mr. hicks, i know these answers provide no comfort to you or the families of the victims, but this is the testimony congress has received. i have seen nothing to make me question the truthfulness of nation's military commanders. our committee has a fundamental obligation to conduct responsible oversight and that includes carefully examining information that you and others provide. we also have a duty to fairly investigate these claims before we make public accusations. in contrast, what we have seen over the past two weeks is a full-scale media campaign that has not been designed to investigate what happened in irresponsible and bipartisan way but rather launched unfounded accusations to smear public officials. let me be clear. i am not questioning the motives of our witnesses. of questioning the motives those who want to use their statements for political purposes. chairman so house accused the administration of intentionally -- chairman issa has accused the administration of intentionally not

mr. hicks was also asked about susan rice's comments about the attack and congress for jason che fits -- jason chaffetz's desire to conduct his own investigation. but when ambassador stephens talked to you, perhaps minutes before he died, as a dying declaration, what precisely did he say to you? >> he said we are under attack. >> with a highly decorated career diplomats have told you or washington had there been a demonstration outside his facility that they rushed not >> yes, he would have requested he mentioned a word about a protest or demonstration? >> no, he did not. ambassador susan rice blamed the attack on a video. she didn't -- did it five different times. what was your reaction to that. >> i was stunned. my jaw dropped. i was embarrassed. >> did you talk to you before she went on the five sunday talk shows? >> no, sir. >> you are the highest-ranking official in libya at the time. and she did not bother to have a conversation with you he for she went -- before she went on national tele

mr. hicks, do you know security recommendations are implemented? where there recommendations that are implemented? >> they were following up on many of the things that eric was working on before to strengthen our security posture in libya. after the attacks, john and i worked on and list of physical security improvements that had to be made in tripoli in order for us to remain. i cabled that list in to the department after the congressman's visit and i learned later that cable was not well received by washington leadership's. to their credit, when they saw tot cable, they sent it undersecretary kennedy and insisted every recommendation in the cable be implemented. >> i want to switch gears a little bit. mr. hicks, are you aware of any efforts by department officials to limit department witness's access to information about the attacks prior to their testimony before congress? >> i never seen the classified report, so when my respect, yes. mr. nordstrom, do you know whether the state department

mr. hicks,, when did you think this was actually over, this was done, we were safe? not until our personnel landed intricately on the c-130. a and even then, there is reason why you had to leave the facility in tripoli. >> that is correct. >> when did you return to tripoli? >> we returned i believe on the 14th. >> and security? >> they arrived on september 12. >> and the governor never asked asked the government never asked for permission. this is one of the key concerns. in the last minute, i want to ask mr. thompson, i want to read an excerpt of an e-mail sent by you to timothy walsh and james webster on wednesday, september 12,@11:10 in the morning. , daniel benjamin on the phone this morning, he understands my point, concurs, but expressed his pessimism regarding the deployment and by extension does not extend a lobby for our inclusion." to remind everybody here, didn't daniel benjamin recently state that any claim that key elements of the counterterrorism bureau such as that were cut out w

mr. hicksting chief, or as they say, he was, in fact, the highest ranking officer, if you will, america's representative in libya. mr. eric nordstrom is a former regional security officer in libya. and perhaps, the foremost in the most knowledgeable person about security requests that were made and denied to the u.s. diplomatic mission in libya and also in benghazi, ultimately in benghazi. mr. cummings, we will have, from time to time, our disagreement. but i know that for all the members of this committee, we understand that these disagreements must be kept on the side of the desk. the brave witnesses deserve this committee was called to testify. the brave whistleblowers are what make this committee and their work so important. we are the ones that lead underneath this president. the public has a right to their accounts. we must respect whistleblowers and work on a bipartisan basis to protect them. with that, i recognize the ranking member for his opening statement. mr. chairman, i want to tha

i did meet with mr. hicks. and we heard testimony mr. hicks was coached ahead of time and did not allow me to speak to three individuals there, including mr. hicks. that the state department sent along a baby-sitter and take notes and minder of everything i did. this person, mr. hicks, was chastised by hillary clinton's chief. staff. >> i guess to cover their story or to merge their stories? >> an idea a member of congress trying to seek out the truth and they are being told not to allow that member of congress to have that conversation, i mean that's pretty stunning. >> one last question and i'll throw it out to both of you. do you see any obstruction issues, any potential criminal issues in all of this? >> well, i'll take that only because i'm a former prosecutor. i think it's too early. again, it's embarrassing to say that after eight months, but we are still going through documents. we are still gaining access to documents. it's too early to make that call. but it's also this, it's too early for jay carney to say that was a long time

