Story highlights
- Clinton is cross-examined by the House Select Committee on the circumstances surrounding the deaths of four Americans
- The hearing is the latest twist in a long-running political saga ignited by the attacks
Washington (CNN)The bitter political undercurrents surrounding the Benghazi attacks erupted Thursday with Democrats and Republicans feuding over the role of a special investigative panel while Hillary Clinton came under intense fire for her handling of the tragedy.
The panel's top Republican, Trey Gowdy, and Democrat, Elijah Cummings, began shouting and interrupting each other over what information the committee should release while Clinton sat silently in the witness chair, watching the heated exchange and nodding her agreement with Cummings.
The Democratic presidential front-runner -- who seemed collected and in command throughout the hearing -- mounted a passionate defense of her response to the violence, telling the Republicans arrayed against her that she had agonized over the deaths of four Americans in Libya than anyone else on the panel.
"I would imagine I have thought more about what happened than all of you put together," she said. "I have lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done."
Fast facts on the Benghazi attacks
But she came under repeated criticism from Republicans who didn't accept her explanations as they tried to prove she ignored pleas from U.S. diplomats in Libya for better security and played the dominant role in the U.S. intervention in Libya, which was an initial success but left a chaotic failed state behind.
The hearing became a tussle between Republicans who believe there are still serious questions to answer about what happened in Benghazi -- as well as those who appear to want to dent her presidential ambitions -- and Clinton as she tries to build on a resurgence in her campaign after a tough summer.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio submitted the former secretary of state to a dramatic period of questioning when he alleged that she and other Obama administration staff tried to blame the attack on the consulate on an anti-Muslim YouTube video to avoid undercutting President Barack Obama's claims that he had crushed Al-Qaeda.
"You could live with a protest about a video, that won't hurt you, but a terror attack would," Jordan said, saying that Americans could accept, reluctantly, compatriots being killed abroad but "what they can't live with is when their government is not square with them."
Clinton rejected the claim, saying in the desperate hours after the attack on September 11, 2012, that information on the true nature of the assault on the compound by a mob was unclear.
"I am sorry that it doesn't fit your narrative congressman, I can only tell you what the facts are."
Another Republican, Rep Mike Pompeo of Kansas, tried to rile Clinton by asking why her old friend and political operative Sidney Blumenthal had been able to send her personal emails, requests for more security from U.S. staff in Libya did not reach her desk.
READ: Hillary Clinton's other Libya problem
There were several occasions when Democrats teed up questions for Clinton that allowed her to speak at length and in personal terms about the events in Benghazi.
At the prompting of Cummings, she spoke movingly about the deaths of Stevens and State Department Information management officer Sean Smith from smoke inhalation.
With an eye on the audience outside the Capitol Hill hearing room, Clinton said that she wanted members and "viewers in the public to understand this was the fog of war" in the confused hours after the attack.
And she related how a security agent with Smith and Stevens had "turned back into that diesel smoke desperately trying to find Chris and Sean. He did find Sean and Sean had succumbed to smoke inhalation ... He could not find Chris Stevens."
Throughout, Republicans maintained that the panel was not created to serve partisan ends.
Gowdy rejected Democratic claims he was leading the investigation to a pre-ordained verdict with the intention of damaging Clinton.
"There is no theory of the prosecution," Gowdy said, raising his voice.
"This is not a prosecution," he reiterated moments later. "I have reached no conclusions."
But the heated exchanges highlighted that the hearing is not only limited to an examination of Clinton's record on Benghazi but also the extent to which partisanship has shaped the investigation, with the Democratic candidates' allies repeatedly charging the GOP with politically motivated maneuvers.
READ: 5 things the Benghazi committee wants to know
Rep. Peter Roskam of Illinois meanwhile accused Clinton of using the U.S. intervention in Benghazi to boost her own personal political brand.
"Let me tell you what I think the Clinton doctrine is -- I think it is where an opportunity is seized to turn progress in Libya into a political win for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and at the precise moment when things look good, take a victory lap like on all the Sunday shows ... and then turn your attention to other things," Roskam said.
The former secretary of state quickly seized on that comment to further her contention that the hearing was nothing but political grandstanding.
"That is only a political statement which you well understand, and I don't understand why that has anything to do with what we are talking about today," she said.
Clinton also said she had taken "responsibility" for the deaths of the four Americans, and while still secretary of state had introduced a number of measures to try to ensure such attacks do not happen again.
Cummings claimed the probe had wasted 17 months and $4.7 million on a partisan fishing expedition that had turned up no new evidence on the attack, which occurred when she was secretary of state.
Clinton noted that an independent Accountability Review Board that she set up as secretary had pulled no punches, unveiling 29 recommendations for improving security for U.S. diplomats overseas. She also noted that previous attacks on Americans abroad, including in 1983 on a U.S. Marines barracks and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, had produced changes to U.S. security procedures after nonpartisan investigations by Congress.
She said that while she and Stevens knew that Benghazi was dangerous for Americans -- like many other areas of the world -- there had been no actionable threat received by U.S. intelligence agencies against the State Department facility, even on the morning of the attack.
"No one ever came to me and said we should shut down our compound in Benghazi," she said.
At the White House meanwhile, spokesman Eric Schultz said Obama was not watching the hearing. Schultz said Clinton's performance reminded him of why his boss had chosen her as secretary of state.
"This is someone who clearly cares deeply on the issues," he said. "Someone who has worked tirelessly to strengthen our relationships with our partners around the world. Someone who cares deeply about our men and women overseas at stations across the globe. And someone who when something goes wrong takes responsibility and owns up to that mistake and is happy to answer questions on however many occasions because she is being held accountable."
