In the defining moment of a testy
debate, President Barack Obama lashed into Mitt Romney on Tuesday over the
Republican's criticism of his handling of a deadly attack on the U.S.
diplomatic mission in Libya and sought to cast him as unfit to become
commander-in-chief.
Moving to regain lost ground after a weak
performance in the first presidential debate, Obama fought back against his
rival's accusations that he had played down the Sept. 11 assault by Islamist
militants in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other
Americans.
Romney, who dominated the candidates' previous
encounter, appeared stunned as Obama launched a finger-wagging counterattack
over an issue that has become a flashpoint with just three weeks to go in a
presidential race considered too close to call.
The exchange came near the end of a debate
dominated mostly by arguments over the economy, jobs and taxes, considered
voters' main concerns in the Nov. 6 election.
Romney and his aides have sought to use the
Benghazi incident - as well as anti-American unrest in other parts of the Arab
world - to dent Obama's national security credentials and accuse him of
pursuing a failed Middle East policy.
But Obama came out swinging in their second
debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, accusing Romney of
exploiting the Benghazi attack in an effort to score "offensive"
political points.
"While we were still dealing with our
diplomats being threatened, Governor Romney put out a press release, trying to
make political points, and that's not how a commander-in-chief operates"
Obama said, referring to the Republican's initial criticism of the
administration's response before the full extent of the bloodshed was known.
TESTY EXCHANGE
Obama and Romney argued testily in front of a
group of undecided voters over whether Obama had come out fast enough in
describing the Libya attack as terrorism, and the president appeared to get the
better of his opponent.
"I stood in the Rose Garden and I told
the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what
happened, that this was an act of terror," Obama said.
Romney was incredulous. He challenged Obama's
assertion, apparently unaware of Obama's remarks the morning after the Benghazi
attack.
"Get the transcript," Obama told
Romney in the closest thing to a smack-down moment in the 90-minute debate.
"He did, in fact, sir," moderator
Candy Crowley said, siding with Obama. "He did call it an act of
terror."
A transcript of the Rose Garden appearance
that day shows Obama said: "...no acts of terror will ever shake the
resolve of this great nation."
But despite that comment, some of Obama's top
aides had initially attributed the Benghazi violence to protests over an
anti-Islam film and said it was not premeditated, before finally
acknowledging much later that it was a
terrorist attack.
And Obama, in a Sept. 24 taping of an
appearance on ABC's "The View" program, also seemed to hedge when he
was asked whether Benghazi was an act of terrorism. He said it "wasn't
just a mob action" but pointed to an ongoing investigation.
Obama said for the first time on Tuesday he
was "ultimately responsible" for the safety and security of the
Americans killed in the attack. "I'm the president and I'm always
responsible," he said.
Seeking to recover from his apparent misstep,
Romney pointed to the administration's shifting explanations of the events in
Benghazi, suggesting it had been an attempt to mislead.
"It took them a long time to say this was
a terrorist act by a terrorist group," he said.
In the months before the deadly attack in
Benghazi, Libya, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies warned the White House
and State Department repeatedly that the region was becoming an increasingly
dangerous vortex for jihadist groups loosely linked or sympathetic to al Qaeda,
according to U.S. officials.
Despite those warnings and bold public
displays by Islamist militants around Benghazi, embassies in the region were
advised to project a sense of calm and normalcy in the run-up to the
anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Romney's supporters have accused the
administration of being slow to label the attack as terrorism to avoid
detracting from the president's campaign narrative of being a strong world
leader who put al Qaeda on the path to defeat.
Polls have shown national security a strong
point for Obama with voters, especially after the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Going on the offensive, Obama sought to depict
Romney, who has little foreign policy experience and has stumbled during his
occasional forays on the world stage, as ill-prepared to take on the role of
commander-in-chief in a dangerous world.
Romney fired back, saying the Benghazi
incident "calls into question the president's whole policy in the Middle
East."
"Look what's happening in Syria, in Egypt,
now in Libya. Consider the distance between ourselves and Israel," Romney
said. "We have Iran four years closer to a nuclear bomb."
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