President Barack Obama and his administration earn poor marks for handling the fallout of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, according to a new CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday.But a majority of the public does not believe the president intentionally misled the public in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
By large margins, Americans are not satisfied with the way Obama handled the attack's aftermath — 54 percent of respondents disapproved, while only 40 percent were satisfied.
But by the same margin, most do not think the Obama administration purposefully misled Americans by initially placing most of the blame for the attack on an insensitive video.
With Sen. John McCain leading the way, top Republicans have accused the Obama administration of being "either guilty of colossal incompetence or is participating in a cover-up," as McCain said in a fiery Senate floor speech two weeks ago.
McCain is set to meet today with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, for whom he has saved his sharpest criticism on the attack because of comments she made on Sunday talk shows the week after the attack.
The CNN poll also found that 48 percent of respondents believe that the attacks could have been prevented. Ambassador Chris Stevens had requested a beef-up of security personnel at the consulate in the months prior to the attack.