>> mr. hicks, 2:00 in the morning, secretary of state calls you personally, not a common call. >> no, sir. >> did she ask you about the cause of the attack? did she ask about videos? did she ask about anything at all that would have allowed you to answer the question of how benghazi came to be attacked as far as you knew? >> i don't recall that being part of the conversation. >> so she wasn't interested in the cause of the attack and this was the only time you talked directly to the secretary where you could have told her or not told her about the cause of the attack? >> it was -- yes. that was the only time when i could have. >> bill: now, because of ambassador rice's subsequent testimony and the allegation that secretary clinton did not aggressively seek the truth about the attack becomes important. the witnesses today were compelling but they are not at the level where they could level direct charges against the president or even secretary clinton. also, mr. obama was barely mentioned in the q

mr. hicks, did you have a response to that? >> normalization to us was moving towards being like a instead of having orense of being under siege in a hostile environment. we wanted to move towards normal life. removing a withdrawal , and anyds personnel movement towards our dogmatic security, personal managing more of a program -- diplomatic -- personnelenal managing more of a program. >> you mentioned earlier your wife being such an important part of your decision process. were you planning on bringing her to libya? >> mr. chairman, thanks. i was actually selected by an assistant secretary, jeff feldman, in tripoli. >> jeff and i spent time in 2006 in the lebanon war. as far as family returning to libya, normalization means you bring back dependence and so on. was that part of what was going on? >> kristin and i had a long talk on december 9. we felt optimistic about the all thery, even though security problems were going on. we faulted libyans were getting their political act together. aey we

mr. hicks -- he was highest-ranking official in charge since ambassador stevens was missing at that point. he was in tripoli. mr. hicks is center stage right there. they decided early a team of special operators should go in. but the team was told to stand down, and mr. hicks believes that call came from the military. there's mr. nordstrom right there. when they were told to stand down, it hit the fan. here's congressman chaffetz and mr. hicks. >> how did the personnel react to being told to stand down? >> they were furious. i can only say -- well, i will quote lieutenant colonel gibson. he said, "this is the first time in my career that a diplomat has more balls than somebody in the military." >>gretchen: the big question is: who is lieutenant colonel gibson? there's a lot of research going on. was he the one -- he apparently was the one who was told not to provide this security or to go to libya. but who told him that? that's still the unanswered question this morning. there are a series of u

mr. hicks our investigators that you weren't involved with the drafting of the talking points, is that right? >> yes, sir. >> mr. nordstrom, you weren't involved either? >> no, i was not. >> and mr. thompson, you were not involved? >> yes, congressman, but i offered my services. i did not try to keep myself out of process, for the record. >> thank you. we know there are conflicting reports about what happened. we included a statement about libyan official there had been a demonstration in protests. mr. hicks we know you didn't believe there was a protest. you believe it was otherwise and president of libya contradicted with that statement on that. but the intelligence community insists it received initial reporting suggesting there was a demonstration. we know the reporting was wrong, now we know that but the mention of demonstration was put into the talking points by the intelligence committee not the white house or state department. i want to play a video of general clapper where he addresses

mr. hicksdemocrat, good morning, the benghazi consulate attacks. caller: yes, i have always said that hillary is totally wrong. she wants to be president someday and this is the biggest cover up i cannot imagine. she was used as a scapegoat. i think they did not want her in there because she is smart and they put john kerry in their. paid his way into the office. he paid his way to be secretary of state. he wants to hog that. and i think they totally threw her out the door and she is very smart host: guantanamo bay, cuba, on our republican line. caller: i find it completely appalling that the democrats are acting this way. these four men in benghazi died knowing their country abandons them. the sad thing is you can't equate it to someone who gets murdered in the street. they want to deal with the issue of what happened but not holding anybody accountable. you can say the obama administration is holding the gun that killed someone. they should be accountable and that they can look at these paren

