We had a busy Meet the Press this morning as the aftermath of General Petraeus' affair as well as his closed-door testimony to Congressional Intelligence committees about the attack in Benghazi have lit up Washington.
The administration's response to the attack that left four Americans dead has been the subject of debate for both sides. United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice has come under fire for comments made on Meet the Press and other programs in mid-September arguing that what happened in Benghazi was a spontaneous demonstration in response to an anti-Islamic video posted on the internet rather than a planned terrorist attack.
However, House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers (R-MI) said this morning on the program that the intelligence community knew it was a terrorist attack from the beginning and some have questioned whether the administration withheld calling it a terror attack for political reasons. Rogers stopped short of an outright accusation as whether Rice's talking points were deliberately changed saying instead that it is dangerous to make those charges. "I know the narrative was wrong and the intelligence was right. Now, getting between there and there, I think you have to be careful about making those accusations."
Later in the program, Senator Lindsey Graham made the case that the Obama administration did change the story for political gain. Citing recent examples of the administration’s success that include public disclosure of classified information via press accounts, he questioned, " [I]f they would leak classified to make him look good, would they withhold information to prevent him from looking bad? I think you could say, ‘Look at that.’”
Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) defended the administration saying, "There was only one thing that was changed. And I've checked into this. I believe it to be absolute fact. And that was the word ‘consulate’ was changed to ‘mission.’ That's the only change that anyone in the White House made."
Chairman Rogers also made news by suggesting there was a chance the president knew about Petraeus' affair before he was officially told on election day. "I'm not sure the president was not told before election day." Rogers was quick to clarify his remarks, saying that there is a possibility and that they "could resolve this very quickly with a conversation in the intelligence spaces." Again, Feinstein was also quick to point out "there is no evidence of that."
It's a complex story that, as David points out above, we're sure will continue to develop.
You can watch the entire program on our website including our roundtable that addressed more of the General Petraeus affair as well as the looming battle over the fiscal cliff in Washington.
We'll be back next week. If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press.
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Until MTP returns to a trusted centered commentary and agenda from its leaders I won't be watching Mr. Gregory. You lost me during the 2012 elections and I meant it when I said this parting of the ways has made me sad. Always looked forward to MTP all my life. Good memories. But now...I might as well use the time wisely working hard to promote the equality your program once stood for.
Even though I disagree with your assessment of the level and "direction" of the commentary on MTP, I respect your POV. I do think that David does ask tough questions to both Democrats and Republicans, and, the panel of guests after the "newsmakers" are on, are outstanding in their own assessments of the issues.
I wonder if what Mitt Romney, was saying as this, was unfolding has anything to do with how the statements were made! It seems to me like Romney, and others was prematurely, confusing the facts, before anyone could gather enough information to even make a statement! If they revue Romney's statements it could give them some possibly more insight, as to why! At the very least it was poor judgement to rant on about this without actually knowing what exactly did take place!
Benghazi has become the only outlet for Republicans to show their unhapiness about having lost the last presidential election. They are spending a lot of energy on that going nowhere lest than becoming to tally irrelevant. They loss that narrative badly during the campaing. Mitt Romney got spanked by the president trying to go for the kill and left it alone in the last day of the campaing. They lost and then some and now they risk to look really small.
David, I am perplexed as to why you and NBC would give Lindsay Graham and his conspiracy theories air time. He and John McCain are a couple of bitter old men and increasing irrelevant.
I also wish you would persevere in your questioning more, like Tim Russert did. When someone doesn't answer your question, you generally don't react too much.
I completely agree with you Lauriee~Lindsay Graham is out for blood and he along with McCain will stop at nothing to try to go on a witch hunt. Most of the their colleagues are distancing themselves from them and for good reason. They don't want to look like they are sore losers (which Graham and McCain are) and they are worried about what it makes their party look like.
I want to know what happened and why the sons of our people died and weren't protected or helped when they begged for both. And I want to know who was involved in the obvious cover up. I expect the press to do its job to get to the bottom of this mess. And that doesn't mean giving any credibility to Diane Feinsteins ramble about the mental stability of our generals when they leave the service. Everyone is having a love fest with Patreous. I am not so sure he deserves it. He heard what the whitehouse was trying to sell. He knew it was all a lie. He should have held a press conference setting the record straight. He didn't do it because he had that personal mess hanging over his head that he knew would be leaked to the press if he opened his mouth. Finally, Petraeous didn't resign because he had an affair. He resigned because he knew that the administration knew that he had the affair and he knew that the affair made him a pawn of the administration.
Think about it! Who resigns and announces to the world that you are resigning because you had an affair? You resign for personal reasons. You don't embarrass your wife and family unless you have a damn good reason. The reason was to take the threat of exposure away from whomever he believed would use it against him. AND THE FBI SHOULD NOT BE INVESTIGATING PATREOUS FOR ANYTHING RIGHT NOW. THIS MAN IS STILL GOING TO BE CALLED TO GIVE MORE TESTIMONY AND, FRANKLY, IT LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE IS STILL TRYING TO INTIMIDATE HIM. This stuff may work in Chicago but it ain't gonna work here.
WEll, if you do some fact checking you will find out that not one but two times..Hillary asked for funding to protect the Embassy's around the world..but good old BOEHNER refused her as recently as AUGUST..she told him this was dangerous..and the Republicans still said NO!!! IMO..they are really to blame..if they would of been there for OBAMA and done what they were getting paid to do by us..the tax payers, instead of being the ass's they have been..these people would of gotten the extra security that was asked for! but they wanted to HURT OBAMA and they hurt others instead and all of us too!!!
see below - struggling with edit function.
Unfortunately entities such as ThinkProgress totally misrepresented what Rogers said.
ThinkProgress @thinkprogress
Top Republican suggests Obama sat on Petraeus scandal until after the election: http://thkpr.gs/SFa63b
Don't these guys get it? We want them to work for the American people not their own bigoted ideologues! Get to work!
What media outlets such as MTP don't seem to understand is that the "Benghazi crisis" is just an "in the beltway" crisis. In general, America has moved on. They are more worried about the fiscal cliff than Benghazi. The GOP did not lose the election because the American voting public did not know all the facts of Benghazi before the election. I think most Americans knew from the outset that there was some sort of terrorism element, so that isn't exactly a big surprise. I think most Americans accept that all of the details were not immediately available, i.e. "the Susan Rice crisis". Unless the GOP moves off these conspiracy theories and gets down to business on the economy, i.e. coming to a compromise with the WH, they will not be successful in 2016 either. Stop wasting time with McCain and Graham, two men who should fade into the woodwork, or devote their efforts to helping veterans. Frankly, I'm bored with their conspiracies and nailing Susan Rice to the wall. And BTW, most of us are bored in the "why weren't we told sooner" whining of Congressional members, about the Patraeus scandal. If they had been told sooner, how would that have changed anything other than them using that for political fodder. Do they honestly think if the Petraeus scandal had broken before the election, Obama wouldn't have been re-elected?
AMEN!!!! and AMEN again times infinity!
Ditto.... if I want to here this point of view -
I'll turn on Fox News. I am EXTREMELY dissappointed in NBCNews... it appears you are more concerned with giving the right-wing air time than reporting news worthy events. Such a dissapointment!
I would like to know who is going to pay $75000.00 back to the taxpayers for that commercial that was run in Pakistan apologizing for the youtube video. Hillary Clinton and President Obama appeared in the commercial. The commercial started running on October 11th almost a month after we knew that the video had nothing to do with anything.
I would also like to know why the FBI went to see Petraeous in October when they were investigating the emails in May. It took five months for the FBI to tell Petraeous that they were not going to pursue any charges? Why, right when Patreous and the CIA laid blame at the foot of Obama and put out a statement that the CIA never ordered anybody to "standdown" in Libya, did the FBI find it necessary to go to Patraeous to talk about the investigation of the affair?
It appears to me that the Administration did not want to pull out of Benghazi, like the Red Cross and the British did, because it would have screwed up the campaign's claims that Obama had terrorism under control. For this same reason, the State Department denied the Ambassador's requests for more security. For this same reason, an armed drone wasn't sent to blow out the terrorists who were killing our people. For this same reason, Susan Rice was sent out to sell a flat out lie to the public.
Gregory acted so shocked about all of this. Why? It's the Chicago way.
What we have here is a failure to communicate.........facts. Who is guilty? MSNBC and liberal media outlets and OBAMA(not petrius or rice). Disinformation and/or lack of information who is embedded or in bed with the Democrat Party. Talullah up there is a "perfect example" of Democrats "closed eye" approach to any and all, controversies attributed to Democrats. Four Americans dead here, nothing to see...move on. But we all know how "important" Benghazi would be, if it was a Republican in the White House. Liberals are so used to being hypocrites, they don't even bother anymore to worry about if it appears as if they are, its simply a "given". America HAS NOT "moved on", liberal media is trying to push America past this. This has nothing to do about who said what when, its what did Obama do as he watched REAL TIME video of the ATTACK, as it happened........and why did he not SEND HELP and why did HE and others try to blame this on a video and NOT al Qaeda?
The REAL story behind this is the BLATANT ARROGANCE of Democrats who ACTUALLY believe that Obama should not even be "bothered" with this. I mean Democrats ACTUALLY believe this Administration is ELITE and ABOVE reproach...literally and how DARE anyone question our "dear leader'...just move on......Obama stood on a "tarmack" said a few words over the caskets so the families of the dead, should just move on as well....end of story.
well i have a couple of things to say regrding this paetraous thing, one it started out as a man cheating o his wife, in this country everyone wants to know things in real time even if it means getting it wrong because they have not done any thorough investigation, it is being between a rock and a hard place, this all goes to trust, basically trust is the question here and that is the trust of the people with the govt, in this case dem and rep. elections and politics, word fromone party and another party, then the trust of the people with the news agencies that are at each others throats to be the first to break a story, I say these people in the gov. and the news department have a credibility problem, and the ones who are being used to support whoever their pary is, are stuick in the middle repeating what or who they Trust on any issue not only this one. I only wish that the issue of trust be alloowed to be be fixed so that we as a country can trust our elected officials, if they have gone to the point of dooing video playbacks and ll that for a simple footbal game to get it right, then let the govt and those involved with national security get it right before they saya anything, but there are those who I mentioned above who really do not care, they have their own agendas and unfortunately the people are used to proote it, this I feel is at the bottom of all this and other things that will or have been reported in the past, since watergate and the technology industry has boomed we have become a country of wanting things now and even waiting 1 minute for a page to upload is too long for some people, ask oyurselves how many times you may be uploading something and if it takes more than 30 seconds we get impatient, we need to slwo down and let the things play out and be reviewed honestly and objectively before being thrown out there like ered meat for the public, Do you trust the one you elected to tell you the truth and if not then re elect, or just wait till people get it right, we owe it to those who are most affected the families of those who gave their lives for this tragedy and we are arguing over wording of the same thing, 4 people died. I ask for patience and a re-building of the trust between people and gov. and I am afraid that that will take time, buti if we do it for football we certainly do it for this.
The presidential election is over. Barak Obama has won a second term as President of the United States and has another opportunity to promote hope and change, and to implement his plan to move “FORWARD.” However, questions about the raid on Benghazi and the General Patraeus affair seem to have stalled any momentum his victory may have given him.
People who support President Obama may think that Republicans are using the Benghazi attack as their own personal witch hunt. I voted for him and I think that but I also acknowledge that an investigation must be done. The Constitution is the highest law in the United States. It makes no allowances for any of its citizens whether their occupation is a custodian or President of the United States. If a President acts contrary to the laws of the Constitution, then he or she should be held accountable (however, that does not mean that the opposing Party will agree with the conclusions of an investigation if the President is found to be innocent). Personally, I believe that everything in politics is political. I think that there is no decision about anything that is
not dissected and discussed in detail for its political implications. And since anyone seeking to be President of the United States probably has an enormous ego and craves power, there is always an issue of how far the person will go once the office has been
obtained. That alone makes no President of the United States irreproachable.
