Watch: Rick Perry Blunders Jab at Obama’s Benghazi Reaction
In his latest flub, the Texas governor demonstrates why he is still the reigning champion of the political gaffe.
Oops, he’s done it again. While attempting to criticize the Obama administration’s response to September’s fatal attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, gaffe-prone Texas Gov. Rick Perry mistakenly indicated they had occurred in Lebanon instead of Libya.
“I fear where we’ve come to in America, where our administration won’t make one phone call to save our men and women in a embassy in Lebanon,” he said while delivering a speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference over the weekend. It’s unclear whether the audience even noticed the error however, as the line evoked a smattering of applause.
That Perry made the gaffe is somewhat ironic given that he had earlier discussed in the same speech how prone he was to making blunders, referencing the 2012 Republican presidential debate in which he couldn’t remember the last of three government agencies he proposed to eliminate if elected to the White House.
But Perry is hardly the first failed 2012 Republican presidential candidate to stumble on the topic. As The Huffington Post noted: “In 2011, then-GOP presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain were both tripped up when discussing the nation. Bachmann suggested the nation wasn’t in Africa, while Cain appeared completely stumped when attempting to explain his position on Libya.”
Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.
— Posted by Tracy Bloom.
WAIT BEFORE YOU GO...This year, the ground feels uncertain — facts are buried and those in power are working to keep them hidden. Now more than ever, independent journalism must go beneath the surface.
At Truthdig, we don’t just report what's happening — we investigate how and why. We follow the threads others leave behind and uncover the forces shaping our future.
Your tax-deductible donation fuels journalism that asks harder questions and digs where others won’t.
Don’t settle for surface-level coverage.
Unearth what matters. Help dig deeper.
Donate now.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.