New ’13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi’ Trailer Released, Will Hillary’s Poll Numbers Suffer?

A new 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi trailer was released in the midst of a heated 2016 Presidential campaign. Will Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers be affected by the images audiences see on the big screen?

Even though the Michael Bay action film depicts in greater detail than Americans have ever seen what happened the night of September 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya, when terrorists attacked the U.S. compound, this is not a political film. The intense fire fight resulted in the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens — the first to be killed in the line of duty since 1979. Along with Ambassador Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, CIA contractors, Tyrone S. Woods, and Glen Doherty were also killed protecting the compound.

It is clear that the new 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi trailer doesn’t point fingers at any specific person for the events that transpired. However, Democratic presidential candidate and the Secretary of State at the time of the Benghazi attacks, Hillary Clinton is still surrounded by a shroud of mystery about the Benghazi attack and was grilled by the Senate a few weeks ago about her involvement in the events that led to the death of Ambassador Stevens.

What we do see in the new 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi trailer is that the men trying to protect the late Ambassador Stevens and the U.S. compound were left to make their own decisions with little help from the outside. Deadline calls the red band trailer “kinetic,” and the film promises non-stop dramatic action from the perspective of those brave soldiers who risked everything and ignored their superiors by doing what they thought was right.

13 Hours is based on Mitchell Zuckoff’s nonfiction book 13 Hours: The Inside Account Of What Really Happened In Benghazi, and though it never mentions Hillary Clinton or President Obama by name, some say that, ultimately, both were responsible to protect those men who were lost that day. In the new 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi trailer, the station chief played by David Costabile yells, “Stand down!” to those ready to rush into action.

As with anything else related to the Benghazi attack, it’s debatable whether a stand down order was ever given, but the slug line for 13 Hours is “When everything went wrong, six men had the courage to do the right thing,” suggesting that those in power, such as Hillary Clinton, did not. This is the plot for the Michael Bay film.

“On the evening of September 11, 2012, the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a group of Islamist militants attack the American diplomatic compound and a nearby CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya. CIA security contractors – military veterans who served with the Navy SEALS, Marine Corps, and Army Special Forces – take the initiative to make a desperate stand to defend the American Ambassador and his staff within the diplomatic compound.”

The release of the new 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi trailer comes at a bad time for Hillary Clinton, just as she is putting behind her the congressional hearings into what happened in Benghazi and why the American ambassador didn’t get help. The film’s release, set for January 15, 2016, is even more ill-timed, as 2016 is a presidential election year and Clinton is the leading Democratic hopeful.

Bay is hoping that 13 Hours will follow in the footsteps of other recent American movies depicting real events in the ongoing war on terrorism, including the hugely successful and controversial American Sniper and Lone Survivor. In all these cases, the filmmakers have benefited from the expertise of those who were directly involved with the chain of the events.

Do you think the release of the new 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi trailer will affect Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers?

[Image via 3 Arts Entertainment]