Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton chided a Republican member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi during her Thursday testimony for twisting her own words to “fit his narrative.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) pressed Clinton on a question that has been examined by previous panels investigating the Benghazi attacks: why the Obama administration initially and inaccurately attributed the attacks to a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim YouTube video. The Ohio Republican repeatedly spoke over Clinton and accused her of not being square with the public in order to preserve the “success story” of the administration’s intervention in Libya.
Jordan argued that Clinton knew all along that the attacks had “nothing to do with the film,” citing emails she sent to the prime minister of Egypt and to her family.
“Why didn’t you just speak plain to the American people?” he asked.
“I did,” Clinton responded, having argued that she referred to the violence as an attack that some assailants had justified on the basis of the video.
“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 in more detail the next morning,” she continued. “As did the president. I’m sorry that it doesn’t fit your narrative, congressman. I can only tell you what the facts were.”
