Today, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced hours of grueling, unmerited nonsense from the witch hunters on the Benghazi committee. Faced with a hostile group of whiny, old, white men, Clinton held firm in her professionalism, but more than once let the Republicans have in it with her ice cool calm. Throughout the hours of testimony, not once did Clinton give the GOP a “what difference does it make” moment — a moment Republicans have been using against her since 2013.
Here are some of the best exchanges between Clinton and the power-hungry Republicans.
5. Clinton responding to Jim Jordan’s anti-Obama, anti-Clinton political rant:
Jordan: Americans can live with the fact that good people sometimes give their lives for this country. They don’t like it. They mourn for those families, they pray for those families, they can live with it. But what they can’t take, what they can’t live with, is when their government is not square with them.
Clinton: Well, I wrote a whole chapter about this in my book Hard Choices, I’d be glad to send it to you Congressman because I think the insinuations that you are making do a grave disservice to the hard work that the people in the State Department, the intelligence community, the Defense Department, the White House did during the course of some very confusing and difficult days.
4. Responding to Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas)’s question as to why nobody was fired after Benghazi:
I followed the law, Congressman, that was my responsibility. It is my position that in absence of finding no dereliction or breach of duty there could not be immediate action taken but there was a process
3. Clinton putting Congressman Peter Roskam (R-Illinois) in his place after accusing her of wanting the limelight in Libya:
Roskam: Let me tell you what I think the Clinton doctrine is — I think it is where an opportunity is seized to turn progress in Libya into a political win for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and at the precise moment when things look good, take a victory lap like on all the Sunday shows … and then turn your attention to other things.
Clinton: That is only a political statement which you well understand, and I don’t understand why that has anything to do with what we are talking about today.
2. Clinton’s exchange with Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) again:
Jordan: Secretary Clinton, you said, “my insinuation,” I am not insinuating anything I am reading what you said. Plain language. “We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with a film.” That’s as plain as it can get. That’s vastly different than vicious behavior justified by internet material. Why didn’t you just speak plain to the American people?
Clinton: I did, if you look at my statement as opposed to what I was saying to the Egyptian Prime Minister, I did state clearly and I said it again and more detailed the next morning as did the president. I’m sorry that it doesn’t fit your narrative, Congressman, I can only tell you what the facts were and the facts, as the Democratic members have pointed out in their most recent collection of them, support this process that was going on.
1. Responding to Gowdy after saying (again) that Ambassador Steven’s never asked her personally for more security:
I know that’s not the answer you want to hear. Those are the facts, Mr. Chairman.
There are many more. In the ten-and-a-half hours of testimony, Clinton wiped the floor with the Republican ideologues who berated, browbeat, and mischaracterized Secretary Clinton.
We have a strong feeling that Republicans will regret what they did.
Featured image via YouTube
