Report, fair beings balanced and unafraid. Greta goes on the record right now and special report starts in five seconds. Im greta van susteren, and, yes, this is on the record. And up first the smoking gun. A declassified email exposing a direct link between the white house and the controversial benghazi talking points. And now other news organizations joining fox and demanding answers. It just seems that there is a political calculation that was being made in these emails. Tried very hard this morning to distance the white house from the ambassadors remarks on the sunday shows. Is there a suggestion she got confused. You knew full well that these sunday show appearances were going to be dominated by the attack on benghazi. Relied on points about the benghazi attack that were produced by the cia. It did not come from the cia. Now we see a document that
comes from the white house not the cia attributing the protest to the video. The fact that there were protests around the region, threatening our embassies, it was entirely appropriate to have question and answer document prepared for the video it was based on what we knew at the time. Why were you holding back this information . Why was the email not turned over to the congress . Why was it not released when you released all the other emalsz . This is directly relevant . Why did you hold it back . This document was not about benghazi. It was a prep for sunday shows. It wasnt her only prep, john. You said at the podium last year that the white house and the state department only changed one word. We now know, obviously we know for some time that is not true. Can you correct the record on that. When it comes to correcting records, you know, we can get into that. I am happy to recite and for as long as you like. Okay. We just saw it but what was it like inside that very tense Briefing Room today. Fox senior White House CorrespondentWendell Goler joins us. Wendell, it seems very tense on the outside. What was it like inside that room . Well, greta, not very tense for me because by the time jay carney called on me, all the questions aboutpn benghazi had been asked though im not really sure how many of them were answered. Carney says the email that Judicial Watch pried out of the white house showed then u. S. Ambassador susan rice being briefed by Deputy National security advisor about u. S. Protests and a u. S. Protest in cairo, cartoom and elsewhere in the world based on antiislam movie made in this country. Heated exchanges between john carney and jim accosta when carney was asked why rice responded to questions about the attack on the u. S. Consulate in b9 ctkzi with talking points aimed at the broader arab region as she did when she attended all
the sunday news shows. Carney said rice didnt mix up her talking points though. The director of the cia at the time has said that their initial analysis of the attack on the consulate had nothing to do with the antiislam movie and simplest explanation for what carney had to say is that he may have been trying to protect then ambassador rice. Though Administration Critics say that rice was trying to protect the president s claim that al guide was on the run. Remember, all this happened about two months before the president ial election, greta. In fact, wendell, the reporters when they walked away from todays briefing, did they sense that they got answers out of the administration or did they feel like carney was basically doing some sort of two step and not answering . As i said, im not sure how many of these questions were answered. Im sure that these questions will be asked again. It is somewhat gratifying that its not just fox asking these questions. All the networks are asking them now. But im not sure jay carney
has answered them to the satisfaction of the reporters, all the reporters in the room, greta. Wendell, thank you. And, at best, the white house is handling benghazi has been a huge disaster. At worse . A coverup. As bad as it is did press secretary jay carney today just make it worse. Cohost of the five and former press secretary for president george w. Bush, she joins us. Good evening, deign. That hi. Thanks for having me. Dana, how did jay carney handle this today . How do you look at this . Well, heres one of the ways that i look at going into the Briefing Room is that if youre walking down the ramp and into the Briefing Room and think i have got this handled. You maybe should turn around and go back in the office and get yourself together again. Because there is always just one more thing that is going to be asked about. And condescending tones, i think, back fire in the Briefing Room. I think today what they were looking for in the White House Press corps was asking for some candidness, something that would be sincere and refreshing. I dont think that they got
that. I have always approached the Communications World and especially the amazing role of press secretary as one of just tremendous, enormous responsibility. And 50 of what you do as press secretary is defend and advocate for the president. But there is another part of the job, thats the other auto which is to protect the role of the press to make sure that they are getting the answers that they are asking for. Let me ask you, this ben rhodes email that is dated friday september 14th which people are now talking about and, you know, in which it says things that well, it says that what the purpose of the whole briefing for ambassador rice is supposed to be. Tell me this. Does this likely and i realize you werent there does this email likely go above ben rhodes . I cannot imagine a scenario where you would have a Deputy Communications director of a white house of
