Clinton on Benghazi: ‘I Have Lost More Sleep than All of You Put Together’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
how you could have interfered with the security there. But nonetheless, I do think that's what they are aiming at. I know the ambassador was someone you helped pick. I know the ambassador was a friend of yours. And I wonder if you would like to comment on what it's like to be the subject of an allegation that you deliberately interfered with security that cost the life of a friend.
>> Congressman, it's a very personally painful accusation. It has been rejected and disproven by nonpartisan, dispassionate investigators but nevertheless, having it continued to be bandied around is deeply distressing to me. You know, I would imagine I have thought more about what happened than all of you put together. I have lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done. And so when I took responsibility, I took it as a challenge and an obligation to make sure before I left the State Department that what we could learn as I'm sure my predecessors did after Beirut and after Nairobi and after all of the other attacks on our facilities, I'm sure all of them, Republican and Democrat alike, especially where there was loss of American life, said okay, what must we do better, how do we protect the men and women that we send without weapons, without support from the military, into some of the most dangerous places in the world. And so I will continue to speak out and do everything I can from whatever position I'm in to honor the memory of those we lost, and to work as hard as I know to try to create more understanding and cooperation between the State Department, our diplomats, our development professionals from U.S. A.I.D. And the Congress so that the Congress is a partner with us, as was the case in previous times. I would like us to get back to those times, congressman, whereas I think one of you said Beirut, we lost far more Americans not once but twice within a year. There was no partisan effort. People rose above politics. A democratic Congress worked with a Republican administration to say what do we need to learn. Out of that came the legislation for the accountability review board. Similarly after we lost more Americans in the bombings in east Africa, again, Republicans and Democrats worked together, said what do we need to do better. So I'm an optimist, congressman. I'm hoping that that will be the outcome of this and every other effort so that we really do honor not only those we lost, but all those who right as we speak are serving in dangerous places representing the values
