Geraldo Rivera and Eric Bolling had yet another confrontation over Benghazi this morning on Rivera’s radio show. Rivera accused Bolling of making irresponsible accusations that President Obama acted treasonously. Instead of defending his allegation that Obama deliberately ordered troops to “stand down” from assisting in Benghazi during the attack there, Bolling hung up.

Apparently, this discussion was the offshoot of a Twitter feud Rivera said he and Bolling had engaged in “all weekend long.” Rivera told Bolling, “You are concentrating on what the president could have done” to save lives. He added, “My position is that the highest-ranking military officials in this country have said they could do nothing to save those people in distress. And yet you persist in a narrative that I think is a false narrative.” He also alleged that Bolling was ignoring the truly important story which is “the cover up” and the lack of security.

Bolling continued to accuse President Obama of giving some kind of “stand down order” – which Rivera rightly corrected to point out that it was “four guys” who were told to remain in Tripoli (for embassy security). It’s worth noting that Bolling is in line with Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy in promoting this falsehood.

Then Rivera got to the heart of the matter:

You’re making the President look like a damn murderer, Eric, and it’s so irresponsible and you are feeding these survivors of these victims with this false narrative so they hate the president and they accuse the president of being a murderer based on false reporting. It’s outrageous!

Bolling went on to make the dubious claim – immediately shot down by Rivera – that a “verbal stand down order (was) given to all available assets in the area.” Supposedly, that meant that President Obama had done it. But rather than point to any source for such an accusation, Bolling ducked out of the conversation. He said, “I’m not doing this,” told Rivera and his other guest, former New York State Elliot Spitzer to check their facts and then hung up.

Spitzer said:

They’re turning this narrative into one of almost alleging irresponsibility and treason on the part of a president who was given the best advice by his military commanders. We should now be looking at this for the tragedy that it was, which is why the security failed and what are the issues about how we understand it. But to allege that this president didn’t do everything possible to save American lives is irresponsible.

That is exactly the point and the fact that Fox’s coverage is focused on President Obama and/or Hillary Clinton and not on the security, the recommendations for improving security made by the Accountability Review Board and whether or not the suggestions are sufficient and have been implemented speaks volumes about Fox News’ priorities, its real interest in the case and its exploitation of a tragedy for partisan, political purposes.

Audio available at Mediaite.