. >> schieffer: here is what mr. hicks said about secretary rice's answer that morning: mr. hicks went on to tell your investigators that no one from the state department contacted him before ambassador rice's appearance. he said: again, what was going on here? >> well, clearly, there was a political decision to say something different than what was reasonable to say. and i think, bob, one of the tragedies of this is it took three weeks to get our f.b.i. in. well, when you tell the president of lib yoo-- who, by the way, went to benghazi at personal risk, did that broadcast from benghazi as a courageous act-- if you tell him he's wrong, that it's not terrorism, what a surprise that you have a hard time getting f.b.i. to the crime scene. if anything, we may have compromised our ability to know what really happened there as far as catching the culprits because bauz more weeks went by with no f.b.i. on the ground. >> schieffer: well, let me just read something more from the interview which as you now know and we stress that was mr. hick's opinions, in response to questions by in

mr. hicks, do you know security recommendations were implemented? were there security recommendations that were implemented? john martin came on board and worked on things that eric was working on before to strengthen our security rt in libya. after the attacks we worked on a list of security improvements that had to be made in tripoli for us to remain there, i cabled that list into the department after congressman chaffetz' visit. i learned later that that cable was not well received. to the a.r.b.'s credit, when they saw that, they sent it to undersecretary kennedy and suggested that every recommendation in that cable be implemented. >> thank you. i want to sitch gears a little bit. are you aware of any efforts by department officials to limit department witnesses' access to information? i have never seen a classified report so the answer in my espect is yes. >> do you know whether they consciously sought to limit information s of prior to your testimony before this committee. >> i'm not awar

report. >> schieffer: all right. >> and what mr. hicks said. i think there are serious questions-- >> schieffer: all right, i'm very sorry, we have to break there. we'll be right back. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. yesterday to former secretary of defense one gates at historic wilin virginia. we asked him to give us his perspective on the benghazi situation. >> first of all, i have to say i only know what i've read in the madia. i haven't had any brief, or anything. i think the one place where i might be able to say something useful has to do with some of the talk about the military response. and i listened to the testimony of both secretary panetta and general dempsey, and frankly had i been in the job at the time, i think my decisions would have been just as theirs were. we don't have a ready force stand buying in the middle east. despite all the turmoil that's goi

. >> so fast forward, mr. hicks, to the sunday talk shows and susan rice.hat was your reaction to that? >> i was stunned. my jaw dropped. i was embarrassed. >> how did the personnel react to being told to stand down? >> they were furious. i can only say, well, i will quote ltd. col. gibson. he said it's the fergus time in my career that a diplomat has more balls than somebody in the military. >> when ambassador stevens talked to you, perhaps minutes before he died, as a dying declaration, what precisely did he say to you? >> he said, greg, we're under attack. >> so the military is told to stand down, not engage in a fight. these are the kind of people willing to engage. where did that message come down? where did the stand down order come from? >> i believe it came from either africom or south africa. >> afterwards we spoke with committee chair darrell issa. nice to see you, sir. >> thanks for covering today's hearing. >> you have gone through all the documents, you have talked to people weeks leading up to this. i'm curious, did you learn anything knew tod

mr. hicks was amazing. could see it in the -- in that video, and as he goes on to say, his gripes were about bureaucratic squabbling more than political scandal. yes there are questions to ask and as you suggest there are answers we might get, but these hearings don't seem to be about that. what struck me is the difference between this hearing and the actual watergate hearing. i keep trying to compare this to watergate. if you go back to sam irvin, a conservative democrat who is very nonpartisan, those are bipartisan hearings are they got to a conspiracy after assembling the facts. in this case, they seem to have several conspiracies in mind, and keep looking to see if there are facts that can back up their preconceived notion. >> the watergate hearings had humility. hard to believe. but the questioners were kind of humbly going forward and you could see with a lot of them it was a grim duty. they kind of didn't want it to be this bad. and these guys had a political conspiracy from the start, which was susa

the witness, mr. hicks the note taker said he said during that meeting. how would you like to be responsible for something that a note taker took and decided you had said? now guess what, how devious they are at the state department, you know what they are doing? now they are saying, well you know what mr. hicks told the arb is know the what he said when he was testifying in front of congress. and i think, give me the transcript, because you don't have one. martha: the attention brought back to this case, thanks to your client, your husband's client, the revelation of these emails, is completely different. i mean when i watch the morning news channels, everybody is now clearly paying attention to this story. so what happens now? do we have another review board? do we reopen this case? do we hear more testimony from hillary clinton? i know lindsey graham would like to see that happen. what do you think happens next? >> i think congress and the house because they have the majority, do you think the democrats

