Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during her testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi that she "took responsibility" for the tragedy in Benghazi when the U.S. diplomatic compound was attacked by militants in 2012.
"As secretary of state, I had the honor to lead and the responsibility to support nearly 70,000 diplomats and development experts across the globe," Clinton said during her opening statement. "Losing any one of them, as we did in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, Haiti and Libya, during my tenure was deeply painful for our entire State Department and USAID family and for me personally."
Clinton then went on to talk about Christopher Steven, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, who along with three other Americans was killed in the terror assault.
"I was the one recommended him to be our ambassador," Clinton said. "After the attacks, I stood next to President Obama as Marines carried his casket and those of the other three Americans off the plane at Andrews Air Force Base."
"I took responsibility. And as part of that, before I left office, I launched reforms to better protect our people in the field and help reduce the chance of another tragedy happening in the future," Clinton continued.
She went on to say that the matter has been thoroughly investigated.
"What happened in Benghazi has been scrutinized by a nonpartisan hard-hitting Accountability Review Board, seven prior congressional investigations, multiple news organizations and, of course, our law enforcement and intelligence agencies," Clinton said.
