Mother of Benghazi Victim Blames Hillary for Security Failures

On CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, Pat Smith, mother of slain State Department information officer Sean Smith, blamed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for failing to protect her son and other civilians in Benghazi, Libya, during the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the American consulate. “I blame her,” Smith said regarding Clinton. “That’s her department, she’s supposed to be on top of it, and yet she claims that she knows nothing, it wasn’t told to her. Who’s running the place?”

While Clinton supposedly claimed responsibility for security failures in Benghazi, she also attempted to blame subordinates and then yelled at Congress for daring to ask her questions about Benghazi: “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Of course, it does make a difference, especially to the parents of the dead. But Smith added that she did not expect Congressional hearings on Wednesday to answer her questions about her son’s death. “I’m going to listen to them, I don’t know if they can give me answers,” Smith told Tapper. “I don’t know if they’ll be able to tell me anything … I cry every night, I don’t sleep at night. I need answers.”

And she wants answers from Hillary: “Why was there no security for him, when they’re supposed to have security? And the security that they did have was called back? Things do not add up and I’m just told lies.” Smith asked why the White House was still stonewalling after eight months: “Why don’t they have answers by now?”

Smith said that nobody from the administration would speak with her directly out of fear of her questions: “I might say something like, ‘Who is at fault, and why are they covering it up?’ And they are covering it up because I haven’t heard any answers.”