and in fact the chief of mission mr. hicks, my client, mr. thompson, actually on duty that night, mr. hicks was on the ground in benghazi. he became the acting ambassador when ambassador stevens was murdered. my client was in the counterterrorism facility at the department of state. the committee had never heard from them before and they revealed all sorts of new facts about how information was not shared, about how the military standdown -- they learned about it. shocked by the fact the military was not deployed. yesterday's hearing, which lasted almost eight hours, revealed an entire sheath of new on the ground information that people never heard before. >> speaker boehner is now involved. he is the speaker of the house. does that up the ante, and what is likely to be -- what is possibly in these e-mails that he now wants released? >> well, what is in the e-mails is all of the communication that went on between the white house and the state department about how to handle this, how to talk about it, how to play it publicly, and how to protec

. >> so fast forward, mr. hicks, to the talk shows that ambassador susan rice, she blamed this attack on the video. she did it five different times. what was your reaction to that? >> i was stunned. my jaw dropped. and i was embarrassed. >> hicks who served as ambassador stephen's second in command said effectively demoted for questioning the administration's actions. he referenced an angry phone call he received from the chief of staff to then secretary of state hillary clinton according to him was upset that he spoke with a republican congressman without a state department lawyer present. the state department denies claims that mr. hicks faced retaliation for speaking out. for the congressmen, the tone of the hearing and focus on miss clinton pointed to a political agenda. >> what we have seen over the past two weeks is a full scale media campaign that is not designed to investigate what happened in a responsible and bipartisan way, but rather a launch of unfounded occasions to smear public officials. i'm not ques

. >> thank you, mr. hicks. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> we really have to hear, you're a little soft spoken. >> thank you, mr. chairman, ranking members of the committee, i am a career public servant. until the aftermath of benghazi, i loved every day of my job. in my 21 years of government service prior to tripoli, i earned a reputation for being an innovative policymaker who got the job done. i was promoted quickly and received numerous awards. people who worked for me rated my leadership and management skills highly. i have two masters degrees from the university of michigan in applied economics and modern eastern and north african studies. i have served my country extensively in the mideast. besides libya, afghanistan, bahrain, yemen, syria and gambia. i speak fluent arabic. gave me advanced warning on our attacks at the embassy and anti-american agencies. i learned that knowledge of local conditions and strong connections with the local population are as important as the strength and height of walls. one reason i am here

i asked mr. hicks on the witness stand under oath has that ever happened in your 22 years of service in this country in several diplomatic posts around the world have you ever had that kind of order? he said never. first and only time. stop trying to keep us from getting to the truth. give us the information. let's have the hearings. let's let the american people find out what exactly happened. >> how do you respond to criticisms from democrats on the committee that, a, the committee -- republicans on the committee were not as interested in attacks on diplomatic posts that happened during the bush administration, at least 64 during the bush administration, and, b, that house republicans voted to cut funding for diplomatic security? >> charlene lamb testified at the october 12 hearing, the hearing the oversight committee had last year, this was not about resources. the fact eric nordstrom repeatedly asked for additional security personal in libya was not only denied additional help but they had, what th

mr. hicks said, in his testimony, his jaw dropped when he saw susan rice do that. i was on another sunday morning show after susan rice. my jaw dropped. i said, people don't bring rocket-propelled grenades and mortars to spontaneous demonstrations. >> let's look at what happened because of the e-mails. first of all, ambassador tom pickering said the idea of a cover-up is absurd. congressman steven king, republican from iowa, said it was bigger than watergate. and this is what james inhofe said. >> using the "i" word before too long. >> "i" word meaning impeachment? >> yeah. in all of the great cover-ups in history. the pentagon papers, iran-contra, watergate and all the rest of them, this is going to go down as the most serious, most egregious cover-up in american history. >> with all due respect, i think this is a serious issue. i will even give the president the benefit of the doubt on some of these things. we need a select committee. we need a select committee -- >> do you blame hillary clinton? >> i think the secretary of state has played a role in this. >> you

