WASHINGTON, D.C. –In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Angus S. King, Jr. (I-ME), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, yesterday joined MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews to discuss the White House’s decision to release the series of emails that finalized the talking points used in the wake of the terrorist attack on the American special mission facility in Benghazi, Libya last September. On Monday, Senator King publicly called on the White House to release the emails, stating, “I think they [the Administration] just ought to just release this information and let the Congress look them over and let the public decide.”

The complete video of Senator King’s interview can be viewed here.

Transcribed highlights are as follows:

“If you’re not giving documents away, there’s an assumption that you’re hiding something. You know, I used to be a Governor; I believe in executive privilege, but I think it’s much better in a case like this to get them out there and let people take a look at them. I suggested that on the air two or three days ago.”

“I went through them [the emails] about six weeks ago and my conclusion was: what’s all the fuss about? The thrust of the issue was, did the Administration somehow manipulate the talking points to change [them] from a terrorist attack to a spontaneous demonstration? …It certainly doesn’t match the narrative that this was all somehow a political cover-up of what actually happened on those days; so I’m glad the White House released the reports. We’re all going to pore through them. Again, I read them six or eight weeks ago. My conclusion was I don’t think there’s much there.”

“I think what you’ve got here are talking points written by a committee and you’re always going to get a bad result.”

“I’m not going to defend the State Department. I think it’s clear they were trying to cover themselves…but again, as I understand this issue, the allegation has been that somehow the Obama White House has manipulated this to not say that it was involved with terrorism. And if you read these emails it was clear that they thought right up to that week that it was a spontaneous demonstration that evolved, and in fact I think they used that word, into the attack....And so it doesn’t support the essence of the campaign. I don’t think it covers the State Department with any glory, for sure.”

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