the National Security council give a cabinet level officer Administration Official susan rice information to use on a sunday show not just one sunday show but five of them that would not have gone further. And, in fact, greta, we know that it went further. How do we know that . Because the email is copied to all of the higher ups. Ben rhodes was doing his job. I dont for one second think he dreamed this out of the air. There was either specific policy or political direction that said we wanted to make sure that the goal is that we focus onen this being an internet video causing the protest and that its not a problem of broader foreign policy. I do not believe. Which i should add in direct contradiction to what mike more morell, acting director of the cia said a month ago in a hearing which we are now hearing about 19 months later after there have been many opportunities for the white house to release this information and to provide these emails. It took a lawsuit. I think that the American People would have understood
if the white house had said yes, of course, we were trying to protect the president. Even if they had just said, this you know, after the election said well, maybe we shouldnt have tried to do that we were trying to help the president. I actually think that people probably would have forgiven them. They insisted that they had nothing to do pushing the video from the white house. We now know that is not true. I do not think it will wash for jay carney to try to suggest that the email labeled benghazi was not about benghazi when he they were prepping her for questions about benghazi. If they believe that, then the White House Press corps has lost all credibility. But they havent. I mean, you saw that briefing today. They havent focused on this solely, but when you have Something Like this come forward, after it was redacted, remember, this goes to the White House Councils office. Its a document email. White House Council approves redacting. That basically means blacking it out so you cant read it they give that. Defense lawyers say hiding. They were hiding it they give that to the committee on capitol hill. They ridicule and make found
of the committee for months saying ha ha you cant find anything that links us to the video. Why couldnt we . Because somebody thought it was a good idea to he redact that i think unacceptable. Who in the White House Councils office approves that. To use my word hiding it. I think a lot of things are classified to hide things. Anyway, thats just me. Byebye. Okay. Lets go offtherecord and good for abcs jonathan karl. He was so aggressively questioning jay carney today about benghazi. Why were you holding back this information . Why was this email not turned over to the congress . Why was it not release when you hady i released all the other emails . This is directly relevant . Why did you hold it back . No matter how much president obama and his staff insists benghazi is a phony scandal, we want and deserve all the answers. For starters, who made up that silly video story calls for benghazi and why . Until right now, most of the media have been giving the
white house a pass, even the a. P. Who is supposed to be the Gold Standard in journalism. Here is the example. A. P. Report matt lee sent an email two days after benghazi to then state Department Spokesperson that read in part the utter b. S. Being spread around on fox is really unbelievable. I think you know or should know im not a fan of any particular administration or policy and im not shy about calling out inconsistencies but this is shocking. Our aggressive reporting may shock lee. What shocks me the people had bed with the white house. Not just the white house playing hideandseek or many in the media cozying up to them. Its also capitol hill. Where is the aggressive investigation there . There appears to be more to washington than whether president obama wears mom jeans than the death of four americans at benghazi. Thats my offtherecord comments tonight. If you have a story you think i should offtherecord go to
gretawire. Com. Joining us now is the panel. Rick, first to you, your colleague secured the press skewered press secretary jay cancery. He pointed out t. Out. The appearance is going to be about benghazi. To suggest the talking points were about something broad or Something Different and the strong suggestion that i think you cant come away from the emails without coming to the conclusion that the white house had an incentive, white house aides had an incentive and an interest in pushing an idea that this was not a policy failure, that this was a spontaneous protest, thats the key. You know whats so tragic about that . Were not talking about property damage. While they are playing politics, this is not property damage. This is actually four dead americans. This email really stands out. The first and most explicit mention of not a reflection of policy or failure. Looking back on, this we now know they were turning it
down request for security. Catherine herridge classified cable she reported classified cable dated august 16th which when they were warned about al qaeda in benghazi. Thats what Catherine Herridge reported. Then we have the question of what happened that night and why. All these forces we have. In between though september ath or 6th. President obama is at the convention saying that al qaeda is on the run. Now we get to september 11th. Okay. So it occurs we have the events of that night for which all of our forces in nato and all of our forces in europe nobody could get fast enough to launch a rescue mission for guys that were there. I understand that one. But go ahead. The explanation. On this channel, being systematically mislead. We understand there is confusion and changing situation. But as we look at that email progress. The explanation gets less and less accurate which is a really bizarre thing. Actually though they start trying to step all over anyone who is trying to investigate. They excluded fox news to the state Department Briefing from the media and
