Clinton Is Going To Take Fire on Iraq and Benghazi from Democrats, Too

The 2016 Republican presidential field long has poked at two of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s most visible political vulnerabilities: her 2002 vote for the Iraq war, and the 2012 attacks against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. A speech from a member of her own party suggests Democrats will also target those Achilles’ heels.

In a Friday speech outlining his foreign policy, former Maryland Governor and Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley pointedly mentioned Iraq and Benghazi. Speaking at the TruCon 2015 conference, he didn’t mention Clinton by name, but it was clear his arrows were aimed toward the former senator and secretary of state.

“We must recognize that there are real lessons to be learned from the tragedy in Benghazi,” O’Malley’s said. “Namely, we need to know in advance who is likely to take power—or vie for it—once a dictator is toppled.”

Later, he said, “The invasion of Iraq—along with the subsequent disbanding of the Iraqi military—will be remembered as one of the most tragic, deceitful, and costly blunders in U.S. history.“

“We are still paying the price of a war pursued under false pretenses and acquiesced to by ‘the appalling silence of the good,” he said.

O’Malley’s foreign policy adviser, Doug Wilson, denied the his boss was trying to frame the debate with Clinton. “You see no mention of candidates’ names in what he had to say. This was not a speech about Hillary Clinton,” Wilson told CNN.

But O’Malley didn’t mention Iraq and Libya by accident. His statements on the war in Iraq and Benghazi lays the groundwork for future avenues of attack for Democrats trying to unseat Clinton from her perch above the rest of the field. His other comments on foreign affairs issues like Iran and the Islamic State largely toed the Democratic line.

Republicans are taking the same tack as President Barack Obama did in 2008 — going after Clinton’s vote as a New York senator to authorize the Iraq war. They also refuse to let the Benghazi issue die. O’Malley’s comments show the issue is also fair game in the Democratic primary, even though a 2014 GOP House investigation found Clinton had done nothing wrong.

It’s clear this week, despite no wrongdoing, that the scandal has yet to breathe its last breath. In May, Clinton released hundreds of pages of emails related to Benghazi from a private Internet server she used from home while still serving at the State Department. On Thursday, the State Department announced that all or part of 15 email exchanges between Clinton and her long-time adviser, Sidney Blumenthal, were missing. Conspiracy-minded critics pounced.

“This confirms doubts about the completeness of Clinton’s self-selected public record and raises serious questions about her decision to erase her personal server — especially before it could be analyzed by an independent, neutral third party arbiter,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said Thursday.

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