Tue May 7, 2013 AT 11:14 AM EDT
As the weakly protected U.S. diplomatic compound in eastern Libya came under attack the night of Sept. 11, 2012, the deputy head of the embassy in Tripoli sought in vain to get the Pentagon to scramble fighter jets over Benghazi in a show of force that might have averted a second attack on a nearby CIA complex, The Washington Post is reporting. U.S. special forces in Tripoli were prepared to fly to Benghazi on the night the U.S. mission was attacked but were told to stand down, a State Department whistle-blower told congressional investigators, The Hill reports. The account, contained in a transcript obtained by Fox News, was given by Gregory Hicks during an interview last month with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In a powerful op-ed, Mike Huckabee predicts in Politico that President Obama won’t finish out his second term in light of the “cover-up” of the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi — calling the affair “more serious than Watergate.”