>>. >> bret: carnage is over. the story shift now to washington. here is chief white house correspondent ed henry. >> since our founding the united states has been a nation that respects all faiths. we reject all efforts to denigrated religious beliefs of others. >> september 12th, he seems to embrace an idea that his aides will advance over the next two weeks that the ambassador and three other americans were killed in a spontaneous riot over an internet video. he does use the term terror but only in a general sense in context of the september 2001 terror attacks. >>. >> he gives an interview to 60 minutes shortly thereafter. he says nothing that has happened has made him second

guess his policies since arab spring. >> i continued to be pretty certain there be bumps in the road. >> because nevada is battleground state. >> he leaves for a campaign trip to las vegas. >> the president of the united states did not postpone a campaign event even though we had been hit. >> i thought that was the biggest strategic mistake of the obama campaign. >> dana was press security in george bush's administration. she is now a fox news host. >> imagine if he would have said as commander in chief, it's important for me to stay back in the white house. how responsible. >> once he made a statement i'm not sure what he should have done. >> obviously to be in mourning for several days and not go about our daily business. >> hillary clinton suggests the attack was just a spontaneous

demonstration about the anti-islam video. >> there is no justification, none at all for a responding to this video with violence. >> reporter: current white house press secretary says flat out the next day. >> these protests were in reaction to a video. we have no information to suggest that it was a preplanned attack. >> and later that day when the president and secretary of state greet the deceased at joint base andrews, clinton talks again about the video. >> we have seen rage and violence directed at american embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with. >> september 15th, california authorities they call in the man that produced the video for questioning and marched him in front of tv cameras. september 16, u.s. ambassador to the united nations goes on five

talk shows repeating the same story each time. >> what happened initially, it was a spontaneous reaction to what had transpired in cairo. >> my reaction where is secretary of state hillary clinton. >> to john bolton who served as u.s. ambassador under george bush, the choice of rice is telling. >> when you are a senior american official, you don'ting on the sunday talk shows unless you are white house choice. so, that to me is an indication there were already internal difficulties within the administration and that perhaps secretary clinton wasn't seen by the white house as the best spokesperson for what the administration wanted to say. >> september 17th the state department. >> does the united states government regard what happened in benghazi as an act of terror? >> again, i'm not going to put labels on this until we have a complete investigation.

okay? i don't think we know enough. >> from my experience. former obama spokesman. >> first reports incredibly have information that information that may be misunderstood. >> they panicked. >> former white house chief of staff john sununu is senior advisor to mitt romney's campaign. >> this is purely political reaction in a white house that had prepared itself to establish a narrative of a president getting rid of the threat of terrorism using the death of bin laden to focus that and waking up one morning and finding out that terrorism on 9/11 of this year was back full-fledged killed a u.s. ambassador. >> i don't see a political agenda here.

i see the fog of war. it's not about politics. it's about the difficult task of reconstructing what happened. >> september 18th. >> did the administration have any sort of heads up that violence was increasing in libya before the attack? >> i'm not aware of any. this is matter that is under investigation in terms what precipitated the attack and what the motivation of the attackers were. >> that night on the late show with david letterman, story seems to shift slightly. president obama says the video did spark muslim outrage where terrorism exploited. >> we had a video released that by somebody who lives there, a shadowy character. it caused great offense in much of the muslim world, but what also happened was extremists and terrorists use this as an excuse

to attack a variety of our embassies including the one the consulate in libya. >> capitol hill, the head of national terrorism center testifies and plainly states what everyone already notion. >> i would say, yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack. >> september 24th, the view. >> there is no doubt the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault that it wasn't just a mob action. >> next day, september 25th the president mentions the video six times at the united nations. >> there is no video to justify an attack on an embassy. >> october 8th at a san francisco fund-raiser, he pushes the idea the threat from al-qaeda is waning. >> today al-qaeda is on its heels and osama bin laden is no more. >> the next day, state department provides off camera a blow-by-blow account of the

attack. reporters learn that the compound was overwhelmed. fighters armed with machine guns and possibly rocket propelled grenades. congress holds a hearing. and state department officials despite being warned of attacks refused to beef up security in libya. first question is next vice presidential debate. >> i would like to begin with libya. >> and turns questions about what really happened in been gas si into benghazi into a heated issue. >> beyond the controversy our bigger issues. what benghazi reveals about president obama's foreign policy. s copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here.

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>> did the obama administration have a problem calling it a threat by its name. >> there is no question they avoided the use of the word terror. >> porter gauss who headed the c.i.a. >> you can't ignore criminal acts. we can't ignore terrorists acts. >> he says goss says it's especially high and libya was part of that world. case in point, a mysterious ship picked up in turkey on september 6th, five days before chris stevens and sean smith and former navy seals were killed during the assault in benghazi. according to a september 14th report by the times of london, 400 tons of cargo on board, some of it humanitarian and also holding a large consignment of weapons headed for the remembers. it's a huge warning sign that the situation on the ground is

vastly more dangerous than the state department may have realized. even before the well organized massive attack in benghazi that knew the threat from al-qaeda was large and growing. >> what do you think al-qaeda looks like today? >> it's much stronger. it's spreading out. >> there is no question in your mind that al-qaeda is stronger in north africa today than it was four years ago? >> absolutely. they have all kinds of new organizations. >> so it suggests that the white house doesn't get it. >> the problem is, they are avoiding reality, bad things happen when you avoid reality and we have just seen that. >> we are in a stronger position today than we were four years ago. >> t.j. crowley assistant secretary of state believes that president's anti-terrorism policies are paying off. >> we have gone through a dramatic transition, call it the

arab spring. these transitions of repudiation that every bin laden stood for and tried to achieve through violent means. >> he says you don't make americans safer with words that inflame. you do it by winning over those we can work with. >> we are at the stage where we need partnerships to solve any meaningful crisis around the world. united states can't do that alone. >> do you believe there is dead americans as a result of this administration's roughly to call the threat what it is? >> i do. showing signs of weakness, they take that as an opportunity and will attack. >> bret: what did the president say, when did he say it? that question is one of the most explosive in the presidential campaign. could the election turn on the answer? after the break. of my growing . but how am i going to fund it? and i have to find a way to manage my cash flow better.

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