Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton says that had Benghazi happened during the administration of President George W. Bush, the mainstream media "would have been all over him."
Bolton told J.D. Hayworth and John Bachman on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV that he marvels at how the Democratic slant on major news stories, like Benghazi, by network news outlets in this country is accepted as the norm.
"The press bias in this country in the mainstream media is something we've seen for decades," Bolton said. "It still amazes me that the American people aren't more outraged about it. We ought to take the headquarters of the news organizations, the three broadcast networks, and move them to, I don't know, Des Moines, Iowa, or someplace.
"Get them out of New York. Get them out of the bubble. Send them to Idaho, maybe that would be better, so that they can understand what the rest of the country feels. The alternative is for people simply to stop paying attention to them, which may be the only way out," he said Monday.
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Bolton's comments come on the eve of the
Citizens Commission on Benghazi's announcing its interim findings and new leads on the Sept. 11, 2011, attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya that left four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, dead.
While he is unsure of the details that will come out of that announcement, Bolton says the more information that is revealed, the better for the American people, who cannot rely on getting that news from the TV networks.
"I do believe there's so much we don't know about Benghazi," Bolton said. "Both what led up to the establishment of the consulate without adequate security, the failures of the Obama administration and understanding that Libya was really descending into a series of camps for al-Qaida. What actually happened on Sept. 11, when the attack began, I don't think the administration has ever really explained why it didn't do more.
"It's never explained, just as an example, why by their own admission after the attack that day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton never once spoke to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, never once. I've worked for six different secretaries of state, very different people, there's no way those six secretaries of state each in their own way wouldn't have been working the phone all night long.
"And then after Sept. 11, the administration has still not explained why there's been no retaliation, no retribution, not even any arrest of those who murdered those four Americans. I mean, this is a real record of failure and the amount of information that we don't know I suspect is still far larger than the little we do know, so I'm in favor of any new information we can get out there, but we have to be honest with ourselves, we've got a long way to go."
While critics might point to strong rhetoric, like this, as an example of Bolton's angling to increase his profile as a potential candidate ahead of the 2016 presidential election, he declined to throw his hat into the ring.
"I'll tell you what I am doing," Bolton said. "I've formed a PAC and a super-PAC to help House and Senate candidates this year who believe in a strong American national security policy. It's critical that we get more leaders in the House and the Senate to oppose the weakness of the Obama administration and, because the 2014 congressional elections are really going to set the table for 2016, we get the kind of leaders we deserve.
"We've got to get people activated. We can't have another Barack Obama as president."