We already knew that Hillary Clinton is willing to lie
openly to avoid responsibility. But she sank to a new low today as she
blamed Ambassador Chris Stevens for his own death in the Benghazi
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2012.
Appearing before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Hillary laid it on thick as she explained how much she cared for Stevens: “I’m here to honor those we lost, and to do what I can to aid those who serve us still.” She touted her friendship with Stevens and his stellar service record, and suggested how deep her personal feeling toward Stevens ran. She did not explain, however, why she addressed her close personal friend Chris Stevens as “Chris Smith” just before midnight on the night Stevens died.
Listening to Hillary bloviate about Stevens was akin to listening to Alan Dershowitz bloviate about Nicole Brown Simpson. Clinton’s State Department refused time and again to grant requests for additional security to Stevens; his last diary entry stated, “Never ending security threats…” Clinton stated that she took responsibility for the events in Benghazi. Then she proceeded to blame the dead man for wearing a short skirt: she stated that Stevens understood the risks of the job, that she wouldn’t want the tragedy of his death compounded by a bunker mentality among diplomats, and that Stevens “felt comfortable” on the ground, despite all evidence to the contrary.
As far as her own culpability, Hillary attempted to say that she was both fully aware of the situation on the ground in Benghazi, and totally out of the loop with regard to decisionmaking. She blamed unnamed security professionals for not greenlighting Stevens’ requests, although she never fired anyone, of course, and her undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy, received the requests. On the other hand, she also said that her lack of email with regard to Libyan security in the run-up to the attacks wasn’t due to negligence. Instead, she implausibly claimed, she didn’t use email all that often; people brought her hard copies of relevant documents in briefcases. Which we haven’t seen.
Of course, all that would be checkable – if, for example, she had not used a private server and deleted some 30,000 emails.
Even if Hillary’s story were true, it is a telling indictment that she regularly exchanged emails with Clinton hit man Sidney Blumenthal, but that Stevens apparently didn’t have her private email address. So much for her personal and close relationship with the deceased.
These weren’t Hillary’s only stumbles of the morning, of course. She said that the Accountability Review Board, which was stacked with Clinton allies and failed to interview her at all, had done a “hard-hitting report,” even though that report was chock-full of holes. She failed to explain why she blamed a YouTube video for the Benghazi attacks in the first place – and her emails showed that she emailed family the night of the attacks, blaming an al-Qaeda-like group. She admitted or feigned ignorance that State Department officials had been meeting with al Qaeda members in Libya before the attacks.
The most important takeaway from Hillary’s testimony, thus far, remains her despicable attempts to cast aspersions against a brave American on the ground in Benghazi, begging for security, turned aside by her office. He knew the risks, Hillary said. Actually, he didn’t know the risks of working for a dangerous charlatan like Hillary Clinton.
Appearing before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Hillary laid it on thick as she explained how much she cared for Stevens: “I’m here to honor those we lost, and to do what I can to aid those who serve us still.” She touted her friendship with Stevens and his stellar service record, and suggested how deep her personal feeling toward Stevens ran. She did not explain, however, why she addressed her close personal friend Chris Stevens as “Chris Smith” just before midnight on the night Stevens died.
Listening to Hillary bloviate about Stevens was akin to listening to Alan Dershowitz bloviate about Nicole Brown Simpson. Clinton’s State Department refused time and again to grant requests for additional security to Stevens; his last diary entry stated, “Never ending security threats…” Clinton stated that she took responsibility for the events in Benghazi. Then she proceeded to blame the dead man for wearing a short skirt: she stated that Stevens understood the risks of the job, that she wouldn’t want the tragedy of his death compounded by a bunker mentality among diplomats, and that Stevens “felt comfortable” on the ground, despite all evidence to the contrary.
As far as her own culpability, Hillary attempted to say that she was both fully aware of the situation on the ground in Benghazi, and totally out of the loop with regard to decisionmaking. She blamed unnamed security professionals for not greenlighting Stevens’ requests, although she never fired anyone, of course, and her undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy, received the requests. On the other hand, she also said that her lack of email with regard to Libyan security in the run-up to the attacks wasn’t due to negligence. Instead, she implausibly claimed, she didn’t use email all that often; people brought her hard copies of relevant documents in briefcases. Which we haven’t seen.
Even if Hillary’s story were true, it is a telling indictment that she regularly exchanged emails with Clinton hit man Sidney Blumenthal, but that Stevens apparently didn’t have her private email address. So much for her personal and close relationship with the deceased.
These weren’t Hillary’s only stumbles of the morning, of course. She said that the Accountability Review Board, which was stacked with Clinton allies and failed to interview her at all, had done a “hard-hitting report,” even though that report was chock-full of holes. She failed to explain why she blamed a YouTube video for the Benghazi attacks in the first place – and her emails showed that she emailed family the night of the attacks, blaming an al-Qaeda-like group. She admitted or feigned ignorance that State Department officials had been meeting with al Qaeda members in Libya before the attacks.
The most important takeaway from Hillary’s testimony, thus far, remains her despicable attempts to cast aspersions against a brave American on the ground in Benghazi, begging for security, turned aside by her office. He knew the risks, Hillary said. Actually, he didn’t know the risks of working for a dangerous charlatan like Hillary Clinton.
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