News

Actions

Madeleine Albright stumps in Henrico for President Obama

Posted at 11:50 PM, Oct 31, 2012
and last updated 2012-10-31 23:50:47-04

HENRICO, Va. (WTVR) - In Campaign 2012, President Obama got help Wednesday from a former secretary of state visiting Central Virginia to discuss women's issues.

Madeleine Albright also took the opportunity to defend the Obama Administration's actions following the attack in Libya.

Earlier, a U-S senator had criticized the Administration’s evolving story on what happened.

“This tragedy turned into a debacle and massive cover-up or massive incompetence, in Libya and is having an effect on voters because of their view of the Commander-in-Chief,” Sen. John McCain said Sunday, issuing a forceful denunciation of the Administration on CBS` Face the Nation, accusing it of wrongdoing in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the U-S consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

But he was challenged Wednesday by Albright who said McCain should know better. “I think that the statement is outrageous because it doesn`t take into consideration what Sen. McCain must know,” Albright said. “Which is that not all the facts are ever evident right away."

Albright spent part of the day in Henrico campaigning for President Obama, speaking about women`s issues. But she welcomed the chance to defend the Administration’s response, saying she could speak from her experience as President Clinton`s secretary of state.

“I was Secretary of State when our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were blown up. And also during the USS Cole attack,” she said. “And it takes a while to get the facts out, there`s no question. Often the first information that comes out is the wrong information, one has to assess it all.”
Albright said that is why the account of what happened when Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed has evolved over time. '"The FBI also is investigating. Again, I know from my own experience how hard it was to get the FBI into Yemen after the USS Cole,” Albright said. “So, I think what is outrageous here is to make a political football out of this. Americans died.'

Three congressional investigations and a State Department inquiry are now looking into the September eleventh attacks on the U-S diplomatic mission