After a previously leaked White House email was revealed to be false, Press Secretary Jay Carney insisted that the administration has provided "to the relevant committees as well as leadership and staff [the emails]," He didn't promise that any further emails will be disclosed.
An email from a top White House official involved in drafting the talking points on the terrorist attack at the U.S. mission in Benghazi last September draws into question a leaked narrative portraying the administration sharing the State Department’s desire to shield itself from criticism.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes wrote in a newly public email, “we must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department,” while The Weekly Standard reported that Rhodes “explain[ed] that [State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland] had raised valid concerns” and that those concerns would be addressed in the following day’s meeting, according to sources familiar with an email sent by Rhodes.
Yet the actual email, first obtained by CNN on Tuesday, shows a very different situation.
In an email dated Friday, September 14–three days after the Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans, and two days before Obama administration officials including U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on Sunday talk shows–Rhodes wrote, “There is a ton of wrong information getting out into the public domain from Congress and people who are not particularly informed. Insofar as we have firmed up assessments that don’t compromise intel or the investigation, we need to have the capability to correct the record, as there are significant policy and messaging ramifications that would flow from a hardened mis-impression.”
The original reporting stemmed from sources familiar with the emails, not the emails themselves. The White House released its communications to Congress as part of an investigation, under the condition the materials would not be shared.
During Tuesday’s briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney accused “Republicans who were leaking these e-mails” of doctoring the message for political gain.
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“I think it just reinforces what we’ve seen, which is an ongoing effort to politicize this… to cherry-pick information or, in this case, just make it up in order to fit a political narrative,” Carney said Tuesday.
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It was determined in the weeks after the attacks that the violence in Benghazi did not stem from a spontaneous protest, as originally reported, but was a premeditated terrorist attack. Republicans charged the Obama administration with staging a cover-up in the weeks leading up to the November presidential election. Rice, amid heavy criticism from congressional Republicans, withdrew her name from consideration to succeed former Secretary Hillary Clinton as head of the State Department, citing the talking points controversy.
Tuesday’s revelation and accusations of political bias in leaking an incorrect email summary to reporters has renewed pressure on the White House to release its communications in the wake of the Benghazi attack.
Carney, during Wednesday’s press briefing, insisted that the administration has provided “to the relevant committees as well as leadership and staff the very emails that we’re talking about–and that was a concession, a unique concession to a long-standing position held by administrations of both parties going back years, that internal deliberations are not something we divulge or make public.”
“I can also tell you that we are also looking at ways we can provide more information about this specific issue,” Carney added.