The only thing I am going to say about the General Patraeus affair, since it has yet to be proven that it had any impact on national security, is to stop saying he did the honorable thing by quitting his job. The honorable thing would have been not to have the affair in the first place thereby honoring the vows he made to his wife. I am sure that many of us have probably made our own moral miscalculations, intentional or unintentional, so I am not getting on any kind of soapbox. As a veteran, I am just saying that I respect his wearing of the uniform and what he has done for the country but, as most of us know who have been in the military, his family served too. When
members in the United States military deploy, for all intents and purposes their families do too. In most cases, while military members concentrate on doing their job and surviving, their families have many more tasks; taking care of children, childcare expenses, managing household, providing transportation, PTA meetings, plus doing their own job and worrying about the location and safety of their spouse (which in itself is nerve racking, to say the least). In addition, there are those same temptations which are probably multiplied because of so many responsibilities. So, when the people on Capital Hill and in the media use the word honorable in conjunction with General Patraeus, they might just want to rethink that approach and use it for people who may be deemed worthy of it.
In addition to the Benghazi attacks and the Petraeus affair, the debate about the “fiscal cliff” and the Republican Party’s attempt to overhaul its image and pull off a repeat performance of the 2010 mid-terms in the next two years may well occupy enough of Barak Obama’s time that it may appear that his presidency is actually going in reverse.
Watch and "mark my words" on this.......the Petraeus affair was "leaked" simply to set up a "scape goat" for the Obama regime. Petraeus will be portrayed as "responsible" for the reason behind the disinformation given to Rice and Obama. Though there was a drone flying over the consulate, and beaming back REAL TIME video to the WH "situation room", that fact will be over-shadow, by the sex story. Petraeus resigns, "no fault no foul", and the media moves on.
Mr. Mruseurhead I for one am not surprised by your ignorance people of your thinking are rapidly becoming completely invalid. Those of us who like to gather the facts find you laughable. Continue to stay irrelevant so the rest of the country can continue to move forward.
How is it McCain gets airtime?
He is yesterday's man, and now he is full of animosity to everyone else.
The issue should be , where is Hillary Clinton?
Anyone seen Hilary?
Australia...last I heard.
A lot of good comments here, Great show for the most part. My takeaways:
1. May the press never utter the name of Mitt the Entitled ever again!
2. Lindsay Graham and John McCain have fed from the gov. trough long enough and are making themselves irrelevant. BTW, It seems your Rep. from Idaho wants to join them at the trough! I hope he learns something other than old (and wrong) talking points. He brought nothing to the show.
3. Consulate vs Mission...It matters. Benghazi was an attack on the CIA or a CIA op gone awry? Regardless, the citizenry was lied to at election time! Was it the Admin. or the CIA?..again It matters! What is the Deputies Committee & who is on it? (I think the public was aware of the lie but not a real voting issue in the scheme of issues for the non-hardcore right).
4. Has Al Qaeda come to represent everyone / everything evil in the M.E.? Maybe Israel should say they are fighting Al Qaeda's Gaza Branch!
5. I would feel less comfortable had all of these groups/committees known of the ongoing Petraeus investigation before the FBI was ready to release the results! It did not nor should have had any bearing on the election. I hope the press will report who was told beforehand!
I was very disappointed with MPT's coverage of the Susan Rice issue.
The clip of Rice's comments was cut off after she said that the Benghazi attack started as a spontaneous reaction to the video. Stopping the clip here reinforces the Fox News/McCain/Graham position that she and the administration were blaming the whole thing on the video. Had the clip gone on for a few more seconds, your viewers would have seen her say that extremist organizations then took advantage of the demonstration, bringing heavy weapons.
This was exactly the conclusion of the unclassified CIA talking points which differed from the classified version only in that the classified version referred to specific terrorist groups rather than unspecified extemist organizations.