mr. hicksto the sunday talk shows and ambassador suture rice. she blamed this attack on a video. in fact, she did it five different times. what was your reaction to that? >> i was stunned. my jaw dropped. and i was embarrassed. >> hicks, who served as ambassador stevens second in command said he was demoted for questioning the administration's actions. he referenced an angry phone call he received from the chief of staff to then secretary of state hillary clinton who, according to him, was upset that he spoke with a republican congressman without a state department lawyer present at the meeting. >> what did she have to say to you? >> she demanded a report on the visit. >> was she upset by the fact this lawyer -- this -- >> was upset. >> this baby-sitter was not allowed to happen? was sheup set about that fact? >> she was very upset. >> this goes right to the person next to secretary clinton, is that accurate? >> yes, sir. >> here is a guy with 22 years of outstanding service to our country. now

i remember that mr. hicks who was in tripoli he said he was stunned when he heard susan rice mention her firstty ration of what had occurred around the muslim world. there was reaction to language that had-used but he was in tripoli. hundreds of miles away. how did he know what happened? what we know is that general petraeus said that the talking points that were used were scrubbed a little bit to eliminate reference to al-qaeda because they didn't want those terrorists to know that they were under investigation. but there was no stand give to it. we know there has been scaling by a veteran career diplomat, and a former joint chief of staff, so it's not as if we hadn't had any--any investigation. it was very hard to understand why we were here, and if you heard the questions there were many of the same questions that were asked in prior hearings. it was a redo if ever there was one. >> john: some are screaming cover up and conspiracy ever since the bengahzi attacks were first reportedded. was there any evidenc

. >> so fast forward, mr. hicks, to the sunday talk shows and ambassador susanlamed this attaa video. in fact, she did it five different times. what was your reaction to that? >> i was stunned. my jaw dropped. and i was embarrassed. >> though the committee's top democrat criticized darrell issa and his intentions. >> let me be clear, i am not questioning the motives of our witnesses. i am questioning the motives of those who want to use their statements for political purposes. >> late this afternoon congressman chaffetz asked hicks if the u.s. asked permission of the libyans to fly a military mission in its air space. hicks said no, but that he believed the libyans would have granted it. >> bret: mike emmanuel, thank you. there was particular focus today on the now infamous sunday talk show marathon by susan rice. you heard mike mention it. james rosen has that part of the story and more. >> every piece of information that we get and as we got it, we laid it out for the american people. >> if any administration offi

mr. hicks, to the sunday talk shows and ambassador susan rice. she blamed this attack on a video. in fact, she did it five different times. what was your reaction to that. >> i was stunned. my jaw dropped. and i was embarrassed. >> i find it truly disturbing and very unfortunate that when americans come under attack, the first thing some did in this country was attack americans. attack the military. attack the president. attack the state department. attack the former senator from the great state of new york, former secretary of state hillary clinton. >> so bob, these whistleblowers to me do not have a political axe to grind, but that's how it was turned on them when they were testifying. >> you know, i think the ultimate question here is who gave the general in charge of the african command the order to stand down? that is not at all clear to me. the second thing that's not clear to me is if they really could have gotten forces to save stephens' life. certainly they could the other two. the oth

most riveting testimony yesterday was gregory hicks second in command in libya under the slain ambassador christopher stephens. mr. hidges described in visited detail how he tried to get help for the americans under siege in benghazi but was not able to secure cooperation in washington. after showing his displeasure with that, gregory hicks was demoted by hillary clinton. that is unacceptable. honest government is the corner stone of our democracy. there is no question, no question the state department screwed up in libya and mr. hicks, by all indications told the truth. and he was punished for doing that? disgraceful. today speaker of the house john boehner said congress would continue its investigation and hillary clinton certainly needs to come back to testify. mrs. clinton is up to her eyeballs in this. of course, this has political implications for the democratic party because she may very well run for president in 2016. bottom line, americans need to know the truth about what happened in benghazi, why our government mislead the world, and why they did not respond with more urgency on the day of the attack.

in 22 years of service to our cub at various posts around the world, mr. hicksestified that he had never, never had the state department tell him he could not give information to a member of congress without having a lawyer present for those discussions. and this goes right to the top of the state department. cheryl mills is the one who called him after the congressman's visit to ask what took place there and why there was one classified briefing that the lawyer could not attend, what happened in the briefing. so it goes right to cheryl mills, counselor to the secretary, chief of staff to hillary clinton, and that's why -- that was one of the key things i think came from our hearings this past week. >> when you learned this, what was your first reaction? >> well, it kind of confirms what i think a lot of american suspected. you go back to the -- the whole video changing the talking points, as we've now learned 12 different editions. you don't have to edit the truth. 12 different versions of these talking points where ambassador rice goes out on a sunday show and

