The Obama administration is latching onto a mass kidnapping in Nigeria as part of a “wag the dog” ploy to draw Americans’ attention away from the truth about the Benghazi attacks, according to former Rep. Allen West (R-FL).
Last month, West argued on his blog that Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s racist remarks and subsequent ban from the NBA were receiving an undue amount of coverage compared to still-unanswered questions about the 2012 attacks in Libya. The Fox News contributor went a step further on Monday when he implied that first lady Michelle Obama attempted to distract from Benghazi by decrying a radical Islamist group’s abduction of more than 270 Nigerian schoolgirls.
“Are we witnessing an Obama ‘Wag the Dog’ moment with Boko Haram in Nigeria?” West wrote. “I say yes.”
The first lady joined a Twitter hashtag campaign, #BringBackOurGirls, last week to raise awareness of the missing girls captured by Boko Haram:
Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It’s time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo pic.twitter.com/glDKDotJRt
— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 7, 2014
West questioned the timing of the first lady’s advocacy before invoking Benghazi, the scandal enveloping the Department of Veterans Affairs and the spiraling situation in Ukraine as examples of what he deems to be more pressing issues facing the Obama administration.
“So what better time than right now, to create the straw man of Boko Haram, another distraction for which no real action will take place,” he wrote. “Anyone remember Joseph Kony?”
Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham similarly blasted Democrats on Thursday for not beating the same “powerful drumbeat for justice” for the Benghazi attacks as they are now for the kidnapping in Nigeria.
