Army Ranger/’13 Hours’ Co-Author: ‘We Were Told to Stand Down, Told to Wait Twice’

TAPPER: “Let me ask you about the CIA station chief who gave an interview denying that there was an order to stand down. The CIA, in addition, reaching out to reporters, noting that the House Intelligence Committee also concluded in their report, quote, ‘No officer at CIA was ever told to stand down.’ Why do you think there’s a discrepancy with what you and other contractors said?”
PARONTO: “Sure. Well, I think because of deaths, first of all. Nobody wants to take a responsibility for deaths, if there’s a possibility of a delay that caused the deaths, other than that, you know, I don’t know. We have said it on multiple occasions we were told to wait twice. We were told to stand down once. We have testified to that as well. I think it just turns into a he said/she said. There’s nothing else I can do about it, but just keep trying to tell people, hey, this is what happened, we’re the guys there. There’s no reason for us to not tell the truth. We have nothing to gain from it.”
TAPPER: “Is it surprising for you to see the CIA actively challenging it?”
PARONTO: “No, no, because it doesn’t put them in a positive light. And that’s just how it is. That’s how the world works, brother. So, we’re — we know what happened. We’re going to keep telling it like it is. We were told to stand down. We were told to wait twice, delayed more than a half hour, which cost another half hour for us to actually try to fight our way on the compound and it cost lives. Actually, we’ll keep testifying to that as well.”
TAPPER: “I asked, as you saw in the Piece, former Secretary of State Clinton —“
PARONTO: “Yes.”
TAPPER: “— if she was going to see the movie.”