on wednesday of this week and six hours of testimony mr. hicks described point by point the actions that unfolded that night including frantic phone calls and the frantic brainstorming and how to execute a rescue mission. hicks described the chosen plan. a four man special operations team. he says that the team led by lieu tenten kernel gibbson was -- lieutenant kernel gibbson was intercepted and told to stand down. >> i told him to go bring our people home. >> he said he talked on the phone with hillery clinton on the night of the attack. >> question, how much has the revelation done to erode hillery creditability? >> i think it's a serious problem that we're going to have to look into. i don't think it's really under her creditability. in some fundamental sense these decisions were not made by her to the best of my understanding by the way the story broke. there's something wrong in terms of the way it happened and the way these representatives and diplomats were left hanging. >> john, the problem is this. the initial report from the cia about

. >> mr. hicks, why was ambassador stevens headed to benghazi? there were a lot of security issues and concerns, and mr. nordstrom listed them in numerous reports leading up to his trip there. why was the ambassador headed there? >> according to chris, secretary clinton wanted benghazi converted into a permanent constituent post. >> you just heard about two of the very costly miss steps made by secretary clinton before benghazi. but her actions following the assault are also very troubling. you may recall that she repeatedly blamed a youtube trailer for the attack and even authorized the release of a taxpayer funded psa apologize for the video and that was in pakistan. sadly all of this is merely the tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to hillary clinton's culpability. in other words, benghazi is her new whitewater. it's the scandal that threatens her political future. what happens when the clintons' backs are against the wall? they come out swinging and they throw whoever they have to under the bus so they can survive. with 2016 fast approa

mr. hicks will testify on capitol hill this week, along with several others who will detail the conflicting stories the obama administration told in the days after the attack which left stevens and three other americans dead. mr. hicks was deputy chief of mission at the embassy in tripoli when the u.s. post in benghazi was attacked by heavily armed extremists on september 11. in interviews last month, mr. hicks told investigators, with the house oversight and government reform committee, that an overflight by a u.s. f-15 or f-16 might have prevented the second phase of the attack. after the diplomatic post was overrun and set ablaze that night, killing stevens and foreign service officer sean smith, the survivors took refuge in a nearby c.i.a. building called the annex. that building was in turn attacked at dawn on september 12 when a mortar barrage killed ormer seals glen daugherty and tyrone woods. quote, if we had gotten clearance from the libyan military from an american plane to fly over l

>> no, sir, he did not. >> so fast forward, mr. hicks the sunday talk shows and ambassador susan rice. she blamed this attack on a video. in fact, she did it five different times. what was your reaction to that? >> i was stunned. my jaw dropped, and i was embarrassed. >> bret: a lot of talk about that element. >> i think that was the most dramatic moment of the day. the talking points is kind of a separate issue. there is a question of whether enough was done and the right decisions were made to protect the diplomats and to react as soon as the attacks began. then there is the question of how they described them and now there is a lot of evidence that they knew before ambassador rice went on television that it wasn't a spontaneous protest based on this video. and now the white house says that was the information they had at the time, as soon as they got more information, they corrected it. but it was in the heat of a campaign and you did have susan rice going on many, many tv shows repeating these talking points. >> bret: right. about ta

why is it that mr. hicks what chastised for speaking to the congress of the united states? why wasn't, on september 11th, day that we know will live in infamy, why went military assets positioned? they certainly had amp warning the consulate in benghazi was -- had been threatened and all of the vulnerabilitys vulnerabilitt had been opinion it out by the ambassador. so, so many question that need to be answered. but for the president to say on nationwide tv, this afternoon, that he had called it a terrorist attack, which by the way he did in the debate with romney, corroborated with the moderator. >> neil: i remember that. between this and his recollection of it and then his anger over the irs thing, do you trust this administration? do you think they have a serious problem with the truth? >> well, every administration obviously tries to do what it took avoid bad news. that's the nature of presidencies and administrations, and second-term presidents even ronald reagan have had extreme difficulty mitchell quest

not 3:00 and according to mr. hicks, she did not call for action. she said tell us what happened. she didn't say act, act, she said wait, wait, waited. >> megyn: and hicks said the top deputy was very upset to talking to congressional investigators about the event and soon after he do the demoted. >>> we have a twist in cleveland cleveland. see what she said next. as a talk to a hostage negotiator. don't miss it. this with will be of an interesting segment. >> we may have first amendment fight involving texas cheerleader leaders and the bible. vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve military members, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. >>. >> megyn: back to an update three women held hostage for more than a decade in cleveland by a man who is facing a bond of $8 million. as we learn the suspect'

