[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6987]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            BENGHAZI ATTACK

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, for months my Republican colleagues have 
argued the Obama administration has engaged in a coverup regarding the 
tragic events surrounding an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. 
The administration provided Members of Congress with over 100 pages of 
e-mails--sent following that attack--during closed-door sessions. The 
e-mails proved there was simply no coverup.
  Yet Republicans, with full knowledge of these e-mails, claimed the 
White House was hiding the truth. Yesterday, the administration 
released even more e-mails to the public. This is only the latest 
effort by the administration to ensure transparency for the media and 
the public regarding this awful attack on Americans.
  This new information came out for a number of reasons, not the least 
of which is that we know the press corps spent most of the past week 
chasing a story based on an e-mail that didn't exist. It was fabricated 
by a Republican aide and then reported as fact. It is a sad commentary 
that Republicans are so dead set on embarrassing the President, the 
Foreign Service, the CIA, and our military they would actually lie to a 
news organization about the contents of an e-mail and let that news 
organization report their lies as facts.
  The attack on Benghazi is an issue of life and death. We should be 
focused on tracking down the terrorists who committed this act and 
bringing them to justice, not on smear politics and false scandals. I 
hope the media will realize they were fed a false bill of goods and be 
more skeptical next time.

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