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GOP Senator Pushes False Narrative That State Department Denied Security Request For Benghazi

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Tuesday agreed with Fox News host Steve Doocy’s claim that had the Obama administration granted requests for additional security in Libya prior to the assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi last month, “four Americans may very well be alive right now”

DOOCY: Because you know so much about this, you know you’re the perfect guest to be talking about this because, you know, the big question is, what did the president know and when did he know it? But people in the administration —

GRAHAM: And what did they do about it.

DOOCY: Exactly because had they actually granted the requests for extra security, four Americans may very well be alive right now.

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GRAHAM: Well Steve that’s a very good point.

Watch the clip:

Yet, according to State Department officials involved, the security requests were for the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Tripoli, not Benghazi, the New York Times reported last week:

In a stream of diplomatic cables, embassy security officers warned their superiors at the State Department of a worsening threat from Islamic extremists, and requested that the teams of military personnel and State Department security guards who were already on duty be kept in service.

The requests were denied, but they were largely focused on extending the tours of security guards at the American Embassy in Tripoli — not at the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, 400 miles away. And State Department officials testified this week during a hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that extending the tour of additional guards — a 16-member military security team — through mid-September would not have changed the bloody outcome because they were based in Tripoli, not Benghazi.

Graham, along with Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) continue to politicize the Libya attacks even after the late Ambassador Steven’s father said it would be “abhorrent” to do so.