Benghazi Survivors Push Debunked Claim About ‘Stand Down’ Order At RNC

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On the opening night of the Republican National Convention, two survivors of the 2012 attacks on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi pushed a favorite talking point among conservatives who have accused the federal government of a sluggish response in Libya: a debunked theory that military personnel were told to “stand down.”

“On three separate occasions, we got told to wait by the chief of base, and we told us to stand down,” said John Tiegen, a security contractor working at the CIA compound the night of the attacks who co-wrote “13 Hours” with fellow ex-contractor Mark Geist.

“Stand down order be damned, we took off and left, we weren’t waiting no more,” he continued.

But multiple fact-checking outlets have found no evidence that such an order was given by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In November 2014, the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee found the CIA properly responded to the Benghazi attacks, debunking residual claims that the CIA delayed its response or missed the opening for a possible rescue mission.

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