President Obama 'offended' over Benghazi criticism?

Reaction from former presidential candidate Fred Thompson

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 30, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST OF "HANNITY": President Obama just keeps digging himself into a deeper hole when it comes to his administration's cover-up of the Benghazi terrorist attack.

And during an interview when asked about the changing story, that keeps coming out of the White House, he did what he does best, deny, deflect, and well not tell the truth. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We've got to figure out what happened and fix it, and most importantly, we've got to bring those folks who carried that out to justice. That's exactly what we're going to do.

But I -- I do take offense, as I've said during one of the debates, with some suggestion that, you know, in any way we haven't tried to make sure that the American people knew as information was coming in what we believed happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Why two weeks after the attack were you still denying it was a terrorist attack when we now know that our State Department and intelligence knew and were watching this in real-time? So you're offended, Mr. President?

What about the families of the four Americans who died in that attack? Apparently, people that were begging for help and assistance and that assistance was denied. Now, last night on this very program we had the father of Ty Woods on the show. His son was one of the heroes, a Navy SEAL killed in the Benghazi attack, and by the way, he also was told to stand down, disobey orders, and go save people at the consulate. Listen to what his father told me here last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES WOODS, FATHER OF FALLEN NAVY SEAL: We're not political. I did not vote for either candidate last time. To be political would be --

HANNITY: I'm not trying to be political.

WOODS: OK, but to be political would be dishonoring to my son's life and death. However, I'm here to honor my son. Part of the process of honoring is to forgive, but part of the other process is truth and to make sure that justice is pursued. I hope that it is because justice has to be paid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joining me now with reaction, former presidential candidate, Fred Thompson. Senator, so many aspects to this, they denied the request of the ambassador for security after the British pulled their ambassador out.

Then on the night this happened, we now know they were watching in real-time at the State Department. Our intelligence knew. For two weeks the president lied to the American people and told them he didn't know if it was terror-related. I want to know what they knew, when they knew it, and were they aware of the requests for help to bail these guys out as people like Ty Woods were fighting.

FRED THOMPSON, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, we can narrow it down even more than that, Sean. We can ask the question that Howard Baker asked during Watergate ultimately that crystallize the whole thing and that is: what did the president know and when did he know it. Specifically, on the afternoon and evening of September 11th of this year.

Now, he supposedly should have been in the situation room calling the ultimate shots with regard to this, and they hide behind fog of war, we've got to put everything together, conflicting reports. He knows what he did. He knows what he instructions he gave. He knows what feedback he got at the time, and to not go before the American people and the parents of these -- of these young people who go out there and put their lives on the line is absolutely disgraceful, and he's getting away with it until after this election.

HANNITY: He's giving vague Clintonesque answers. He's parsing his words, but you're right. It comes down to what did he know, when did he know it, and why did he say one thing to the American people when our government had video of what was happening?

I'm told there are three videos that exist. There's predator drone video of the attack. There is audio that is available of these guys begging for help. That's what Ty Woods heard that caused him to disobey orders.

THOMPSON: From the CIA annex, from the drone as you pointed out, and also from the State Department. They had a real-time feed that went right into the situation room. Everybody in a position of authority there -- it was afternoon here.

It was late night there, but it was afternoon and early evening here when all this took place. All the players should have been in place, and with regard to the president and the conflicting information, give him the benefit of the doubt. The CIA apparently was telling the members of Congress one thing while the FBI was telling them something else. Well, put that aside for the moment, and when the CIA finally decided they weren't going to participate in this anymore, apparently. And they said that there was no evidence of any kind of demonstration or pre-demonstration or anything like that that they could find, and God knows they were looking for it at that time. Three days after that he goes before the United Nations, the president does, and still trots out this video over and over again.

HANNITY: Two weeks later.

THOMPSON: It was. You're right.

HANNITY: Two weeks later.

THOMPSON: It was two weeks later and trotted out the same thing over and over again. He had to know. He knew on the 11th what the deal was.

HANNITY: So why did he lie?

THOMPSON: On the 11th they were told that an Al Qaeda affiliate was taking credit for it. On the 11th they knew that the president of Libya said that it was obviously a pre-planned attack. As you say, they had real-time information there. There are three scandals here.

One is before the fact, one is during, and one is after. Before the fact, the United States folks were the only ones left there. Everybody else had been run out. Al Qaeda and their affiliates were running so loose in that area imposing such a threat that the British left, the Red Cross left, everybody left except our people. Our people were concerned, wanted more security to help, and they were pulling back security help and saying the Libyans can take care of you. It is -- it is absolutely disgraceful. I call on the United States Congress to form a special committee, a bipartisan committee. Let the leadership make it a select committee and get some leaders from both parties and both branches of government and get to the bottom of this, not just for the sake of Barack Obama, but for the sake of our national security. And the message that we're giving to the rest of the world in terms of how we're going to protect or not protect our people.

HANNITY: Yeah.

THOMPSON: And for the benefit of the parents like the one that you showed a minute ago.

HANNITY: You know the difference between this and Watergate? This was a third rate burglary goes awry, and it was a cover-up. Difference here is they lied to the American people. People died here, and they won't be honest and straight with us.

THOMPSON: The difference here is in Watergate we had a press. The Washington Post printed 200 mostly front pages stories about Watergate before a Watergate Committee was even instituted. We had a bipartisan Congress by unanimous vote formed the Watergate Committee, and they had leadership that was necessary.

HANNITY: We've got to roll, Senator.

THOMPSON: To come to the right result.

HANNITY: Good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

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