Statement: Says President Obama waited two weeks to call the attack in Libya "terror.
Speaker: mitt romney
About the speaker: Mitt Romney is a U.S. senator from Utah. He ran for president in 2012 as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent President Barack Obama. Prior to that, Romney served one term as governor of Massachusetts, elected to the post in 2002. He was born in 1947 in Michigan, where his father was governor from 1963 to 1969. Romney graduated from Brigham Young University and received both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard University. Romney helped found the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984, which launched or rebuilt such companies as Staples and Dominos Pizza. Romney managed the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from 1999-2002. He ran for president in 2008 but lost the Republican nomination. He and his wife, Ann, have five sons, Tagg, Craig, Matt, Ben and Josh.
Date: October 16, 2012
Location: national
Topics: corrections and updates;debates;foreign policy;terrorism
Context: the second presidential debate
Fact-check justification: Romney said it took the president 14 days before he called the Libya attack terror. In fact, Obama described it in those terms the day after the attack. But in the days that followed, neither he nor all the members of his administration spoke consistently on the subject. There were many suggestions that the attack was part of demonstrations over an American-made video that disparaged Islam. We rate the statement . Update:   After we published this item, we heard from readers that the president called the attack "an act of terror" two more times -- on Sept. 13 in Colorado and Sept. 14 in Nevada . "As for the ones we lost last night: I want to assure you, we will bring their killers to justice," Obama said at a campaign event in Nevada. "And we want to send a message all around the world -- anybody who would do us harm: No act of terror will dim the light of the values that we proudly shine on the rest of the world, and no act of violence will shake the resolve of the United States of America." So as we noted in our original item, Romney is off the mark as it relates to the word "terror." But Obama contributed to the administration's mixed message when he spoke at the Univision Town Hall event on Sept. 20. A questioner asked:  "We have reports that the White House said today that the attacks in Libya were a terrorist attack. Do you have information indicating that it was Iran, or al Qaeda was behind organizing the protests?" Here is Obama’s reply: "Well, we’re still doing an investigation, and there are going to be different circumstances in different countries. And so I don’t want to speak to something until we have all the information. What we do know is that the natural protests that arose because of the outrage over the video were used as an excuse by extremists to see if they can also directly harm U.S. interests." So although Obama acknowledged the uncertainty, he emphasized the inflammatory video and the protest as contributing factors in the attack. By mentioning the video, Obama drew attention away from the possibility that the attack had been a planned assault. This lies at the heart of the dispute over what Obama and his administration were saying in the days after the attack. The president had the chance to be more complete and direct in Florida, but the administration was continuing to focus on the response to the video. Just four days earlier, Ambassador Rice downplayed the possibility that the attack was premeditated. The president’s words did not correct that impression. So while Obama did use the word "terror," there is also some  to Romney's point that it took many days for the administration to fully characterize the attack as the work of a terrorist group. So we're still rating this .