Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that the House Select Committee on Benghazi’s long-awaited report on the 2012 attack “found nothing” new and that “it’s pretty clear it’s time to move on.”
“I have said from the very beginning that nothing is more important than the safety and security of our diplomats and development officials who go into dangerous places around the world,” the presumptive Democratic nominee said at a campaign event in Denver. “And I said this when I testified for 11 hours, that no one has thought more about or lost more sleep over the lives that we lost, the four Americans, which was devastating.”
Those four, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed in the Sept. 11, 2012, assault on the Benghazi outpost in Libya when Clinton was secretary of state. Clinton said Tuesday that she responded to the attack by thoroughly investigating the incident.
“That’s why I immediately put together an independent committee to go everywhere, look everywhere and come up with recommendations to help us prevent such tragedies in the future,” she said. “And that should be the goal.”
In its 800-page report, the Republican-led Benghazi committee blamed the Obama administration for what it concluded was a slow response to help the Americans under attack.
South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, the panel’s chairman, said “nothing was en route to Libya at the time the last two Americans were killed almost eight hours after the attacks began” — a delay caused, in part, because of “an obsession with hurting the Libyans’ feelings.”
Democrats on the committee quickly blasted the GOP report as “a conspiracy theory on steroids — bringing back long-debunked allegations with no credible evidence whatsoever.” The Democrats released their own report on Monday that sharply criticized conservative “conspiracy theories” about Benghazi.
Clinton, who was grilled for 11 hours before the committee last year, suggested that House Republicans had accomplished little with their extensive look into the attack.
“I understand that after more than two years and $7 million spent by the Benghazi committee out of taxpayer funds, it had to today report it found nothing, nothing to contradict the conclusions of the independent accountability board or the conclusions of the earlier prior investigations carried out on a bipartisan basis in the Congress,” Clinton said. “So while this unfortunately took on a partisan tinge, I want us to stay focused on what we’ve always stayed focused on, and that is the important work of diplomacy and development.”
“We cannot withdraw or retreat form the world,” Clinton continued. “American needs a presence for a lot of reasons. And the best way to honor [those who died] is to redouble our efforts and provide the resources and support that our diplomats and development officials [need].”
She added: “I think it’s pretty clear it’s time to move on.”
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