UPDATE: The celebs in Philly who are there to support Bernie Sanders
Kris "Tonto" Paronto is one of the survivors of the 2012 Benghazi attack, when Islamic militants besieged an American diplomatic compound, murdering U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and information officer Sean Smith. Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty, who were working as CIA contractors, were killed in a separate attack at a nearby facility.
Earlier this year Paronto and his colleagues Mark "Oz" Geist and John "Tig" Tiegen visited Atlanta on a promotional tour for "13 Hours," the movie starring John Krasinski about the Benghazi attack.
At the time, all three said they hoped the issue would not be politicized. Their harrowing ordeal, portrayed in the gripping film directed by Michael Bay, was cause for national unity, not political points, the trio said in an interview with the AJC.
That seems to have changed.
"Starting Monday in Philadelphia, politician after politician will be trotted out to tell us that Hillary Clinton is a strong leader who will make us safer," Paronto said in a message posted on his official Facebook page. " They're dead wrong. As a survivor of Benghazi, I'm living proof. So I've decided to go right into the lion's den. I'm going straight to the Democratic Convention to push back and tell the truth about Hillary Clinton in person."
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
The movie starred Pablo Schreiber as Taronto, Max Martini as Geist and Dominic Fumusa as Tiegen. Matt Letscher played the slain ambassador. Kransinski's character was based on a Navy SEAL whose identity was concealed for security reasons.
Much of the action is harrowing and hard to watch, but the movie did not strike a lot of political chords. There's just a fleeting reference to "a video" when all hell breaks loose at the compound - a reference to the early narrative that an anti-Islamic video supposedly spurred protests, then violence.
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Paronto is keeping busy on Twitter this week, retweeting a post that said Clinton and President Barack Obama "should be tried for murder and treason... They abandoned our men in Benghazi."
Here's a video he has posted on his Facebook page:
"My name is Kris Paronto. I survived Benghazi," he wrote with the post. "Now I'm at the Democratic Convention to share the truth about what happened, the truth about radical Islam, and the truth about Hillary Clinton's dishonesty. The time for weakness is over. It's time, once again, to act like the United States of America."
Here's a look at his other commentary:
