how about chris stevens? did chris stevens come over from benghazi to see you when you went for the big trip in october of '11? >> i don't recall. i don't recall if he did or not. this was -- this -- this was about ambassador cretz and he was the person that we were meeting with at that time. >> what was your purpose for meeting with ambassador cretz if chris stevens was your expert in libya? >> the ambassador was an expert as well. ambassador cretz was our ambassador. you remember as i mentioned to you before, he had been our ambassad ambassador, and then because he reported very accurately about what he observed regarding gadhafi and gadhafi's hen ofmen when wikileaks disclosed internal u.s. government cables and gene cretz's cables were publicized talking very critically about gadhafi he was then subjected to threats and we took him out. we did not close the embassy at that time. so, he had returned to finish out his time and we were in the process of moving him to another assignment and nominating chris s

how about chris stevens? did chris stevens come over from benghazi to see you when you went for the big trip in october of '11? >> i don't recall. i don't recall if he did or not. this was -- this -- this was about ambassador cretz and he was the person that we were meeting with at that time. >> what was your purpose for meeting with ambassador cretz if chris stevens was your expert in libya? >> the ambassador was an expert as well. ambassador cretz was our ambassador. you remember as i mentioned to you before, he had been our ambassad ambassador, and then because he reported very accurately about what he observed regarding gadhafi and gadhafi's hen ofmen when wikileaks disclosed internal u.s. government cables and gene cretz's cables were publicized talking very critically about gadhafi he was then subjected to threats and we took him out. we did not close the embassy at that time. so, he had returned to finish out his time and we were in the process of moving him to another assignment and nominating chris s

how about chris stevens? did he come over from benghazi to see you when you went for that big trip in october '11? >> i don't recall if he did or not. this was about ambassador krets and he was the person we were meeting with at that time. >> what was your purpose with meeting if chris stevens was your expart in libya? >> he was an expert as well. ambassador krets was our ambassador. you remember as i mentioned to you before he had been our ambassador and then because he reported very accurately about what he observed regarding gadhafi and gadhafi's henchmen, when wikileaks disclosed internal u.s. government cables and the cables were publicized talking very critically about gadhafi, he was then subjected to threats and then we took him out. we did not close the embassy at that time. so he had returned to finish out his time and we were in the process of moving him to another indictment and fom nating chris stevens to replace him. >> you didn't talk to chris stevens? >> while i was in libya, i don't recall. o

how about chris stevens? did chris stevens come over from benghazi to see you when you went for that big trip in october '11? >> i don't recall. i don't recall if he did or not. this was about ambassador kretz and ambassador kretz was the person that we were meeting with at the time. >> what was your purpose for meeting with ambassador kretz if chris stevens wa your ambassador in libya? >> ambassador kretz was our ambassador. as i mentioned to you before, he'd been our ambassador and then, because he reported very accurately about what he observed regarding gadhafi and gadhafi's henchmen, when wikileaks disclosed internal u.s. government cables and gene kretz's cables were publicized talking very critically about gadhafi, he was then subjected to threats and then we took him out. we did not close the ambassador at that ti -- embassy at that time. he finished out his time. and we were in the process of moving him to another assignment and nominating chris stevens to replace him. >> but you diplomat during that

my question was actually not why chris stevens didn't contact you, but why did jake sullivan send christevens a sidney blumenthal to read and react to on the day after the facility was attacks the same day he was denied request for more security? instead of email traffic back and forth about security, it is read and react to a blumenthal email? >> well i think any ambassador, if one were sitting before the committee, would say that they handled a lot of incoming information and requests, some of it was about what was happening in country. some of it was about what was happening back in the united states and chris felt strongly that the united states needed to remain in and committed to libya. so he was concerned that there might be a feeling on the part of some either in the state department or elsewhere in the government that we shouldn't be in libya. he was adamantly in favor of us staying in libya. part of discussion with him and, jake sullivan and other was the, you know, how do we best convey what the stakes, the united states has in staying involved in libya would be. and i though