If you watch the entire interview (and the other 4 Sunday morning shows she visited that morning) it is entirely clear that she recognizes that extremist groups were responsible for the Benghazi attack.
These two old farts need to check their dinosaur bones at the door and retire!
David it is getting tiring and old for republicans to keep looking for ways to make this President look bad. He has beaten their party twice now even with all the crap he has had to take from them...he stands tall and does his job. How many losses will it take to make republicans understand you don't beat people with negativity...and you don't win with negativity either.,God knows Mr. McConnell has tried. It is time to put these two losses aside and work with this President., Don't let another four years go by with nothing achieved...it only hurts your party not the democrats. It is time for accomplishments and if you ever want to get respect again....do the right thing.
On Meet the Press
on Sunday, 18 November, 2012, Senator Diane Feinstein described the difficulty
that American Service members go through as they transition to civilian status
at the end of their military careers. Specifically,
she described the present situation that General (ret) David Petraeus has found
himself in. She described the difficulty in going from wearing ribbons and
stars and all the comforts that come with his rank and position and then
suddenly, you are outside as a civilian in a business suit, driving yourself to
work each day and washing your own dishes.
Senator Feinstein’s remarks seemingly removed any responsibility from
General (ret) Petraeus for his eventual transition to civilian life. No one
stays in uniform forever. The Department of Defense has a more-than-adequate
Transition Assistance Program (TAP) that is mandatory for all service members
to participate in. Having recently completed the local TAP seminar, after
serving for 35 years, I believe that I am more than ready for the civilian
world outside the main gate. In reality,
General (Ret) Petraeus was still being supported with a driver and car in his
role as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I doubt if he was
washing his own dishes either. The
majority of our service members, many with repeated combat tours and many with
very responsible positions, prepare themselves and their families for this
eventuality every day. Message received Senator Feinstein, General (Ret)
Petraeus is not to be held accountable for his moral failures that resulted in
his resignation from the CIA. A stalwart
core value in every one of our military services is Integrity. The critical element
of being a leader is strong moral character. It seems that these two items were
set aside far too easily after the business suit became the uniform of the day
for General (ret) Petraeus. As the DoD revamps the TAP program, perhaps more
reference to how a career soldier, sailor, airmen, marine, or coast guardsman,
regardless of rank or position, is
expected to represent their service to the American public is needed.
Well stated, Sir.
Well, Listen to this..I live in WA state..and I have this set to record every Sunday..it wasn't even on today in our state..and when I tried to watch it from FACEBOOK..the video will not play!!! I am really mad..because I wanted to watch this because it was two men against one woman..two Republicans and one Democrat..didn't seem very even to me!! Was this just listed on TV in a few states???
To all of you, I ask..how many men or women died in Afghanistan last week or in another country they our serving in, killed by Terrorists? Can any of you answer without looking it up? Then check your own head, and think twice about the witch hunt in Benghazi!!!
David Gregory's interview with Mike Rogers on Nov 18th, 2012, was completely irresponsible. For you to have allowed Mike Rogers to indict the President of the United States for knowing about Petraeus’s affair before Election Day without being able to substantiate it, in any way, is simply shameful.
Meet the Press used to be a highly esteemed news program but today you have demonstrated it is no more credible than water cooler gossip. It reflects what one would expect out of a freshman level journalism student. A student who, had they turned in a paper or story such as the one on display today, would fail as you have failed your audience.
The Washington Post ran a story on your program that included some of what Rogers said, “I’m not sure the president was not told before Election Day,” Rogers said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The attorney general said that the Department of Justice did not notify the president, but we don’t know if the attorney general (did).”
I have watched Meet the Press for over thirty years but will no longer be one of your viewers. Your program, and programs like yours, has become comparable to any other tabloid rag with no regard for journalistic ethics. The commercialization of news has left our citizens with very few ways of becoming informed and you have joined a very large list of others who have sold us out. It’s a sad day.
