Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
The first round of Hillary Clinton’s testimony in front of the House Benghazi Committee was exactly what you’d expect it to be: heated.
Republicans fired hard-hitting questions at the former Secretary of State about the 9/11/12 Benghazi attack, while Democrats dismissed the hearing as a partisan witch hunt.
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., noted that the late Ambassador Chris Stevens asked “numerous times” for extra security in Libya and questioned whether he was able to ask Clinton directly. “I do not believe that he had my personal email,” Clinton admitted, before adding that Stevens had a “direct line” to others. Clinton acknowledged some of his requests were approved, and others were not. She also testified that those requests were handled by security professionals in the department and not her. “I did not see them. I did not approve them. I did not deny them,” she said.
… Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the committee’s top Democrat, said the panel was only formed because Republicans “did not like the answers” from prior investigations. So, he said, they established the committee and “set them loose, madam secretary, because you’re running for president.” Cummings called it an “abusive effort to derail” her campaign.
At one point, Republicans questioned whether or not Hillary Clinton even knew the U.S. had a presence in Benghazi. According to The Hill:
The closest they got to a new bombshell in the early hours of the hearing was an email from two lower-level State Department staffers alleging that Clinton was unaware that the U.S. government had any presence in Benghazi. “Of course I knew we had a presence in Benghazi,” Clinton retorted, adding that the State Department officials were not on her personal staff. “I can’t speak to what someone either heard of misheard.”
In case you missed it, Fox News posted a transcript of Hillary’s opening statement here.
The question becomes, how will the American people react to Hillary’s testimony today?
According to a new Associated Press-Gfk poll, public opinion is mixed:
Four in 10 say they neither approve nor disapprove of how she has answered questions about the attack, while 20 percent approve and 37 percent disapprove. Americans also are divided on Clinton’s emails. More than half of those polled view her use of a private server as a minor problem or no problem at all, compared with 1 in 3 who think it is a major problem. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans call it a major problem.
