Pat Smith, the mother of one of the four Americans killed during the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya told Fox News on Wednesday that she doesn’t understand why President Barack Obama would promote a “proven liar” to become his national security adviser.
Smith was reacting to the news that former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice would become Obama’s next National Security Adviser after she had earlier abruptly withdrawn her name from consideration to become secretary of state following a standoff with Republican senators.
“It’s kind of curious,” Smith told Fox’s Sean Hannity. “I don’t understand why Obama would want a proven liar to be his security adviser. That makes no sense to me at all.”
Rice went on five Sunday television shows on Sept. 16, 2012 to say that preliminary information suggested the Benghazi assault was the result of protests over an anti-Muslim video that was made in California rather than a premeditated strike by terrorists.
The video, posted on the Internet under several titles including "Innocence of Muslims," mocked the Prophet Mohammad and portrayed him as a womanizer and a fool.
Unlike secretary of state, which requires Senate confirmation, the national security adviser serves at the pleasure of the president and requires no further approval.
The mother of slain State Department Information Officer Sean Smith said she had been told by her late son that his pleas for more security had been rejected.
“He told me ‘mom, I saw people taking pictures out here.’ He says, ‘I’m very worried.’ He says, ‘I’ve asked for help. I’ve asked for security and all they’ve done is turn me down,’” recalled Smith. “I don’t know what else to say. I can’t put words in his mouth. But I know he was afraid. He was worried about it, and I know that he did not get the security that he asked for, and that other people have asked for.”
She blames former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the lack of security.
“I know it was hers. I know it was hers. I can’t prove anything, but I know in the depth of my soul I know it was hers. It was her department. It was her area and she was in charge,” asserted Smith. “I don’t care if she doesn’t admit it. She was in charge and she should have been in charge. And that’s who Obama’s listening to.”
Smith said she was initially invited to an award ceremony for her son, but then nothing came of the invitation.
“When I went to the casket ceremony they told me that there was going to be an award and that they would send for me, they would get me over there so I could witness the award. They didn’t do it,” she recalled.
The administration has insisted that Smith is not considered part of her son's immediate family.
The 10-year veteran of the Foreign Service who also had served in Iraq, South Africa, Canada, and the Netherlands, was an Air Force veteran with a wife, a son, and a daughter.
In addition to him, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and two other Americans also were killed at Benghazi.
Smith’s mother insists that President Obama still has not been truthful with the American people.
“The last time I saw Obama on TV my blood pressure shot up so high that I had to take extra pills because of it. He lies. He lies and so do everybody that’s surrounding him,” she said. “They’re not telling the truth and I don’t know why.”
Asked by Hannity what she would say to the president if given the opportunity, Smith said that she’d tell him to start listening.
“I’d like to say ‘please just listen to the American people. Don’t listen to whoever it is that’s advising you. I don’t know who’s advising you. I don’t know who you’re listening to, but it’s wrong. It’s very wrong. It won’t help,’” she explained.
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