>>steve: let's talk a little bit about mr. hicks, gregory hicks. here's something, a preview of his testimony. he says quote, i think everybody in the mission thought it was a terrorist attack from the beginning. i never reported a demonstration. although that's what the talking points were. i reported an attack on the consolate. chris's last report, if you want to say, his final report is, greg, we are under attack. >>brian: you know what's amazing? it comes out when susan rice came forward and says this was a demonstration, spontaneous attack and said it on several different talk shows, and she was either preceded or followed up by the libyan president saying the opposite. we knew it was terrorist attack. we warned the embassy about al qaeda's presence. they were looking to attack america and were ignored. they say the president was so insulted, he was positioned as a liar. but what he said was telling the truth. he prevented the investigation from moving forward almost as pun sh-fplt think about that. we can't investigate, the f.b.i. can't get o

mr. hicks iseo going to testify wednesday. i've been talking to him for about two months. people are scared to come forward, and the president needs to make sure that those who come forward are going to do so without having to fear losing their job or being any reprisals. this administration has been trying to hide the story of benghazi, and finally it's going to come out thanks to fox news and a few other outlets. >> what did mr. hicks say to you? can you give us some indication of what we might anticipate hearing this week? >> i think the whole construct of heow bad it was before, how many times they asked, for help and nobody would listen. you're going to be surprised to hear what he says about the interaction between him and washington. he's the number two guy. he was chris stephens' deputy. he was on the phone with chris right before he died. he's going to give you a chilling story of what it was like and how much -- how little help he received, and he's going to telled yo you about how he ft when he heard susan rice write this off to a spontaneous riot caused by hate

i can tell you that i know from our hearing that mr. hickswas on the ground, was not even consulted as the administration, who knows why, perpetrated this narrative that was based on fiction. >> let me ask you, do you know if the secretary of state at the time, hillary clinton, was involved in any way in prepping susan rice for that appearance on "meet the press"? appropriately, you said, didn't give the full or accurate story. was the secretary of state involved? because what's going on here, the big names are getting -- sixth time you said it. >> the administration official goes on national television and says -- fiction -- that's what obviously we're trying to get down to. the president says he has released e-mails only because the congress asked. he's not stepped forward and said, excuse me, i learned a lead administration official on my behalf told a fiction to the nation. that's what he should be focusing on. >> fair enough. in the course of your investigations, mr. turner, have you come up with any e-mail that suggests the president wa

. >> so fast forward, mr. hicks to the sunday talk shows and ambassador susan rice.d this attack on a video. in fact, she did it five different times. what was your reaction to that? >> i was stunned. my jaw dropped. and i was embarrassed. >> as for the other two witnesses, mr. thompson and mr. nordstrom, a lot of the point they made is that a lot of the decision-making about what went down in response to benghazi were made at a much higher level. shep? >> shepard: mike emanuel, thank you. we are just getting started on this coverage. more on the attack in benghazi that left four americans dead. at the center of today's hearings. questions about exactly what happened. when it happened. and how the obama administration responded. how the pentagon official time line figures into all of this. team fox coverage continues. the attack in benghazi, that's next. this mig get bumpy. red hot deal days are back. don't waste another minute. it's red hot deal days. get the droid razr m by motorola in white for free. everything droid does in a compact design. or the droid razr hd

well, mr. hicksing his testimony yesterday provided us with a lot more detail than we had previously had about his role and about what they were doing in the embassy in tripoli. he describes the conversation he had with the defense attache in which the defense attache explained that he had -- was on the phone with africa command and the joint staff. so this would be the military commanders that are responsible for security in libya. and they explained to the defense attache that there were fighter planes, the closest were in aviano, italy, it would be a two to three-hour flight to get there and that there were no air tanker refuelers that were capable of servicing them. >> woodruff: so either too far away and not the ability to make the trip. >> correct. >> woodruff: and what about -- but we were also told that there was a question about special operations. a small contingent of special operations forces who were in tripoli. >> the marines have what's referred to as fast teams which are positioned in