Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Wednesday suggested that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deliberately relied on her emotional testimony to “get out of the questions” posed to her by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the September attack in Benghazi, Libya.
After choking up earlier in the hearing, Clinton flashed anger during Johnson’s line of questioning, raising her voice as she dismissed the legitimacy of GOP skepticism toward the Obama administration’s initial characterization of the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya.
“With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans,” a clearly irritated Clinton said in response to Johnson. “Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?”
After already accusing Clinton of engaging in “theatrics” during her testimony, Johnson told Buzzfeed that the outgoing secretary of state “decided before” the hearing to show emotion in order to “get out of the questions.”
“I’m not sure she had rehearsed for that type of question,” Johnson said. “I think she just decided before she was going to describe emotionally the four dead Americans, the heroes, and use that as her trump card to get out of the questions. It was a good way of getting out of really having to respond to me.”
Watch Clinton’s exchange with Johnson:
