"The Buck Stops Here!" Ummm...never mind.

A tale of two presidents...

Harry Truman: The Buck Stops Here!

President Truman with the famous
"The Buck Stops Here" sign on his desk

Barack Obama: Never mind, I'll let Hillary handle it.

There's been a lot over the last couple days and weeks about who takes responsibility...when I asked Secretary Clinton whether the White House was throwing the State Department under the bus, she said, "Listen, this is my State Department, I take responsibility..." 

...She did say that the buck stops with her...

Actually, Mr. President, that should be "never mind what I said in July."

From an interview Obama gave to WJLA ABC7 News on July 13, 2012:

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, here's what I know, we were just talking about responsibility and as president of the United States, it's pretty clear to me that I'm responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you.

UPDATE:  U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) just released the following statement on Clinton’s comments this evening regarding the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 11, 2012:

We have just learned that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has claimed full responsibility for any failure to secure our people and our Consulate in Benghazi prior to the attack of September 11, 2012. This is a laudable gesture, especially when the White House is trying to avoid any responsibility whatsoever.

However, we must remember that the events of September 11 were preceded by an escalating pattern of attacks this year in Benghazi, including a bomb that was thrown into our Consulate in April, another explosive device that was detonated outside of our Consulate in June, and an assassination attempt on the British Ambassador. If the President was truly not aware of this rising threat level in Benghazi, then we have lost confidence in his national security team, whose responsibility it is to keep the President informed. But if the President was aware of these earlier attacks in Benghazi prior to the events of September 11, 2012, then he bears full responsibility for any security failures that occurred. The security of Americans serving our nation everywhere in the world is ultimately the job of the Commander-in-Chief. The buck stops there.

Furthermore, there is the separate issue of the insistence by members of the Administration, including the President himself, that the attack in Benghazi was the result of a spontaneous demonstration triggered by a hateful video, long after it had become clear that the real cause was a terrorist attack. The President also bears responsibility for this portrayal of the attack, and we continue to believe that the American people deserve to know why the Administration acted as it did.

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