David Gregory's interview with Mike Rogers on Nov 18th, 2012, was completely irresponsible. For you to have allowed Mike Rogers to indict the President of the United States for knowing about Petraeus’s affair before Election Day without being able to substantiate it, in any way, is simply shameful.
Meet the Press used to be a highly esteemed news program but today you have demonstrated it is no more credible than water cooler gossip. It reflects what one would expect out of a freshman level journalism student. A student who, had they turned in a paper or story such as the one on display today, would fail as you have failed your audience.
The Washington Post ran a story on your program that included some of what Rogers said, “I’m not sure the president was not told before Election Day,” Rogers said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The attorney general said that the Department of Justice did not notify the president, but we don’t know if the attorney general (did).”
I have watched Meet the Press for over thirty years but will no longer be one of your viewers. Your program, and programs like yours, has become comparable to any other tabloid rag with no regard for journalistic ethics. The commercialization of news has left our citizens with very few ways of becoming informed and you have joined a very large list of others who have sold us out. It’s a sad day.
All the spin about who knew what and is it a terrorist attack or just a reaction to a video is just that...it is spin.
The intelligence community and the White House knew within the first hour of the attack that americans were under attack inside our embassy so what difference does it make who or why they were being attacked. The President sat on his ass and did nothing for the 7 hours that these thugs systematically killed four americans because he didn't know why they were being killed
We had Fast Response Forces that were within an hour of the embassy from several overseas bases and an excellent chance that those four americans would still be alive today. Nero fiddled while Rome burned and Obama sat on his ass while four americans were murdered.
Who cares who the attackers were or why they were doing it. Get in there and save our fellow americans and sort it out later. I get the impression that if the killings were a reaction to the video it would be perfectly OK to this POS President, but if it were a preplanned terrorist (random workplace violence) he may have acted differently.
This Prewsident is directly responsible for the murder of four americans because of his inaction and there is no amount of political spin that change that.
President Bush is in turn directly responsible for the deaths of over 3000 Americans on 9/11 isn't he?
It's amazing that we are facing a fiscal cliff and Republicans seem to think Benghazi and Petraeus are the most important things on our plate. GET TO WORK on issues that affect us all in the immediate future. I wish we could make them all stay at work in Washington through thanksgiving/xmas to get this done. Bring the filibuster rule back too. I'd watch C-Span on Thanksgiving evening to see a senator reading a phone book....it will never happen because no one knows what a phone book is anymore.
It appears to me republicans are using Meet the Press {#MTP} as an outlet to bash the
president. They are putting all these conspiracy theories out in hopes of
tarnishing the presidents reputation and decision making skills. I don’t
understand why Mr. Gregory doesn’t take more control of the content of
information delivered by guest.
@legal......Please tell me how can someone post a comment like yours with a straight face? What conspiracy "theory"? FACT; Obama knew this was an al Qaeda attack INSTANTANEOUSLY, because a drone was over the consulate beaming live video to the WH "situation room". Everyone but you seems to understand the facts, but you. The President and his Administration LIED to the American public about these attacks. And then after being caught in the LIE, continued to ADVANCE the LIE, even going as far as apologising(for the video) in front of the leaders of other Nations at the UN. WHY??? The families of those killed were also lied too, WHY? But for you and others like you, being "loyalists" to the Party, care more about Obama, than the FACT you and everyone else were lied to, repeatedly. LIED to by by the Obama Administration and the press, all for the sake of Obamas re-election. Jay Tapper answered the question about why the liberal media did their part to ADVANCE the lie, by saying they wanted to put a "positive spin", on Libya and the war against al Qaeda. Republicans are not responsible for Obamas decision to LIE.
Mr. Gregory always has Republicans on who are going to reliably bash not only the Democratic president but Democrats in general. The ratio is always a preponderance of at least four loud, overbearing Republicans to two cowed Democrats.
We would have no idea at all how successful and competent the Democrats and their recent elections turned out to be from watching this neocon, beltway MTP.
How many times has he had the unbearable, unwatchable John McCain on this show? Is there NO Democratic counterpart anywhere, with hopefully, maybe, a few more brains thrown in just for the heck of it?