On September 11, 2012, an American diplomatic building in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by a militant Muslim group and a number of Americans perished, including ambassador Christopher Stevens. The Obama administration initially said the attack happened as a result of a violent protest to an anti-Muslim video called “Innocence of Muslims”. The Republicans, however, criticized the Obama administration for hesitating to call the attack “terrorist” when it started to become clear that the attack was pre-planned by a terrorist group, most likely linked to al-Qaeda, and that there weren’t even any protests against the video in Benghazi. People like John McCain claimed that Obama knew it was a premeditated terrorist attack long before he admitted it to the public.