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Issa: No Classified or Diplomatic Reason to Blame Benghazi Attack on Anti-Islam Video

Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said he could find no diplomatic or classified explanation as to why Susan Rice and the Obama Administration initially claimed the Benghazi attack was a spontaneous response to an anti-Islam video Sunday on "Face the Nation":

BOB SCHIEFFER: So Mr. Issa, why would the administration put out a story line so different from what U.S. officials in Libya knew immediately?

DARRELL ISSA: Bob, that's the great question. We can't find a classified reason for it. We can't find a diplomatic reason for it. Understand that Gregory Hicks who became the acting ambassador, witnessed our relationship with Libya on this show go the wrong way, because on this show, Susan Rice says "it was a protest." The president, the elected president [of Libya] saying "no it was a terrorist attack." You can't insult a foreign leader in a greater way than happened literally here just those few days later.

Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard reports the initial CIA talking points contained a direct reference to Al-Qaeda extremists who partook in the attack, adding further question as to why the administration blamed the Benghazi attack on an anti-Islam video.

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D., Mass.) said he believes there is no question the Obama Administration scrubbed the first draft of the CIA talking points to remove references to terrorists.

Full interview: