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Hillary Clinton on Benghazi Attack

Accepted responsibility (strong)

TL;DR

Hillary Clinton accepted responsibility for the 2012 Benghazi attack but rejected claims blaming poor security measures under her tenure.

Key Points

  • She testified before the House Select Committee on Benghazi for approximately 11 hours in October 2015, where she again stated her acceptance of responsibility.

  • Documents reviewed by a Congressional Committee indicated that U.S. diplomats in Libya had made repeated requests for increased security prior to the September 11, 2012, attack, which were denied by Washington officials.

  • The final 800-page report from the House Select Committee did not lay direct blame at the then-Secretary of State’s doorstep for the attack or the immediate aftermath.

Summary

Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State during the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, has consistently maintained that she takes responsibility for the tragedy that resulted in four American deaths. She firmly rebutted allegations that the attack stemmed from insufficient security precautions, stating she was not directly consulted regarding requests for additional protective measures in the lead-up to the event. Congressional committees investigating the incident, including a multi-year, multi-million dollar House Select Committee, put her under intense scrutiny, but she stated the final report offered no new contradictory findings to previous reviews.

Following the attack, initial administration statements suggested the incident was a spontaneous protest fueled by an anti-Muslim video, a narrative that evolved as intelligence reports were analyzed. While some reports indicated that aides to the former Secretary of State were aware the attack was planned shortly after it began, she faced questioning over the administration's shifting public narrative. She stepped aside for her ambassador to the United Nations to handle initial Sunday show interviews regarding the situation, and later asserted that it was not her role to second-guess the security professionals on the ground regarding their on-site decisions.

Key Quotes

...it had to today report that it had found nothing, nothing to contradict the conclusions of the independent accountability board or the conclusions of the prior multiple earlier investigations.

“We know that the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. . . . It was a planned attack — not a protest.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Hillary Clinton accepts responsibility for the four American deaths during the 2012 Benghazi attack when she was Secretary of State. She has consistently denied that the attack was due to poor security precautions, stating she deferred to security professionals on site-specific decisions.

There were conflicting reports in the initial days following the attack, and Clinton admitted in a private call to knowing it was planned, not just a protest. However, she later stated in testimony that intelligence was evolving and she was not in a position to confirm the nature of the attack immediately.

Her core stance of accepting responsibility for the outcome while defending the security decisions made at the time appears consistent. She has maintained that the investigation's focus shifted politically, but her personal accountability remains a stated position.