In her testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemed "detached" from the dangers faced by Ambassador Chris Stevens and other Americans at the diplomatic outpost, Rep. Susan Brooks said Friday.
"I believe she was detached from danger there, she was detached from her personnel and from her own staff," the Indiana Republican, who during the hearing presented a pile of emails during Clinton's testimony, told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" host Bill Hemmer.
Clinton sent Stevens to Libya, and she mentioned she talked to him once but had "no recollection of what that conversation was. We don't have any record that she did talk with Chris Stevens after she swore him in May," said Brooks.
Brooks said she was also "troubled" by Clinton's statement that she was not personally responsible for security requests and decisions from diplomatic posts.
"I was troubled by that because security should be the number one concern when you are the head of that department," Brooks said. "The secretary of state is making decisions about where to send people… and while she talks about being responsible for policy, the policy needs to take into consideration the security."
And even though several security requests had been made, Brooks said, "we know they did not have the adequate security for that temporary compound...we know they did not have the right number of people on the ground."
She also said she was troubled by the testimony that Stevens didn't have Clinton's email address or phone number.
"That's the kind of work this committee hopes to produce, an investigative report about what the problems are with our security," said Brooks. "It did not seem to be a top priority to the secretary or the State Department."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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