He likened the catastrophe to the Black Hawk Down disaster in Somalia in 1993. Paul: Clinton 'absolutely' to blame

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Friday that he considers Hillary Clinton “absolutely responsible” for failing to stop the chaos and bloodshed at the American diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, last September.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his address to the Iowa GOP’s Lincoln Dinner this evening, Paul accused Clinton of ignoring diplomatic security as secretary of State. He expressed disbelief at suggestions that Clinton should be absolved of blame because diplomatic security-related cables never got to her.


Clinton is “absolutely responsible,” Paul said. “She was in charge of the State Department. She was asked repeatedly for increased security for Benghazi. Some of the media have been reporting that because she didn’t read them she’s protected – she wasn’t responsible because she didn’t read them? I fault her absolutely for not reading the cables.”

Paul added, “Part of being in charge is triaging what comes to your desk and what doesn’t come to your desk. And to say that Libya wasn’t important enough for her to be reading the cables from the ambassador asking for more security, I think was inexcusable.”

The first-term senator and potential presidential candidate likened the terrorist attack in Benghazi, and the subsequent U.S. response, to the Black Hawk Down catastrophe in Somalia in the 1990s.

“It was, I think, a tragic lack of leadership, similar to what Les Aspin did in Mogadishu under Bill Clinton. And he ultimately resigned his office,” Paul said.

Drilling ahead, he criticized the State Department for its claim that it didn’t have enough money to spend on diplomatic security, and argued that the Benghazi facility should have been under military control in the first place.

“We spent $300,000 on dog kennels [through the federal government]. There is money out there. A good leader finds that money and puts it in,” Paul said.

The mission in Benghazi, he continued “should have been under the military. It should have been done the way Baghdad was … There should have been 100 Marines guarding the ambassador.”

Paul’s comments on Benghazi follow hearings in the House of Representatives in which GOP congressman repeatedly cast blame in Clinton’s direction for what they characterized as a flailing response to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, Paul called for a more inclusive Republican Party that reaches out assertively to young people and minorities.

“I think it’s my views that will be the outreach that allows the Republican Party to be competitive,” Paul said.

Paul kept up the barrage against Clinton at a late afternoon meet-and-greet hosted by the Iowa Federation of Republican Women.

Asked by a voter about the Benghazi hearings this week, Paul said he's less concerned about "mistakes in the heat of battle," and more alarmed by lack of attention to embassy security in the months prior to the violence there.

He again pointed a finger directly at the former first lady: "She came before my committee and said she never read any of the cables."

"I think it precludes Hillary Clinton from ever holding office."