http://thehill.com/policy/international/205057-senators-demand-obama-reveal-whereabouts-on-night-of-benghaziSenators to Obama: Where were you night of Benghazi attack?
By Erik Wasson - 05/02/14 01:27 PM EDT
Three Republican senators on Friday wrote to President Obama demanding he reveal where he was — if not in the Situation Room — during the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said it is time for the White House to clear up the mystery surrounding Obama’s activities that night.
The letter comes a day after former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told Fox News that Obama was not in the White House’s basement Situation Room monitoring events as they unfolded in September of 2012.
“Over a year and a half has passed since the terrorist attacks, and the American people still do not have an accounting of your activities during the attack. Mr. President, can you now confirm that Mr. Vietor’s account of your absence in the White House Situation Room is accurate?” the letter asks.
Vietor said Thursday that Obama was in the White House and is able to monitor intelligence events outside of the specially equipped Situation Room. He noted that the president's daily briefing happens in the Oval Office.
Vietor told Fox News’s Bret Baier that it is time to move on from inquiries about Benghazi and whether the administration tried to cover up it was a terrorist attack.
"Dude, this was two years ago," Vietor said. "We're still talking about the most mundane thing.”
On Friday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) subpoenaed Secretary of State John Kerry to testify about newly revealed emails in which adviser Ben Rhodes coaches then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice to tell the media that the attacks were not the result of administration policy.
Also on Friday, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced he will now back forming a select committee to ramp up investigations in Benghazi.