you never saw chris stevens emails. there is an email from jim jordan as a joke saying i should contact the qataris and ask for security because no one will listen to me. how could she not know about the security environment in 2012. bill: much more to come on this. lyndsey graham, thank you for your time. thank you, sir. >> much of the questioning centered on calls for more security in libya that went unanswered. peter roskam make anne a gesture to make his point. >> of course i took responsibility. >> what does that mean when you say you took responsibility. >> i was telling you many of the issue ofs i was work on to help the libyan people. >> wham your responsibility to benghazi, that's my question. >> my responsibility was to be briefed and discuss with the security experts and the policy experts whether we would have a post in benghazi, whether we would tint, whether we would make it permanent. >> no one represented closing but you have two ambassadors who made self requests. here is what happened to their requests

you say chris stevens was a personal friend of yours. he asked numerous times for personal protection. i think anybody out there watching this would agree. if i had been mr. stevens and i had had a relationship with you, and i had requested 20 or more times for additional security to protect not only my life but the people that were there with me, i would have gotten in touch with you some way. i would have let you know that i was in danger, and that the situation had deteriorated to a point, i needed you to do something. he didn't have your personal e-mail? >> congressman, i do tnot beliee that he had my personal e-mail. he had the e-mail and he had the direct line to everybody that he had worked with for years. he had been posted with officials in the state department. they had gone through difficult, challenging, dangerous assignments together. he was in constant contact with people. yes, he and the people working for him asked for more security. some of those requests were approved. others were not. we're obviously looking to learn wh

because chris stevens knows how to pull the levers? is that your testimony? >> ambassadors are the ones who pass on security recommendations and requests. that's true throughout the world. they too rely on security professionals. >> what's his remedy if they're not responded to? what's his remedy if it's no? >> as i testified earlier, he was in regular email contact with some of my closest advisers. he was in regular email contact, and cable contact with -- >> cables didn't get through. you created an environment, madam secretary where the cables didn't get through. they didn't get through to you, didn't break into your inner circle. that was your testimony earlier. you can't have it both ways. you can't say all of this information came into me and i was able to process it, and it all stops at the security professionals. >> congressman, that's not what i was saying. i think that we tried to clarify that millions of cables come in, and they're processed and sent to the appropriate offices and personnel, with respect to the specifics. >> they didn't get through

or whether she talked to chris stevens. there is nothing big, no major bombshell, and for hillary clinton that's a great thing. she's coming off, you know, a couple of highs here, a great democratic debate and joe biden deciding not to get in the race, and this was the third of three big challenges this month, and for her to emerge from it without any news or bombshell, new piece of information emerging is tremendous. this will be a really helpful sort of injection of energy into her campaign. so -- so, no, this hearing went about as clinton would have wanted it to. she got a little snippy perhaps naturally towards the end of those 11 hours, both trey gowdy and hillary clinton and elijah cummings, the ranking democrat who were sort of sniping at each other, but there were no bad moments, no the new pieces of information that are going to damage her politically that appeared to be revealed yesterday >> she mostly kept her cool and the democrats lined up around her and were able to attack republicans on her behalf, as her pro

chris stevens was a gutsy guy. good guy, a peace corps guy turned foreign service officer andity took risks. i don't want to get into him, and what blame he had, but you take risks in the world. really almost a mile from the nearest cia station, there was no real troops around him. but, see, he knew all that. i think he said my vibes are good, i got a good sense of the situation. things happen, horrible things happen, especially in a country without a real government. i think we have to put all that in perspective. it not like fort apache and we're fighting indians. it's not a fort. it's a little building with people there trying to get certainly done in terms of building a country and keeping peace. i thisnk we have to keep that i mind, not as some military installation being defended improperly. >> back to the panel of this and the backdrop for today, how much damage did mccarthy do in talking about the creation of this panel and how it has brought hillary clinton's polling numbers down? >> look, politics surroun

ambassador to libya chris stevens. 24 minutes later, o10:04 p.m.on cia rescue squad assembles at the cia annex one mile from the consulate. before leaving and heading to the consulate. the cia rescue squad conducts local militias and libyan intelligence service. they see they needs vehicles with 50 caliber machine guns. no one responds. at the same time the alert goes out at the state department announcing an attack, the cia security team taking heavy fire heads to the consulate. 10:30 p.m. libya time, ambassador stevens and diplomat sean smith take refuge in the consulate compound. the militants set fire to the consulate. the smoke killing ambassador smith in minutes. meanwhile back in washington, d.c. at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. defense secretary leon panetta, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff martin dempsey attending a previously scheduled meeting with president obama. at 5:11 washington time. 11:11 p.m. in libya. american surveillance drone arrives overhead. on the ground in benghazi, the cia team at the consulate puts a group of state depar

what were chris stevens' orders from you about libya and about benghazi specifically? >> chris stevens was asked to go to benghazi to do reconnaissance, to try to figure out who were the leaders of the insurgency who were based in benghazi, what their goals were, what they understood would happen if they were successful. it was, as i said, the hard-nosed, 21st century diplomacy that is rooted in the old-fashioned, necessary work of building relationships and gathering information. >> how long was he anticipated to stay in benghazi, do you recall? >> there was -- it was open-ended. we were, in discussing with him, unsure as to how productive it would be, whether it would be appropriate for him to stay for a long time or a short time. that was very much going to depend upon chris' own assessment. we knew we were sending someone who understood the area, who understood the language, who understood a lot of the personalities because of the historical study that he used to love to do, and we were going to be guided by what he decided. >> i'd like to draw your attention to an

chris stevens believed that it should be a formal consulate. but that was something that had to be worked out, and there had not yet been a decision at the time that the attack took place. so it was not a permanent facility. and, you know, there were a number of questions that people were asking about whether it could or should be. >> i want to drill down on the security issue, but i also want to say it's frustrating for us here on this panel asking these questions to hear you in your opening statement talk about the responsibility you took for all 70-plus thousand employees, but yet i read you an e-mail that is a conversation between two of those employees, and it seems as though you're just kind of brushing it off as not having any knowledge. >> no i'm just saying i have no recollection of it, and it doesn't correspond the facts on a regular basis. >> if we could talk about security, i've got a few seconds left, in 2011, during the revolution, then-envoy stevens had ten agents with him on the ground in benghazi. and then we know in 2012 where

sometimes hourly updates from your staff about benghazi and chris stevens. when i look at this pile, in 2012, i only see a handful of e-mails to you from your senior staff about benghazi. and i have several questions about this disparity, because we know from talking to your senior advisers that they knew, and many of them are here today, seated behind you, they knew to send you important information, issues of importance to you. and i can only conclude by your own records that there was a lack of interest in libya in 2012. so let's first focus on this pile and what was happening in libya in 2011. we had an ambassador to libya, ambassador cretz, but you told us, and you told us in your opening that you hand-picked chris stevens to be your special representative in benghazi, and you sent him there. by your own e-mails, most provided last february, a few provided just a few weeks ago, they show that in march of '11, so we're in march of '11, you had chris stevens join you in paris where you were meeting with the leader of the libya revolution. after paris that

from your staff about benghazi and chris stevens. when i look at this pile in 2012, i only see a handful of emails to you from your senior staff about benghazi, and i have several questions for you about this disparate because we know from talking to -- disparity because we know from talking to your senior advisors, they knew, many of them are here today, they knew to send you important information. issues that were of importance to you. and i can only conclude by your own records that there was a lack of interest in libya in 012. let's first focus, though, on this pile and what was happening in libya in 2011. we have an ambassador to libya, but you have told us that -- you told us in your opening you handpicked chris stevens to be your special representative in benghazi, and you sent him there. by your own emails most provided last february, a few provided a few weeks ago, they show that in march of 2011, we are in march of 2011, you had chris stevens join you in paris where you were meeting with the leader of the libyan revolution.

