama in his reelection campaign? That's a serious charge.

RUBIO: Yes. Is -- well, it's the truth. I mean, that is not only why she did it, that's why everyone in the administration did it. The narrative of their campaign at the time, Charlie, was that Al Qaeda was on the run and had been defeated. That was their narrative and this countered that narrative. They didn't want that out there and that's why they didn't tell the truth about what truly happened, and the families of those victims deserve better and the American people deserve--

ROSE: But are you denying that the CIA was getting -- sending different information as they assessed it and providing different information to the leaders of our government? And that was part of the reason that they made different assessments?

RUBIO: Without violating any --

ROSE: David Petraeus and others have said that.

RUBIO: Yeah, I don't want to violate anything that's confidential or anything that's classified, but I'll tell you this: it was clear from the earliest moments after that attack that everyone on the ground and everyone closest to that attack knew, almost instantly, that this was an organized effort, not part of a spontaneous uprising and there was never, ever any evidence that it had anything to do with a video that was produced by some guy out in California. And for them to further that narrative and continue to do so, well after it had become clear that that wasn't the case, was unacceptable. The American people deserve better. And the families of those victims in Benghazi deserve better.

Previously:

Fox's Ed Henry Hypes Marco Rubio's False Claim That Hillary Clinton “Was Caught Lying In Her Benghazi Testimony”

Fox News Seizes On Rubio's Debate Comments To Push Falsehood About Clinton And Benghazi

CNN's Cuomo Pushes Back Against Sen. Rubio's Already-Debunked Benghazi Falsehoods

Media Dismantle Rep. Jim Jordan's “Smoking Gun” Evidence That Clinton Deliberately Misinformed About Benghazi