The House Committee on Benghazi on Thursday brought in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for questioning regarding details of the 2012 attack that left four Americans dead.
The Twitter account for Clinton's presidential campaign newsletter, The Briefing, changed its name to "The Benghazi Hearing" for the day, with a message saying "Get the facts and help fight back against false attacks."
Some of the messages are humorous. The Twitter account highlighted the moment that Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) followed it, tweeting, "Finally, @TGowdySC wants the facts."
Clinton faced rigorous questioning during the hearing. Her tone was measured and she let herself get interrupted frequently, according to The Wall Street Journal's Live Blog.
Clinton had come face to face with the Republican-led special investigation for the 2012 violence in Libya. She hoped to finally put an end to her worst episode during her time as secretary of state and appealed to the committee that the events of Libya had already been scrutinized enough and had also hailed the efforts of the four Americans who died in the attack.
"We need leadership at home to match our leadership abroad, leadership that puts national security ahead of politics and ideology," Clinton said.
The current pressure of the Benghazi Committee comes at a time when Clinton is at her strongest, as possibly her only serious competitor for the Democratic nomination, Joe Biden, had announced this week that he would not run. The Benghazi panel Republican chairman had promised her that she wouldn't be called for a second time to testify, according to NBC New York. But Gowdy started the hearing with a series of questions that he said remained unanswered: Why was the U.S. in Libya, why were security requests denied, why was the military not ready to respond quickly on the 11th anniversary of 9-11 and why did the Obama administration change its story about the nature of the attacks in the weeks afterward?
Clinton addressed some of these matters in her opening remarks. She stressed a need for diplomats to advance U.S. interests in the world, even in dangerous places, and said perfect security can never be achieved, according to the CBC.
A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows an interesting statistic on Clinton and Benghazi. Four in 10 say they neither approve nor disapprove of how she has answered questions about the attack, while 20 percent approve and 37 percent disapprove.
