This morning on Meet The Press, David Gregory twice asserted that, in May, President Obama declared that “al Qaeda has been defeated.” Gregory used that claim to advance a theory that Obama was simply not concerned enough about al Qaeda in advance of the attack on the American embassy in Libya. Here’s the transcript:

GREGORY: The President has said as recently as May of this year that al Qaeda has not had a chance to rebuild, that al Qaeda has been defeated. There is an election on, as we’ve been talking about, and the President’s challenger said plain and simple, the President failed to level with the American people and call this a terrorist attack, because you had to be concerned about another terrorist attack from al Qaeda in the Middle East after the President said that al Qaeda had been defeated. 

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That is not, however, what Obama said in May. Gregory was apparently referring to an address that Obama delivered from Afghanistan in May on the one year anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s death. Here is what Obama said:

And one year ago, from a base here in Afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. The goal that I set — to defeat al Qaeda and deny it a chance to rebuild — is now within our reach.

Still, there will be difficult days ahead. The enormous sacrifices of our men and women are not over.

So, the truth is that Obama did not say al Qaeda had already been defeated and specifically acknowledged that there were “difficult days” and “enormous sacrifices” yet to come.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Sunday accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) of not caring about the deaths of four American diplomats, including US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. All four men were killed in an attack on the American embassy in Libya on September 11th of this year.

Republicans have argued that President Obama botched the response to, and preparation for, the attack. But when asked whether Reid’s statement that the incident was being politicized, McCain politicized it further, saying that Reid “doesn’t care” about it:

CROWLEY: Senator Reid put out a statement yesterday where he called it sad and disappointing that some people seem more focused on trying this score cheap political points off when this intelligence information came than mourning the loss of the ambassador and the other three.

MCCAIN: Maybe Senator Reid doesn’t care about Christopher Stevens. Maybe he doesn’t care about those three other brave Americans.

CROWLEY: You know he does, though?

MCCAIN: Well, to make a statement like that. Well, to make a statement like that, of course, politicizes an issue that all Americans should be concerned about what information there was. No matter whether Democrat or Republican. He is the one that’s taking the cheap political shot.

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