he risked his life to stop a tyrant and then gave his life trying to help build a better libya. my name is chris stevens and i m the new u.s. ambassador to libya. the u.s. ambassador to the u.s. reacted to the news. this is a great loss to lose for us. we lose him before the americans and he is the right man for the right position for the right time. elsewhere in the region, palestinian protesters in the gaza strip burned u.s. flags and shouted death to america in response to 15-minute excerpt of anti-islam film that led to alleged protest before the attack in benghazi. let me be clear. there is no justification for this. none. now we are getting initial reports from cairo, egypt, more violence is occurring outside the embassy. tweet from u.s. embassy officials suggest there is at least one civilian injured
team fox coverage. carl cameron has mitt romney s response from the campaign trail. jennifer griffin assesses the situation in the middle east and northern africa. we begin with the chief white house correspondent ed henry on the president s reaction today. good evening, ed. good evening, bret. tonight, the president is blasting mitt romney for his criticism of the administration s initial response. mr. obama telling cbs 60 minutes that mr. romney has a tendency to shoot first and aim later. in cold blood, four americans murdered by a mob in benghazi. in a bat that lasted four hours on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. including u.s. ambassador to libya chris stevens. the first american ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979. raising alarm bells about american outposts all around the globe. i ve directed my administration to increase the security at diplomatic posts around the world. make no mistake, we will work
out a statement about the attacks, about the loss of life in libya and it continueed disgraceful that the obama administration first response was not to condemn the attacks on our diplomatic missions but to similar not these with those who sympathize with those who waged the attacks. how does this play as you hear the back and forth? we re back with the panel. steve? i think on the substance mitt romney s cri tier is the right critique. the president did send mixed signals. the administration from the first tweet from the embassy in egypt did lead with an apology. even subsequent statements by hillary clinton where she added in denunciation of the violence led with what wastantment to an apology. on the substance, good case. on the timing would i have done the press conference, i probably wouldn t have, but it has much more to do with the fact that you knew the media were going to obsess on this and obsess on it they did. they are so now fascinated by
the difference between the two events is number one the libya attack was clearly a terror attack, coordinated, sophisticated with perhaps an illustration attached as a diversion. in cairo, it was a mob. again, jihaddists. but obviously, it wasn t a terror attack. secondly, libya doesn t have a government. egypt does. that is a big difference. which is why we re sending our marines in to libya. we can t rely on any government. it doesn t exist. i think we ought to beef up the presidency in cairo, whether the government or not with the marines but the onus of protection ought to be on the government in cairo. that is where i think the focus has to be. this is a government that an allyed government, elected government but it is led by muslim brotherhood member. who is clearly not friendly to the united states. he has been in tehran. we have to make it clear that this cannot be tolerated.
that suggest there is something wrong with the right of free speech. romney initial rebuke prompted counterattack not from the obama administration but the obama campaign in chicago. which set in a statement, we are shocked that at a time when the united states of america is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in libya, governor romney would choose to launch a political attack. reporters grilled romney with questions whether he turned too partisan, too soon. do you regret the tone at all given what we know now? do you regret having that statement come out so early? romney brushed back reporters noting that the white house officials backed away from the u.s. mission in cairo statement and removed it from the internet last night. the white house distance itself last night from the statement. saying it wasn t cleared by washington. that reflects the mixed signals they are sending to the world. romney is under fire for speaking too soon before all t