Former Hewlett-Packard CEO and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Friday that Thursday’s hearing held by the Select Committee on Benghazi showed that the eventual Republican nominee is going to have to hold former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to account.
“I think she did reasonably well,” Mrs. Fiorina said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I think it demonstrates that she won’t be held accountable until we have a nominee in a general election debate who will hold her accountable.”
Mrs. Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner, made a highly-anticipated appearance before the committee Thursday to answer questions about her role surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Libya that left four Americans dead.
“She never answered a fundamental question, and the fundamental question is this: Knowing that this was a purposeful terrorist attack on the night it occurred, why did you go the next morning and address the American people and talk about a videotape that didn’t represent the values of America and why did you continue to do that over the bodies of the fallen and for many weeks thereafter?” Mrs. Fiorina said.
Mrs. Clinton testified to the committee that her initial statement that included a reference to an anti-Muslim video was meant to serve as a warning to Muslims not to use the video as an excuse for more attacks and that there had been “conflicting information” at the time.
“She referenced in her testimony other terrorist attacks, and the difference, of course, was in those other terrorist attacks, the administration immediately came out and said, ’This is a terrorist attack, and we will seek retribution.’ Mrs. Clinton never said that,” Mrs. Fiorina said.
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Asked if Republicans on the committee fell “down on the job,” Mrs. Fiorina said there were a lot of Democrats on the committee focused on “salvaging their nominee,” and she praised the work of Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican and the panel’s chairman.
“And if you just do a little thought exercise, if the shoe were on the other foot and she had been a Republican secretary of state, I’m quite sure the Democrats would be holding hearings,” she said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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