**UPDATE to the post below** It was first reported that Hillary Clinton suffered a concussion on Saturday, December 15th. CNN is now reporting that the fall / concussion happened “earlier in the week”.
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The alleged fainting spell and subsequent concussion of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears a bit fortuitous, if not downright suspicious when factoring in all of her stonewalling and obfuscation to this point.
It all started on September 16th, when U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice – instead of Hillary – appeared on five Sunday talk shows to give demonstrably false information about the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Rice said in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams that the reason Hillary ‘declined to do it’ was because the Secretary of State was too tired after a ‘grueling week’.
On November 30th, when Hillary was asked why Rice appeared on those shows instead of her, the Secretary of State responded that she wouldn’t answer a “hypothetical” about what could have happened.
No, she really said that (at the :37 mark):
Even MSNBC’s resident RINO, Joe Scarborough could see right through this one. Start watching at the 2:40 mark when the Morning Joe Crew airs a snippet of Rice’s interview with Williams but pay more attention to Scarborough’s reaction afterward. He is convinced that the reason Hillary didn’t do those shows was because of a political calculation, not because of fatigue.
Before moving on, time for another illustration of what Scarborough was talking about, via Jim Carrey, who represents Susan Rice in this metaphor:
Back to Hillary…
On October 2nd, the House Oversight Committee sent Hillary a letter asking for answers about why requests for security at the Benghazi consulate were ignored. Her response?
Ignore the letter. (Slight correction) – Hillary didn’t technically ignore the letter. She just responded with one of her own saying that she would assemble the Accountability Review Board (ARB) to look into what happened. Her inability to testify due to virus / concussion coincided with the completion of this report.
On November 1st, the House Oversight Committee sent Hillary another letter, asking about documents that had come into the possession of the Committee which showed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and officials at the consulate were very concerned about their security on the day of the attack. Her response?
Ignore the letter.
In early November, it was reported that Hillary declined to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the 15th of that month because she would be in Australia.
Via PJM:
“She was asked to appear at House Foreign Affairs next week, and we have written back to the chairman to say that she’ll be on travel next week,” said department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. She did not answer a question about whether Clinton would be willing to fly back from Australia to address either the Foreign Affairs panel or the Senate and House closed-door intelligence committee hearings getting to the root of the Benghazi scandal.
On December 10th, it was reported that Hillary would be canceling her trip to the Middle East due to a stomach virus. Three days later, it was reported early in the day that she would be testifying in front of the Senate and House foreign relations committee on December 20th. Later in the day, it appeared that Clinton was backing away from testifying because the Accountability Review Board (ARB) had not completed its report and probably wouldn’t by the 20th.
Via Foreign Policy:
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said today that the ARB is not complete, might not be complete by Dec. 20, and Clinton has not agreed to testify on Dec. 20.
“The Hill has talked about a planning date on the calendar. That presumes that the ARB is finished,” Nuland said. “That’s dependent on all of the work getting done between now and then… The ARB is continuing to do its work, to my knowledge it has not yet completed its work.”
Clinton has agreed to brief the House and Senate foreign relations committees on how she interprets the ARB report, whenever it surfaces.
In the wake of this equivocating, pressure was no doubt applied to the State Department by committee members. For one thing, they announced that Hillary would testify because the date was on the State Department’s calendar. For another thing, committee members insisted that they have access to the ARB report despite Nuland’s claims that all Hillary could agree to was to include Congress in her response to the ARB report. None of that includes how frustrated many committee members are by how long Clinton and the State Department have been stonewalling.
Then, on the morning of December 15th, Hillary faints as a consequence of her stomach virus and gets a concussion.
Via Foreign Policy:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won’t testify to Congress next week on Benghazi, after fainting and suffering a concussion Saturday and due to her ongoing stomach ailment.
“While suffering from a stomach virus, Secretary Clinton became dehydrated and fainted, sustaining a concussion,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Philippe Reines said in a statement. “She has been recovering at home and will continue to be monitored regularly by her doctors. At their recommendation, she will continue to work from home next week, staying in regular contact with Department and other officials. She is looking forward to being back in the office soon.”
Deputy Secretaries of State Bill Burns and Tom Nides will both testify in Clinton’s place, according to the office of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA).
Note how suddenly the readiness of the ARB report is no longer an issue. Bill Burns and Tom Nides are about to assume the same position that Susan Rice did on September 16th and isn’t it interesting that they’ll apparently be doing it whether the ARB report is completed or not.
**UPDATE** One day after it was reported that Clinton would not testify on December 20th due to a concussion and three days after Nuland told reporters the ARB report may not be done by December 20th, CNN reported that the State Department would have the final ARB report on December 17th.
One day before Clinton’s fortuitous fall, Fox News’ Chris Stirewalt wrote the following:
Clinton can hardly leave her post before a replacement is confirmed, so her goal is to keep the Benghazi business from damaging her valedictory weeks at Foggy Bottom.
It’s a tricky task, but as Rice learned and Obama has been taught again, Clinton is not someone to be underestimated.
Perhaps, but a concussion caused by passing out from a stomach virus days before she was set to testify?!
Before sending Rice out to do the talking, Hillary was apparently too tired to do it herself. Now, before sending Burns and Nides out to do the talking, she has a virus that caused her to fall on her head.
One thing should be very, very obvious. Hillary Clinton does not want to talk about Benghazi.
Why?