For months now, Republicans have argued that the Obama administration intentionally deceived the American people about the deadly attack on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi by portraying it, a few days later, as a protest that got out of hand as opposed to a premeditated assault. Despite a complete lack of evidence to back up this assertion, the belief in a cover-up is so strong that various conservatives suggested that Hillary Clinton faked a concussion in December to avoid testifying about Benghazi. Well, this morning Clinton is testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And as this very testy exchange with Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson shows, she does not appreciate the conspiracy theories at all:

You really get the sense that Clinton barely managed to restrain herself from dropping an F-bomb there.

Update, 11:41 a.m.: Later, John McCain scolded Clinton for her unconvincing excuses. Clinton was not impressed.

Update, 11:50 a.m.: The hearing didn’t get any easier from there. Senator Rand Paul told Clinton he would have fired her after Benghazi if he were president.

Update, 4:27 p.m.: Senator Johnson tells Buzzfeed that Clinton’s outburst of emotion was calculated. “I think she just decided before she was going to describe emotionally the four dead Americans, the heroes, and use that as her trump card to get out of the questions,” he said. “It was a good way of getting out of really having to respond to me.”

