Washington – Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended her handling of the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, from Republican criticism during high-stakes testimony on Thursday and urged her interrogators in Congress to put national security ahead of politics.
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The front-runner in the 2016 Democratic presidential race, Clinton told a congressional committee the attacks by suspected Islamist militants that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans must not discourage U.S. action globally and said the incident already had been thoroughly investigated.
“We need leadership at home to match our leadership abroad, leadership that puts national security ahead of politics and ideology,” Clinton said in her only early reference to the political controversy that has dogged the panel.
Her appearance before the Benghazi panel was another major challenge for Clinton, who has been on a hot streak with a strong performance in last week’s first Democratic debate and the news that her strongest potential challenger, Vice President Joe Biden, will not seek the Democratic nomination.
In hours of questioning that featured no heated confrontations with Republicans, she defended her leadership in Libya as America’s top diplomat and denied longstanding Republican allegations that she personally turned down requests to beef up security in Benghazi.
Republican Representative Peter Roskam told Clinton she was the chief architect of U.S. policy in Libya and that “things in Libya today are a disaster,” but Clinton said President Barack Obama made the final call on Libyan policy.
Clinton’s long-awaited appearance before the panel follows months of controversy about her use of a private home email server for her State Department work, a set-up that surfaced in part because of the Benghazi committee’s demand last year to see her official records.
It also follows weeks of political brawling over whether the Republican-led House committee’s real goal was to puncture her front-running presidential prospects. The committee is made up of seven Republicans and five of Clinton’s fellow Democrats.
NOT ABOUT CLINTON, CHAIRMAN SAYS
Trey Gowdy, the committee chairman and a former federal prosecutor, has been on the defensive over a series of comments from his fellow Republicans implying the committee’s real aim was to deflate Clinton’s poll numbers.
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“Madame Secretary, I understand some people – frankly in both parties – have suggested this investigation is about you. Let me assure you it is not,” Gowdy told Clinton in his opening statement.
“Not a single member of this committee signed up for an investigation into you or your email system.”
The panel has spent 17 months looking into the attacks that killed J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans at the U.S. mission compound.
Clinton refrained from questioning the panel’s motives, which she has done in recent public statements on the campaign trail.
“Despite all the previous investigations and all the talk about partisan agendas, I’m here to honor those we lost and to do what I can to aid those who serve us still,” she said.
I wonder if Nora McLemore can design an orange jumpsuit for her.
She should be in prison.
She has blood on her hand.
She a crook and a liar.
She unfit to be president.
What an accomplished and rehearsed liar she is! She barely answered the questions posed to her, instead she obfuscated, turned every question around into an opportunity to give her academy award-winning speeches trying to make herself sound presidential—did anyone else notice how every time she spoke, she could not look her questioner in the eye?! She was looking down, to the side, off into solace, everywhere but meeting the questioner’s eyes! That’s a known way to tell if someone is lying—they can’t look you in the eye!