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You are here: Home / David Gregory Lies About Obama Doing Al Qaeda Victory Dance

David Gregory Lies About Obama Doing Al Qaeda Victory Dance

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Quit lyin’, bro.

The Republicans are desperately trying to turn the attack on the consulate in Benghazi into President Obama’s 9/11. (Yeah, I said it.)

Ever helpful when it comes to Republican efforts to mislead the public, David Gregory flat-out lied — twice –on Meet the Press yesterday when he said — twice — that President Obama had already claimed victory over al Qaeda back in May, and that’s why he was not sufficiently concerned about al Qaeda in order to prevent the attack in Benghazi.

GREGORY: The President has said as recently as May of this year that al Qaeda has not had a chance to rebuild, that al Qaeda has been defeated. There is an election on, as we’ve been talking about, and the President’s challenger said plain and simple, the President failed to level with the American people and call this a terrorist attack, because you had to be concerned about another terrorist attack from al Qaeda in the Middle East after the President said that al Qaeda had been defeated.

Except, as Think Progress notes, no he didn’t, David Gregory. Like, not even a little.

[cross-posted at ABLC]

Update: I screwed up the links. I just fixed them. I’ve been running around in Venice all day, trying to avoid getting hippies all over me.

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  3. 3.

    rea

    How, exactly does the president of he United States prevent a riot in a foriegn city? Particualrly since talking nice is off the table . . .

  4. 4.

    piratedan

    saw that, Plouffe pushed back on it, each time and you could tell it was a new talking point they were taking out for a spin

  11. 11.

    Zifnab

    @rea: The same way any penny ante dictator would. Start lining dissidents up and shooting them.

    Obama just isn’t the brave fascist thug our politicians are clamoring for.

  12. 12.

    Hill Dweller

    @Ash Can: It’s not an either/or proposition. Gregory is both stupid and partisan.

    Dancin’ Dave needed the lie, because there was no other “evidence” of Obama’s supposed indifference to Al Qaeda.

    This should actually be a bigger story.

  13. 13.

    Zifnab

    @rea: The same way any penny ante dictator would. Start lining dissidents up and shooting them.

    Obama just isn’t the brave fascist generalissimo our politicians are clamoring for.

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Given the media we have, it’s a wonder this country isn’t more fucked up than it is.

    I gave up on the Sunday shows years ago, but just seeing the clips and pictures from yesterday: John McCain, Peter King, Marshal Blackburn– a bitter confused old war monger, the know-nothing loudmouth who made you stop going to your favorite bar, and a smarmy junior leaguer, and they’re still smarter than a mouth-breathing CW-bots tossing them respectful softballs. Chris Christie, I think it was attaturk who tagged him the New John McCain, at least isn’t a moron, just a dishonest partisan hack.

  19. 19.

    Steve

    The same people who give Bush a free pass on 3,000 American deaths are outraged that Obama isn’t held personally responsible for 4. It’s mind-boggling.

  20. 20.

    Hill Dweller

    It’s sad to see Benen steer clear of this over at Maddow’s blog. Gregory working for NBC shouldn’t prevent any criticism from Benen/Maddow.

  21. 21.

    rlrr

    @Zifnab:

    Obama just isn’t the brave fascist generalissimo our politicians are clamoring for.

    And yet, at the same time, Obama is worse than Hitler.

  22. 22.

    Linda Featheringill

    I really don’t understand this particular kerfuffle.

    In times of such emergencies, it isn’t important what you name the situation. What you do about it is important.

    The appropriate response would have been to first secure the situation and see to the well being of people involved and secondly to investigate while looking into all possibilities. I think the Administration did these things.

    Are the critics saying that the investigation itself was flawed? Are they saying that Administration actions were limited or altered by what was said or not said?

    I don’t understand.

  23. 23.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Hill Dweller:

    This should actually be a bigger story.

    Absolutely, but the only people on TeeVee who might point out that David Gregory is dumber than his hair all get their (I suspect much smaller) paychecks signed by the same people who sign DG’s; all the people at very serious print/web outfits would skip their grandmother’s funeral to appear on his roundtable.

  24. 24.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    Laaaaadeeeeeez and gentlemen, we have a Claude!

    David Gregory spouting bullshit Repup talking points on his Sunday morning show?

    That one wins this week’s Claude Rains Memorial Gambling Awareness Award.

    Like Jim in #16, I stopped watching things like This Week With George Stephanopholous’s hair a loooooong time ago. The lower the ratings, the sooner the networks will replace the shows with something far more better for the country, yunno, hour long infomercials for DVD collections of 60s teevee shows.

  25. 25.

    Culture of Truth

    Why would anyone in Libya be upset at the U.S.? Just because we recently helped overthrow the government….

  26. 26.

    Culture of Truth

    Gregory, twice:
    How can America “work its will” in Libya?

    Some new euphemism, I guess.

  28. 28.

    trollhattan

    “Super-Stretch” tryin’ to make it a horse race. Useful idiot not particularly useful.

    This is good news for John McCain.

  29. 29.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Steve:

    The same people who give Bush a free pass on 3,000 American deaths are outraged that Obama isn’t held personally responsible for 4. It’s mind-boggling.

    they have the gall to talk about an “intelligence failure” barely a month after inviting Condi PDB Rice to speak at their convention. It boggles the mind and churns the stomach.

  31. 31.

    Seanly

    Do they know that just saying something is worse than Watergate doesn’t make it so? What about the president’s remarks on the Libya attack would be an impeachable offense? Were we supposed to carpet-bomb Libya in response or something? This people make no sense…

  33. 33.

    MikeJ

    @rlrr:

    Over the weekend I heard some clips from conservatives whining about how Obama abandoned our ally, Qaddafi…

    I doubt you’ll ever hear that said in a Scottish accent.

  36. 36.

    Culture of Truth

    We should ask Jeffrey Toobin. Apparently he’s an expert on the middle east now.

  37. 37.

    some other guy

    OT, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has laid the smackdown on American Express to the tune of $85 million dollars in refunds.

    For those keeping score, this year alone the CFPB has forced CapitalOne, Discover, and American Express to refund HALF A BILLION DOLLARS to around six million of their customers.

    Of course, it goes without saying the Republicans, including Mitt Romney, opposed the creation of the CFPB want to eliminate it.

  39. 39.

    Balconesfault

    @trollhattan: That’s how I see it.

    The corporate media guys have had to kiss an awful lot of asses to be in the position to narrate this race call down the stretch.

    They really, really want it to seem close enough that people are paying attention to them.

  41. 41.

    ? Martin

    @some other guy:

    For those keeping score, this year alone the CFPB has forced CapitalOne, Discover, and American Express to refund HALF A BILLION DOLLARS to around six million of their customers.

    Socialism! Wealth redistribution!

  42. 42.

    Anoniminous

    Question: Who gives a shit what David Gregory says?

    Answer: Hardly anybody.

    Last month, “Meet the Press’s” weekly rating hit a 20-year low among viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 — the currency of news programming.

    On the first Sunday of June, the public-affairs show averaged 2.46 million total viewers of all ages — but just 687,000 viewers in that key age bracket — which was its smallest 25-to-54 demographic performance for a regular broadcast since July of ’92. “Meet the Press” got beat in the demographic by ABC News’s “This Week” that week — the first time it bested both Gregory’s show and CBS’s “Face the Nation” in two years.

  44. 44.

    The Moar You Know

    For those keeping score, this year alone the CFPB has forced CapitalOne, Discover, and American Express to refund HALF A BILLION DOLLARS to around six million of their customers.

    @some other guy: I am keeping score. They laid the fucking hammer down on Discover, and rightfully so. Still pocket change compared to what these companies make, but at least CFPB is no longer grabbing pennies, but actual bills.

    Movement in the right direction.

  45. 45.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Anoniminous:

    Question: Who gives a shit what David Gregory says?

    the sad answer is: Too many Democrats. One of things I like about the Obama team is they give a fuck what the Beltway says, i.e. with the hand-wringing over Bain capital. Ezra Klein IIRC posted a few months ago that he was in an elevator with two D Senators and one asked the other in a concerned tone, “Did you read Friedman today?” Again IIRC it was a bold and original call from Das Musstash to ‘get serious’ about ‘entitlements’. You think one of those chuckleheads, even a Franken or a Mikulski, has ever said “Did you read Krugman today?”?

  46. 46.

    Chris

    @rlrr:

    Over the weekend I heard some clips from conservatives whining about how Obama abandoned our ally, Qaddafi…

    One of the funniest things I read during the Libyan revolution was that it turned out Qaddafi had, in fact, been keeping up a WMD program of sorts despite his official “change of heart”… thus contradicting a decade of Bush supporters’ “ha! See? Our tough guy act scared Qaddafi!” thing. Turns out Qaddafi was really just running a con on them all that time. Boy, what a world, eh?

  50. 50.

    Roger Moore

    @rea:

    How, exactly does the president of he United States prevent a riot in a foriegn city? Particualrly since talking nice is off the table . . .

    Bomb them back into the stone age Take off and nuke them from orbit; it’s the only way to be sure.

  51. 51.

    maya

    @Violet:

    Dancin’ Dave is moderating the Brown-Warren debate tonight. Ugh. Fucking Smug ChipmunkChimp-punk.

    More in keeping with his simian features.

  53. 53.

