Rahm Emanuel: Darrell Issa ‘Reckless’ for Releasing Libya Documents
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ABC News(WASHINGTON) — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel lashed out at Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif, Sunday morning on This Week after the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee posted sensitive State Department cables relating to Libya online that “compromised the identities of several Libyans working with the U.S. government” according to Foreign Policy.
Emanuel called Issa’s actions “reckless” and said that they “put people at risk in Libya.”
“I have also worked in Congress where you have an oversight responsibility. And with that oversight responsibility comes responsibility,” he said. “And what Darrell Issa did by releasing names in that entire document of individuals who are working with America, put people at risk in Libya, and people around the world will now know that you’re at risk if you cooperate with the United States. That office, that chairmanship of that committee comes with responsibility. And you can not act reckless with it. ”
Emanuel defended the Obama administration’s handling of the Libya attack aftermath and said that it is not an issue that should be politicized.
“This is a time for the United States to come together, figure out what happened, which is what the commander in chief has to do, find out who did it, which is what the commander in chief has to demand, and then seek justice, which he has done repeatedly. And I would warn again, or at least highlight again, when it came to getting Osama bin Laden, Mitt Romney said that shouldn’t be a priority of ours, and the president said absolutely different,” he said.
Issa, along with fellow GOP Congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah penned a letter to President Obama last week that said the “American people deserve nothing less than a full explanation from this administration about these events, including why the repeated warnings about a worsening security situation appear to have been ignored.”
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