the cia because we kept pushing it, bob. Its not a phony scandal its dangerous for the administration to do that four americans dead. One brought to justice. The real problem too is getting the information. Transparency has been an issue we talked about on the show with the administration. Why does it have to take Judicial Watch to file a lawsuit on this one. The white house knows many Media Companies cant afford the lawsuit that Judicial Watch and got this memo from. Its terrible to think that all the efforts to short of shut this down. I know capitol hill they could have been a lot more aggressive on this had a select committee. Capitol hill is perfectly able to Speaker Boehner select committee and do something. Four dead americans. This is not just a couple billions. Definitely jurisdictional issues. Committee chairman wanted to protect their turf. How . Yeah. Boehner could have fixed that one. Speaker boehner could have. One committee select with a lot he could still do it now. There has been a lot of theories in republican circles how far to push the politics. Politics, four dead
people thats the problem in the city. 100 . The other point that has to be made here why did it take so long to get this email . They were hiding it. I dont think there is another conclusion to come to. At the same time, they say this wasnt a benghazi talking point but also to produce it. That is patently ridiculous jay carney said. Rally around the president and protect him. Folks in the press but clearly the democrats on capitol hill. You would think that as much as they may personally like susan rice or may personally like hillary clinton. They may like the president of the United States, ultimately accountability, what happened four dead people. Forget the fancy words accountability. Four dead americans. Ultimately get answers to that and all this other stuff goes by the wayside. Old news, get over it waste of time. Well, if we are still learning new things its not a waste of time now is it. No it isnt. Panel, thank you. This is a fox news alert. Gusty winds dangerously fanning the flames of a
waging wildfire in Southern California. More than 1,000 homes and several hundred schools evacuated in an area east of losr the latest we go live to phil showman. Whats going on there . Well, still no containment on this wildfire. Record high temperatures and very dry conditions have led to high fire danger throughout Southern California for the the past here in the community of rancho kook among go. Cucamonga. A number of schools evacuated. All this happened when school was just beginning this morning. Fortunately there was a massive response on the ground and so far no structures have been burned. No injuries that we know of. Were told that one house, a garage of one hours just got slightly singed by some flames but because of those winds, the helicopters and the fixed wing aircraft that usually deploy against these brush fires, these wildfires
were not able to it fly. So that made the efforts on the ground all the more urgent and so far the winds seem to have been dying down over the past couple of hours in the immediate sense of danger has passed. Still no containment on this fire. Reporting live in Rancho Cucamonga im phil schuman, greta . Before you go, strong winds, that could pick up real fast . Yeah. Thats the problem. The worse of the winds seems to have been behind us. However, the temperatures are still going to be high over the next couple of days approaching 100 degrees so it doesnt take much to set up one of these brush fires we have set it up over and over again. Phil, thank you. Up next, former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld goes on the record. Also fireballs and thick black smoke and now people running for their lives. We will show you what is causing this terrifying scene coming up. [ banker ] sydney needed some Financial Guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. So we talked about her options. Her valuable assets were staying. And selling her car wouldnt fly. We helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today. And tomorrow. So lets see what we can do about that. Remodel. Motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. They take a banker. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. Because when people talk, great things happen. Is is mike. His long race day starts with back pain. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. And a choice. Take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve. For all day relief. Start your engines
that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. And yet, theres someone around the office who hasnt had a Performance Review in a while. Someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. Im looking at you phone company dsl. Check your speed. See how fast your internet can be. Switch now and add voice and tv for 34. 90. Comcast business built for business. Republican lawmakers saying president obama is not doing enough to stop russian president putin. Senators taking on not only president obama but president putin. They introduced new measures, toughen saxes and increase u. S. Support for the armed forces of our allies on rush slps border. Donald rumsfeld joins us. Good evening, sir. Good evening, greta. How serious is what is going on in crimea, ukraine, russia . Its very serious because it is a pattern, this is russia is an authoritarian state. Putin is going to push as far as he can until he sees that the cost is too high and the resistance too great and there is too much to lose. And to the extent that we continue a pattern of words
incrementalism as opposed to stiffer sanctions and in my view lethal and nonlethal assistance to countries that he is pushing against. I suspect what we will see is not just ukraine but down the road you can see him doing similar things as he did in the republic of georgia. He can be doing it in other