Tapper then followed up, "What do you make of the fact that Ted Cruz is citing the film in debates, Donald Trump is renting out theaters to show the movie? Are you happy for that support or does it bother you because it becomes politicized?" (RELATED: '13 Hours' Is An Important Story, Well Told)[2][1]
"No, I'll be honest with you, no, I'm not because they are politicizing it," Paronto argued. "That's the problem, that was why the reason we came forward. It was because it was being used as ammunition from the right… the left using it to say the a conspiracy theory. We wanted to tell the truth, that's the middle, the apolitical story of the courage that took place on the on the ground."
Reiterating his earlier claim, "I'm not happy with it [being politicized]. We're turning Benghazi into political fodder, it's a political football. And the guys on the ground, when we're fighting that night, bullets don't care if you're conservative or you're liberal. They don't care. You're going to die either way. And we want to show that we were there fighting. Didn't care if you're black, white, red, yellow. Fighting together and trying to get each other home and trying to save lives and, again, just showing that there's courage no matter what political side you're on, or what faith you are or what ethnicity you are. It makes no difference. So no, I'm not happy with that," Paronto said.
"The bottom line, that's what you want people to take away from the film, the story of heroism and sacrifice," Tapper asked.
"Yes, because that was exemplified and especially because I saw Ty [Woods] and Glenn [Doherty] get blown up in front of me. And that stays with me forever. Politics aren't going to help that. So yes, I want people to see it because it should be inspirational film, not political film, which it's not. And we wanted to make sure it wasn't that way with the book."
Follow Steve on Twitter and Facebook[3][4]
