Hillary Clinton Wednesday defended her actions in the immediate aftermath in the 2012 Benghazi assaults that killed four Americans, telling a debate audience in Miami that criticism from some family members was wrong and that similar tragedies were not "politicized."
Clinton was responding to comments from Patricia Smith, mother of Benghazi victim Sean Smith, who ripped Clinton and other Obama administration officials for failing to be more candid about the cause of the attacks.
"I feel a great deal of sympathy for the families of the four brave Americans that we lost at Benghazi, and I certainly can't even imagine the grief that she has for losing her son, but she's wrong," Clinton said during the Univision debate in Miami. "She's absolutely wrong."
The former secretary of state said that she and other officials "were scrambling to get information that was changing literally by the hour.
"And when we had information, we made it public — but then, sometimes, we had to go back and say we have new information that contradicts it," she said.
Clinton then referred to her 11 hours of testimony before the special House Benghazi Committee in October, saying that she "anyone who watched that and listened to it knows that I answered every question that I was asked, and when it was over, the Republicans had to admit they didn't learn anything."
She noted the many congressional investigations on Benghazi "mostly led by Republicans, who all reached the same conclusions, that there were lessons to be learned."
Clinton then noted other attacks on Americans over the years, including 9/11, the killings in Tanzania and Kenya during President Bill Clinton's White House — and those slain in Beirut during the Reagan administration.
"At no other time were those tragedies politicized," she said to sustained applause from the crowd at Miami-Dade College. "Instead, people said let's learn the lesson and save lives.
"That's what I did."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.