Clinton Fends Off Republican Attacks in Benghazi Grilling

Hillary Clinton on Thursday defended her role in responding to deadly attacks in Libya in 2012, as the White House hopeful took the stand for a marathon grilling by hostile Republicans.

In highly-anticipated testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, the Democratic presidential frontrunner repeated that she took ultimate responsibility for the tragedy that left four Americans dead including ambassador Christopher Stevens.

But she said she was never consulted about security measures at the U.S. diplomatic compound that was overrun by Islamist extremists on September 11, 2012.

And President Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 warned against "partisan agendas" that fellow Democrats have said were aimed at sabotaging her 2016 White House campaign. 

She instead urged lawmakers to work with her and "reach for statesmanship" in seeking to prevent deaths like those in Benghazi from happening elsewhere.

"I'm here to honor the service of those four men," Clinton said in her opening remarks coming 17 months after the Republican-led committee launched its investigation.

If she performs well, Clinton could convince skeptical voters that it is time to move on from the controversy that has dogged her campaign.

But should she stumble on such a consequential day, with her remarks carried live on several U.S. networks, Clinton could face a heightened barrage of Republican attacks on her judgment and diplomatic acumen during the 13-month run up to the November 2016 election.

Clinton sounded serious and confident as she advocated for a muscular foreign policy, stressing the need for the United States to accept risks as it pursues its vital interests in a dangerous world, and to acknowledge that it can "never prevent every act of terrorism or achieve perfect security."

"Chris Stevens understood that diplomats must operate in many places where our soldiers do not," she said. "Where there are no other boots on the ground and safety is far from guaranteed."

The Benghazi committee has been deeply controversial, and in recent weeks GOP lawmakers including the number two Republican in the House, Kevin McCarthy, suggested that the panel served to help damage Clinton's standing in the presidential race.

Democrats have piled on, accusing the Republican investigators of conducting a fishing expedition against Clinton.

- 'I take responsibility' - 

But committee chairman Trey Gowdy, in his opening remarks, looked Clinton in the eye to deny the probe was about her.

"Let me assure you it is not," he said, adding that it was driven by respect for the Benghazi victims. "They deserve nothing but the truth."

Clinton did not shrink from her role. "I take responsibility for what happened in Benghazi," she stressed, reiterating a message she presented to Congress in testimony months after the tragedy. 

The US Congress has conducted seven probes into the attack, and Clinton launched an Accountability Review Board to investigate the events. 

The board's report did not fault the State Department for the terror attacks but cited "systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels" that resulted in an inadequate security posture.

Critics have pointed to the department's rebuff of requests for additional U.S. security measures in Libya, which remained unstable in the aftermath of the ouster of strongman Moamer Kadhafi. Some argued that Clinton was responsible for rejecting the security upgrade.

But she insisted Thursday that such requests, or rejection of the requests, very rarely reached her desk.

"None of them with respect to security in Benghazi did," she said.

She said that in the aftermath of the exhaustive U.S. reviews, as secretary of state she "moved to correct" the security shortcomings as recommended by the review board.

The Benghazi tragedy has hovered over Clinton for three years, threatening to upend her presidential candidacy especially after the committee's investigation led to the revelation that she used a homebrew email account and server during her tenure as America's top diplomat.

Democrats have debated whether Clinton was a wounded candidate made vulnerable by the Benghazi probe, considerations that no doubt reached Vice President Joe Biden as he mulled his own White House run.

But Biden's announcement Wednesday that he will not seek the presidency likely eased pressure on Clinton ahead of her appearance before Congress.

Democrats have called for the committee's abolition, arguing it has cost taxpayers nearly $5 million and dragged on far too long.

The panel's top Democrat Elijah Cummings repeated the request Thursday, saying nothing in the new Clinton emails uncovered by the probe "changes the basic facts we have known for three years."