If elected, Ted Cruz promised “accountability for Benghazi." | AP Photo Asked about Benghazi, Cruz talks about spanking daughter

CHARLES CITY, Iowa — Ted Cruz was asked about Benghazi. But the Texas senator’s answer veered into the most unusual of territory: spanking, his daughter and Hillary Clinton.

“Was Secretary Clinton awake or asleep when four Americans were being murdered? We don't know to this day,” Cruz said of the 2012 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that left four dead, including the ambassador. “We do know Hillary told her daughter, Chelsea, well gosh, I knew it was a terrorist attack, while we were out telling the American people it wasn't.”


Cruz went on.

“You know, I'll tell you, in my house, if my daughter Catherine, the 5-year-old, says something she knows to be false, she gets a spanking,” he said. “Well, in America, the voters have a way of administering a spanking.”

If elected, Cruz promised “accountability for Benghazi,” which has become an anti-Clinton rallying cry for conservative activists.

“We will answer the questions of who did what and why and anyone that did wrong will be held accountable,” Cruz said.