Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says he immediately told President Barack Obama that the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, was carried out by terrorists.
Panetta is on a whirlwind of media interviews to promote his new book, “Worthy Fights,” which contains several criticisms of the president.
Panetta appeared Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” during which host Bill O’Reilly played a clip from his Feb. 2 interview with Obama. In that interview, Obama would not admit that Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey told him the Benghazi attacks involved terrorists.
Panetta told O’Reilly a different version: “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.”