Clinton Contradicts Obama on Libya: Libyan People Deserve a Chance at Democracy

BLITZER: “Secretary Clinton, President Obama says the worst mistake in office that he made over these past seven and a half years was not preparing for Libya after Muammar Gaddafi was removed. You were his Secretary of State. Aren’t you also responsible for that?”
OBAMA: “Well, let me say I think we did a great deal to help the Libyan people after Gaddafi’s demise. Here’s what we did — we helped them hold two successful elections, something which is not easy, which they did very well because they had a pent-up desire to try to chart their own future after 42 years of dictatorship. I was very proud of that. We got rid of the chemical weapons stockpile that Gaddafi had, getting it out of Libya, getting it away from militias or terrorist groups. We also worked to help them set up their government, we sent a lot of American experts there. We offered to help them secure their borders, to train a new military. They at the end when it came to security issues, Wolf, did not want troops from any other country. Not just us, European or other countries in Libya. So we were caught in a very difficult position. They could not provide security on their own, which we could see and we told them that, but they didn’t want to have others helping to provide that security. And the result has been a clash between different parts of the country, terrorists taking up some locations in the country, and we can’t walk away from that. We need to be working with European and Arab partners, with the United Nations in order to continue to try to support them. The Libyan people deserve a chance at Democracy and self-government and I as president will keep trying to give that to them.