Former Obama White House senior adviser David Plouffe said Sunday that there is no Benghazi conspiracy and that a “very loud, delusional minority” of the Republican party is attempting to politicize the non-issue.
During a roundtable discussion on “This Week” Sunday, Plouffe, an ABC News contributor, said that the “smoking gun” email was being used by a minority of Republicans that he argues is controlling the party and attempting to politicize the tragedy that occurred at the Benghazi American consulate. Citing George W. Bush’s call for unity after the USS Cole bombing, Plouffe argued that the Republicans should do what Bush would do and try to unite the country:
The USS Cole bombing, 17 of our sailors died weeks before the 2000 election. What did then Governor [George w.] Bush say? It's time for a nation to speak as one voice. This has been politicized like we've never seen before and I think what's happening, Richard Nixon talked about a silent majority back in 1968, there's a very loud, delusional minority that's driving our politics, that's in control of the Republican Party. There is no conspiracy here at all.
Plouffe contended that the Republicans should simply see this for what it is, "a tragedy," and that the sole focus should be on preventing it from happening again:
I think lawyers have spoken to this and it's out now... What Benghazi was was a tragedy. What we need to do is figure out how to prevent it from happening again and to try and hold those accountable as we did bin Laden. It took a while, but after 11 years we did.
Syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham, who also serves as an ABC contributor, called out Plouffe on his hypocrisy, arguing that "the politicizing was going on at the White House" and that the email demonstrates that this was true “from the beginning”:
What we know now from the email is that from the beginning, the administration saw Benghazi as a political problem. You’re on that email, you were the White House senior political advisor, and this was a political problem. You had a tough campaign. You had Mitt Romney. You didn’t think it was going to be a blowout at that point. You said on Sept. 30th, 2012, “In the days afterward it wasn’t clear it was a terror attack. You said in November, right before the election, you said it’s “unprecedented politicization.” The politicizing was going on at the White House—and that email was clear evidence of it...
Ingraham also highlighted that we still “have no one in custody,” slamming the administration for responding politically rather than in the best interests of the U.S.:
First of all, we have to not forget we have four dead Americans, the U.S. ambassadors' body was dragged through the streets. It was beyond heartbreaking and beyond infuriating. We still have no one in custody, we have an arrest warrant out, and no one in custody, and in the immediate aftermath, the response was to go political.