Did the State Department know this when they made the statement? Did Hillary? Did Obama? Did anyone?
In the initial stages of the attack, the White House and the State Department was reacting and commenting on what little information they had. The ONLY things the White House the State Department knew as facts was that a video was released, they were expecting multiple protests at multiple locations, and that an embassy was being over run.
In the first twenty-four hours that is all they knew, and that is exactly what they told us.
From page you sent me.....
Benghazi Timeline
Has the following interview with Obama the day after:
Kroft: Do you believe that this was a terrorist attack?
Obama: Well, it’s too early to know exactly how this came about, what group was involved, but obviously it was an attack on Americans and we are going to be working with the Libyan government to make sure that we bring these folks to justice one way or the other.
Kroft: It’s been described as a mob action. But there are reports that they were very heavily armed with grenades. That doesn’t sound like your normal demonstration.
Obama: As I said, we’re still investigating exactly what happened. I don’t want to jump the gun on this. But you’re right that this is not a situation that was exactly the same as what happened in Egypt. And my suspicion is, is that there are folks involved in this, who were looking to target Americans from the start.
The day after the attack the President said we didn't want to jump to conclusions on this, and that people were looking to target Americans from the start.
Twenty four hours after the attack, we still had no idea what had really happened there. We didn't know if there was a protest or not; It wasn't even near being on the list of important things we needed or wanted to know. This isn't a crime scene down the block being investigated by your friendly local law enforcement; This is was a terrorist attack in a foreign country where is was little if any law enforcement, and not much support from the government. We didn't figure out what happened until weeks afterwards.
They told us what they knew at the time. No one lied.
Hillary told her daughter in an email that it was a terrorist attack? And? What is your point? She told her daughter it was a terrorist attack while in public tried not to use those words? YOU THINK? That was her job. The President himself was quoted (above) as saying they were trying not use the world "terrorism" because at the time we weren't sure what happened, and we don't want to use such words lightly.
They told us what they knew to be true and correct at the time. Period.