RICHARD ENGEL: I knew Ambassador Stevens and spent some time with him in Benghazi during the war, and it was a very chaotic time. It was a time where you didn't know which militias you could trust, you were feeling a lot of support one day from a particular rebel group if you were helping them, but then if they didn't feel they were getting enough help, they might turn on you, and I think that's really what happened here. The U.S. was relying on a particular militia for security, didn't fully understand how serious the situation had become in Benghazi, Ambassador Stevens, who had been away, had just come back, was very keen to get to Benghazi, and he found himself in a situation that really he was unprepared for, the entire embassy setup there was unprepared for. So it does talk about a misunderstanding of the security situation, a misread of how dangerous Benghazi was, and then a response that whether it was perfect or imperfect has been studied time and time again, but that ultimately left an ambassador and three others killed.

But to hear this grieving mother -- and you could only sympathize with her grief -- to lay the blame directly at Hillary Clinton, saying that Hillary was responsible for her son's death, personally responsible, doesn't correspond with the facts as I know them and as I've read them in subsequent investigations, and it does seem to be a manipulation of someone’s grief and go into a very dark place.