WASHINGTON (CNN) – Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton took direct aim at her Republican critics from the witness chair at a highly anticipated congressional hearing on Benghazi Thursday that marks a critical moment in her campaign.
She warned that Americans want true statesmanship, not partisan politics and ideology.
“I took responsibility and, as part of that, before I left office I launched reforms to help protect our people in the field,” Clinton said.
In an apparently veiled reference to her campaign’s contention that the Benghazi Select Committee is a sideshow meant to damage her politically, she added, “We need leadership at home to match our leadership abroad, leadership that puts national security ahead of politics and ideology.”
But the top Republican on the House Select Committee, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, denied the hearing was a nakedly partisan exercise designed to derail Clinton’s campaign for the 2016 election — even as her top ally on the panel hit back at that assertion.
Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings claimed the probe had wasted 17 months and $4.7 million on a partisan fishing expedition that had turned up no new evidence on the attack, which occurred when she was secretary of state.
The committee is probing the events before, during and after an assault on U.S. diplomatic and CIA compounds in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, which killed four Americans and ignited a furious political controversy that has now spanned two presidential elections.
At the beginning of what is set to be eight grueling hours of testimony, Clinton, reading slowly from notes, somberly paid tribute to the four Americans killed: U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and CIA contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
“I am here to honor the service of those four men, the courage of the diplomatic security agencies and the CIA officers who risked their lives that night, and the work their colleagues do every single day all over the world,” Clinton said.
