Posted on 10/17/2012 6:19:13 PM PDT by markomalley
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a prominent surrogate for Mitt Romney, on Wednesday rebuked Candy Crowley for backing up President Obama during a discussion of Libya at Tuesday's debate.
Crowley on Wednesday defended her decision as moderator to settle a disagreement between Romney and Obama, saying she only intended to "move them along."
But Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a prominent Romney surrogate, said she overstepped.
"When you have two candidates disagreeing, it's not the role of the moderator to say, 'Mr. President, you're right' or 'Gov. Romney, you're right,' " he said to Crowley during a roundtable on CNN's "Starting Point." He added that he thought she did a great job as moderator other than during the exchange on Libya.
"It wasn't necessarily your place to try to be fact-checker right there," Chaffetz said. "I happen to think that your assessment of that was wrong, and so I was a bit frustrated on that particular point."
In an exchange the campaigns are still arguing about Wednesday morning, Romney criticized Obama for not calling last month's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi an act of "terrorism" until two weeks after the incident that resulted in the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
Obama said he called the violence "an act of terror" the day after it happened, and when Romney continued to challenge him, Crowley spoke up.
"He did call it an act of terror," Crowley said. "It did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there, about this tape, to come out. You are correct about that.
Can you say that a little louder, Candy? Obama asked during the debate, to applause from the crowd. Conservatives immediately protested that Crowley was siding with Obama and challenged that the president's use of the phrase "act of terror" in his Rose Garden speech on Sept. 12 was arguably not a direct reference to the attack on the consulate.
Crowley explained to CNN after the debate that she thought Romney "was right in the main, I just think he picked the wrong word."
She explained further in Wednesday morning's interview: "There is no question that the administration is quite vulnerable on this topic, that they did take weeks to go, 'Well, actually there really wasn't a protest and actually it didn't have anything to do with the tape.' That took a long time."
She added that she thought it took nearly a month for the administration to admit that the violence was not spontaneous and that there had been security concerns at the consulate preceding the incident. The administration's initial explanation was that an anti-Islam video posted on YouTube prompted a spontaneous protest.
"Then we got hung up on this 'Yes, he said'; 'No, I didn't'; 'I said terror'; 'You didn't say terror.' There was this point where they both kind of looked at me," Crowley explained of the exchange. "What I wanted to do was kind of move this along."
Crowley's role as moderator was already under fire before the debate due to an agreement between the campaigns that would have banned her from rephrasing questions, opening a new topic, asking follow-up questions or commenting on either questions or answers given by the candidates.
Crowley said before the debate that she saw her role as that of facilitator.
Paul Ryan, in another interview with ABC News on Wednesday morning, said Crowley backtracked on siding with Obama over "act of terror," something Crowley denied. She maintained that she always granted each candidate had a point and added that she hoped the campaigns would go back to focusing on each other, rather than her, soon.
She added that she did not get the impression that either candidate was specifically targeting her or her performance during the debate.
"The first person that made a beeline for me was Gov. Romney; he came over and said, 'Thanks, Candy, very much. Great debate,' " she said. "I never felt like they were anything other than two men who were watching the calendar squeeze in on them toward Election Day, and they were there to fight it out."
That should be the last time EVER that DUFUS gets near a Debate table! PERIOD!!!!
The more I watch it, the more suspicious I get that this was planned. BO was so smug, with that lip stretch of a smile, and Crowley responded so quickly that it had to be a set-up. Romney was shocked as were most Americans who have a memory of the past month. We know what we saw from the regime.
Time for some of these news organizations (like Fox) to go back and look closely at the Congressional testinony of the State Department. There is a good detailed account of what actually happened on the record. In that testimony it is clear that eveyone knew it was not a result of a demonnstartion about a video. The Americam people need to be exposed to that testimony in order to appreciate what these heroic men who gave their lives went through and how they were sold out and then lied about.
Why didn’t Crowley tell Obama that Romney was correct with his drilling permit comments and that that YOU, Mr President are incorrect.
Question would be how did it get set up, because the man simply asked a serious question about who refused to send more security, (something like that), but he never got the answer.
So, that leads me to believe Obama knew Candy had chosen that question. Obama never answered the man, but they also knew that Romeny would take the bait and expound on the truth, then the GOTCHA moment.
In nearly every speech Obama gives, notice how he double talks, and gives himself an out. Almost saying something, then saying complete opposite later on. That gives him the OUT of I DIDN'T SAY THAT. He always tells the truth with a lie. Listen for it, the double speak.
Now things get so confused and the longer it goes on, the more people will just give up, that is how they win.
Oh brother! Annie, that's not what's happening here. Obama is in deep sh*t right now. They weren't talking about Obama’s great debate victory today; they were talking about Crowley being a hack and and the debacle in Libya. The bloom is off the rose, and the left is starting to see it.
She needs to eat her words but she might get carried away:
The further out we get - the better Romney looks for his performance
I feel for Mitt...reminds me of the saying..” Its difficult trying to drain the swamp when the alligators are continually snapping at you.”
For once, I think Hillary was right.
The subject of Libya is not going away, no matter how much they try and I did not say it would. This is big, and it was murder.
Why did Obama ask Crowley for a transcript and why did she have one at the debate?
That is what I want to know. There was collusion between Crowley, her producer and the campaign before this debate. No doubt in my mind.
all she wanted was to be popular on the view...and she was..she got lots of high fives.
Because Crowley is not a true journalist. As much as she speaks to her experience - she lost the right to call herself a true journalist when she lost her objectivity. In other words - she’s a hack and shill for the Dems
Because Crowley is not a true journalist. As much as she speaks to her experience - she lost the right to call herself a true journalist when she lost her objectivity. In other words - she’s a hack and shill for the Dems
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