Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN’s Elise Labbot that she “takes responsibility” for the security lapses at the American mission in Benghazi, Libya. In a Monday interview conducted from Peru, Secretary Clinton said the buck stops with her for the attack where militant Islamists murdered American Ambassador Chris Stevens and four other Americans:
Clinton insisted President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not involved in security decisions, Clinton said.
The Obama administration has been heavily criticized after Vice President Joe Biden said during last week’s vice presidential debate that the White House did not know of requests to enhance security at Benghazi, contradicting testimony by State Department employees that requests had been made and rejected. Following the debate, the White House said the vice president did not know of the requests because they were handled, as is the practice, by the State Department.
Despite this attempt to insulate President Obama from criticisms of his administration’s handling of the Benghazi attack, the issue is expected to be a hot topic at Tuesday’s presidential debate.