Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin reacted sharply to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s claim on Wednesday that the origin of the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in Libya on Sept. 11 doesn’t matter.
“I think that the administration was caught in a lie, and I think it’s important to the American people that when the administration is caught in a lie that it is revealed,” Johnson said in an interview with Newsmax.
During her testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, Clinton emphatically said “The fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided to go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again."
Johnson dismissed her reaction as theatrics. “You’re better off sharpening your argument than raising your voice,” he said.
He said that a simple phone call with those who worked for her would have been able to clarify the situation immediately. Instead, Johnson said, the administration has been hiding behind investigations by the FBI and the State Department’s Accountability Review Board.
“I’m struck that State Department professionals didn’t have a standard operating procedure in place for when something like this happens, that there was no standard operating procedure where officials were immediately briefed,” Johnson said. “Why don’t’ you just get on the phone with the people who work for you?”
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