Imagine if this had happened under a Democrat

Imagine if this had happened under a Democrat

by digby


The story about the four soldiers who were killed in Niger is changing weeks after it happened and the president acted cagey and evasive when asked about it, which is what got him into trouble. There's probably a good explanation for it, fog of war etc. But if the president were a Democrat, there would already be a full blown investigation and accusations of cover-up.

CNN reports:

We have some new details on the attack in Niger that left four US soldiers dead, thanks to a timeline laid out by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford. The 12-member team was on its way back to its operating base when it was attacked by about 50 members of ISIS. The troops didn't call for help for about an hour. French jets arrived about an hour after that. Dunford thinks the team initially felt it could handle the firefight, and investigators will focus on why it took them so long to ask for help. Dunford also said it doesn't seem like the troops were acting outside of their orders.

Even with these new details, there are still a ton of unanswered questions, including why Sgt. La David Johnson was separated from his team during the firefight, and why his body was recovered 48 hours later nearly a mile away from the ambush.

Again, I would assume that there's nothing nefarious going on. But the White House is handling it a badly as possible and you cannot help but think about how this mismanagement would be handled if the shoe were on the other foot. Recall kevin McCarthy's famous statement:

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not fought.”

They do it and they admit they do it. There's power in that. Of course, it's destroying the country but whatevs ...

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