"With all due respect, the fact is, we had four dead Americans! Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?" It makes a difference, Madam Secretary, because the state department lied about it for three weeks in what could persuasively be argued as an attempt to downplay the blunder and prevent this situation from destroying the president's chances of reelection. Frankly, he should have lost the election because of what occurred, and they knew that, and tried desperately to cover the truth so that when the deception was revealed, it would have been old news and out of the minds of the citizens.