As his media blitz to promote his book continues, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta appeared on The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Tuesday night for a wide-ranging interview.

O'Reilly asked about the evening of the Benghazi attacks and Panetta revealed he advised the President that night that the attack was an act of terrorism and not a protest linked to a YouTube video:

"We told the president that there's an attack that's going on, that terrorists are involved in the attack, and, as a result, we have to respond to it."

O'Reilly pointed out Amb. Susan Rice's now-infamous interviews on the Sunday news shows in which she blamed a YouTube video that some viewed as "anti-Muslim" for the attacks. Panetta said he believed, at the time, that the "Benghazi talking points were not on point."

Earlier in the day, Panetta told MSNBC's Andrew Mitchell more details about his view of the Benghazi attacks the night they occurred and his disagreements with then-CIA Director David Petraeus​:

“I didn’t have any specific information, but the fact was that when you bring grenade launchers to a demonstration, something else is going on. From the very beginning I sensed that this was an attack, a terrorist attack on the compound. I remember saying look, based on the ones I see and the nature of the attack, I think this was a terrorist attack. He said look, the information we are getting from intelligence sources is that it really was a demonstration. I said you know, David, i don’t see it that way.”

Many observers see Panetta's revelations and criticisms as a way for Hillary Clinton to separate herself from Obama's failed policies and his mishandling of the Benghazi affair. However, as Bryan Preston at PJ Media points out, the new information about the narrative we've heard about the events of September 11, 2012 actually damage Clinton's judgment and actions that night and the intervening weeks:

Both President Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the protest point of view. For weeks after the attack both Clinton and Obama blamed the attack on an obscure YouTube video. The producer of that video was later arrested and spent a year in prison on parole violations.

Up to now, Panetta’s criticisms of Obama’s handling of foreign policy, in particular his handling of Iraq and the rise of the Islamic State, could be seen through the lens of Panetta tearing away at Obama to help his longtime friend Hillary Clinton distance herself from the unpopular president as she gears up to run for president in 2016.

But Panetta’s Benghazi comments are different. Clinton stood before the bodies of the four Americans who were killed in the Benghazi attack and blamed the protest. She reportedly told the parents of one of the slain Americans that a video was to blame, and its producer would be prosecuted. He was.