Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is hitting back at congressional Republicans in her new book for politicizing the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.
“I will not be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans,” Clinton wrote in an excerpt from her upcoming memoir “Hard Choices,” obtained by Politico.“Those who exploit this tragedy over and over as a political tool minimize the sacrifice of those who served our country.”
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“It’s just plain wrong, and it’s unworthy of our great country,” Clinton wrote. “Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me.”
The 34-page chapter on Benghazi is Clinton’s most comprehensive response to the attack and the controversy that ensued.
Clinton takes responsibility for the attack but says the loss of life came through “the heartbreaking human stakes of every decision we make.”
She laments the “regrettable amount of misinformation, speculation, and flat-out deceit by some in politics and the media.”
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Clinton also defended former Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice who went on the Sunday talk shows after the attack and blamed them in part on an anti-Muslim video.
“Susan stated what the intelligence community believed, rightly or wrongly, at the time,” Clinton wrote. “That was the best she or anyone could do. Every step of the way, whenever something new was learned, it was quickly shared with Congress and the American people. There is a difference between getting something wrong, and committing wrong. A big difference that some have blurred to the point of casting those who made a mistake as intentionally deceitful.”
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She also responded to critics of her statement “what difference at this point does it make” given at a Benghazi hearing in 2013.
“In yet another example of the terrible politicization of this tragedy, many have conveniently chosen to interpret” (that phrase) “to mean that I was somehow minimizing the tragedy of Benghazi. Of course that’s not what I said,” she writes. “Nothing could be further from the truth. And many of those trying to make hay of it know that, but don’t care.”