    FlipYrWhig

    @rlrr: See, the difference is, Bush kept us safe after 9/11, but Obama hasn’t kept us safe after the Benghazi attack. No, wait, I mean, you can tell from how this went down that Obama will have had to have had not kept us safe by the time of the next attack, while Bush successfully kept us safe after 9/11, apart from overseas attacks on diplomatic facilities, which, um, LOOK JIMMY CARTER!!.

  55. 55.

    Anoniminous

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    To me that means Dems need to go on those shows and rip ’em a new asshole using the Ken Livingstone testimony before that House Committee as the DIY How-To.

    The slimeballs aren’t used to Push-Back so they’d have a Mittastrophe on national television.

  56. 56.

    the Conster

    Isn’t the security at the embassies and consulates Hillary’s job? Why aren’t the wingnuts going after her? And when did the right start admiring Bill? Wingnuts iz weird.

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    @some other guy:

    Of course, it goes without saying the Republicans, including Mitt Romney, opposed the creation of the CFPB want to eliminate it.

    Sure. You see $500M in refunds to consumers. They see $500M in cuts to corporations’ bottom lines. Since corporations are people, my friend, that’s hurting Mitt Romney’s friends.

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @the Conster: Peter King is a professional Mick who loves Bill Clinton for his work in Ireland, IIRC he even opposed impeachment. John McCain hates everyone who beats him and has convinced himself that Hillary is, like The McCain, a victim of that cheater Obama. Also too, the last thing the professional wing nuts want is to get Bill Clinton mad, and spending more time campaigning.

    It just occurred to me that the 2014 elections could be really interesting, as the Clintons start campaigning to build her up for the big one (assuming, of course…). Two very popular (temporarily) retired political stars could be the end of Speaker Boner.

  60. 60.

    Xenos

    @FlipYrWhig: Had a face book friend declare that Obama was not tough enough, like Reagan, to make terrorists too scared to attack us. A few photos from Beirut shut him up.

    Then I felt disgusted with myself for using such an atrocity to make points. Point needed to be made, tho.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @Culture of Truth:

    Dr. Juan Cole has had some great ongoing coverage — this was basically part of an internal struggle by Islamists to try and damage the new government (which Stevens helped set up):

    ‘Free Libya’ Crowds in Benghazi rally against militias

    By all accounts, Ambassador Stevens was extremely popular in Libya because of his role in the revolution and Libyans are VERY pissed that he was murdered by extremists.

    @Xenos:

    My brother had breakfast at that Marine barracks that very morning in 1983 and missed the bombing by less than an hour, so you can tell your Facebook friend from me that he can go fuck himself.

    (Did you know your congressman can get you a ship-to-shore call from your mother even when the whole fleet is on security lockdown? My dad apparently called in a favor or two since my mom was afraid to answer the door for two weeks in case there were two Marines in uniform standing there.)

  62. 62.

    Roger Moore

    @Xenos:

    Then I felt disgusted with myself for using such an atrocity to make points.

    Why? It’s not as if you brought up Beirut just for the shock value. You can’t make a point about Reagan’s failure to protect us from terrorist attacks without bringing up the attacks he didn’t protect against, and that means discussing atrocities. It’s an inherent problem with discussing terrorism; you’re going to wind up discussing some disturbing stuff.

  64. 64.

    The Moar You Know

    Then I felt disgusted with myself for using such an atrocity to make points. Point needed to be made, tho.

    @Xenos: You poked him with a needle for a few seconds, after the Republican Party spent eight years beating the shit out of anyone that wasn’t on board with their attempt to make America a real-life version of 1984 with 9/11.

    Fight fire with fire or die in the flames. None of us picked this war, but we have to fight it with any weapons we can use.

  66. 66.

    El Cid

    Super-God Ronald Reagan tried and failed to destroy Qaddafi and his regime.

    Something tells me that if Republicans told him it might risk the lives of Embassy workers in Libya in the dangerous environment after the successful overthrow of Qaddafi, he would have gone for it.

    Yeah, okay GOP, bring this one on.

    You fucks loudmouthed for years about how angry grrr grrr grrr you were against Qaddafi, and even bombed his own residence, but you’re going to portray the policy which led to Qaddafi’s overthrow, capture, and death as a failure?

    Good luck with that.

    Hope that sells as well as ‘but Obama bragged too much about bin Laden’.

  68. 68.

    kay

    I don’t think this will work.
    One of the nice things about having a President who doesn’t use fear as a political tool is, people aren’t as fearful.
    I think conservatives and media have wrung all the juice they were going to get out of “keeping us safe”
    Can’t stay terrified forever!
    I AM glad they’re trying it though, because it means they’re not getting enough traction on the economy to win.
    Maybe they can scare the shit out of people on.. THE FISCAL CLIFF! We’ll see, because I bet 10,000 dollars they roll that out after this.
    We’re going to FALL OFF A CLIFF unless we elect the douchebag twins.

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