Obama, Clinton, Romney deliver Egypt, Libya remarks

By Doug Powers • September 12, 2012 10:30 AM

**Written by Doug Powers

Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney have already spoken this morning about Egypt and Libya. President Obama will deliver remarks at approximately 10:35 a.m. eastern.

A live video feed of Obama’s remarks is up here. This is so important that NBC is expected to break away from a Kardashian interview to cover it live.

During Hillary’s remarks, I don’t recall her exact wording, but she essentially said that the number of people who initiate these kinds of attacks is relatively small. Newt Gingrich takes issue with that:

“There’s a substantial faction, particularly in Benghazi, which was sending people to Iraq to kill Americans. There’s a substantial faction in Egypt which wants to defeat the United States and destroy Israel. That faction looks for opportunities to do things to hurt the United States and yesterday was the example of an attack that’s part of a very long war that we’re going to be at for a very long time.”

Update: During Obama’s brief address, he praised Libyan security forces, saying they fought to attempt to safeguard the US staff. However, according to this story, it was Libyan security who gave them up:

Wanis al-Sharef, a Libyan Interior Ministry official in Benghazi, said the four Americans were killed when the angry mob, which gathered to protest a U.S.-made film that ridicules Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, fired guns and burned down the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

He said Stevens, 52, and other officials were moved to a second building – deemed safer – after the initial wave of protests at the consulate compound. According to al-Sharef, members of the Libyan security team seem to have indicated to the protesters the building to which the American officials had been relocated, and that building then came under attack.

Update II:

Romney statement plus Q & A here.

Update III:

Because of the unfolding events in the last 24 hours, the president’s scheduled fundraising trip to Vegas has been delayed… by one hour.

Update IV: Hillary Clinton asked “How can this happen in a country we helped liberate?”

Wow.

**Written by Doug Powers

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