White House spokesman Jay Carney on Monday spoke out against conservative lawmakers and some media outlets for pushing “conspiracy theories” about the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi attacks.
“There is a problem when you have so many conspiracy theories that get knocked down by the facts, and yet the adherents to those theories only become more convinced that the facts aren’t what they so clearly are,” Carney said in a press briefing.
Carney’s comments came in reference to a newly released email that shows a White House aide discussing talking points related to the attacks. He said conspiracy theories surrounding that memo are stoked by some authorities in the Republican Party as well as “media outlets who pound that message into those who are predisposed to believe it.”
Carney then traced the origins of the “politicization” of the Benghazi attacks to the “scathingly political statement” former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney gave soon after the incident.
Asked whether the White House would cooperate with a new select committee tasked with investigating the 2012 attacks, Carney said “We have always cooperated with legitimate oversight.”