i knew, and admired chris stevens. he was one of our nation's most accomplished diplomats. chris's mother liked to say that he had sand in his shoes because he was always moving, always working, especially in the middle east that he came to know so well. when the revolution broke out in libya we named chris as our envoy to the opposition. there was no easy way to get him into benghazi to begin gathering information and meeting those libyans who were rising up against the murderous dictator qadaffi, but he found a way to get himself there, on a greek cargo ship, just like a 19th century american envoy. but his work was very much 21st century, hard-nosed diplomacy. it is a testament to the relationships that he built in libya that on the day following the awareness of his death, tens of thousands of libyans poured into the streets in benghazi. they held signs reading, thugs don't represent benghazi or islam. sorry, people of america, this is not the behavior of our islam or our prophet. chris stevens, a friend to all libyans. although i didn't have the privilege of meeting sea

that chris stevens was aware of those risks. that he, himself, was contributing to the risk assessment and a lot of that stuff was done on secured phone calls. not on e-mail. in fact, she says she didn't even have a computer in her office. do you buy that? >> i buy what she is saying. i will see if the record matches that up. the committee has done great work. i'm not aware of everything they're doing. obviously not on the committee. much of that is intelligence we can't see. at the end of the day, i will have to match up the truth with what hillary did say to us, and the committee will look at that. >> finding out the truth of the matter of what occurred three months ago. >> are you sensing that the committee in any way is pulling any punches after what mccarthy said on fox a few weeks ago? >> sfroo i don't think so. they have been looking at the information, the emails, again, for over a year. then suddenly receiving more, and the more they look at it, apparently the more questions they have. this will take some time. it's an

from your staff about benghazi and chris stevens. when i look at this pile in 2012, i only see a handful of emails to you from your senior staff about benghazi. >> clinton acknowledged stevens didn't have her personal email address. but lawmakers have her friend sidney blumenthal's electronic messages. that led to sparks flying between the chairman and the panel's top democrat. >> why is it you only want mr. blumenthal's transcript released. >> i would like to have them all released. >> the survivors, their names? you want those released. >> it is noteworthy that blumenthal's emails got her attention, yet security requests from her ambassador in libya, she says did not reach her desk. brett? >> mike emmanuel live on the hill. let's get more details from hillary clinton's testimony before the house select committee on benghazi and some apparent contradictions, chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge is here. mrs. clinton said today will was never a recommendation to leave benghazi. >> well that's right, brett, mrs. clinton

did they keep faith with chris stevens?evens was someone who had a commitment to our presence in libya -- >> there is no question. >> and we want to honor that by continuing to -- >> there is no question -- >> continuing to do what we can to support the transition. it is very much in my view in america's interest to continue to try to do so. >> i yield back. >> the chair will recognize the general lady from illinois ms. duckworth. >> i understand there were securiity improvements made. can you talk about those prior to the attacks and perhaps some of the things you sort of eluded to with more ventilation in the safe rooms and some of those things? >> yeah, there were a number of security improvements that were made to the facility. again, there was an emphasis on the outer walls, to try to create a more effective guard entrance. there was an effort to try to make sure that the facility itself was hardened so it could with stand attacks if that came to pass. it was in a series of decisions made by the security professionals

chris stevens, a friend to all libyans.gh i didn't have the privilege of meeting sean smith personally, he was a valued member of our state department family. an air force veteran, he was in information management officer who had served in pretoria, baghdad, montrÉal, and the hague. tyrone woods and glenn doherty worked for the cia. they were killed by mortar fire at the cia outpost in benghazi a short distance from the diplomatic compound. they were both former navy seals and trained paramedics with distinguished records of service , including in iraq and afghanistan. as secretary of state, i had the honor to lead and the responsibility to support nearly 70,000 diplomats and development experts across the globe. losing any one of them, as we did in iraq, afghanistan, mexico, haiti, and libya during my tenure was deeply painful for our entire state department and usaid family and for me personally. asked chris toho .o to libya as our envoy i was the one who recommended him to be our ambassador to the president. after the at

how howe about chris stevens. >> did he come to see you when you went for the big trip in october?n't recall if he did or not. this was about ambassador creps and ambassador creps is the person we were meeting with. >> what was your purpose for meeting with ambassador c. >> ambassador crest was our ambassador. he had been our ambassador, and then, because he reported very accurately about what he observed recording gadhafi's and gadhafi's heavenmen when wick wikileaks disclosed cables and the cables're publicized talking critically about gadhafi, he was subjected to threats and we took him out and did not close the embassy at that time. so he had returned to finish out his time, and we were in the process of moving him to another assignment and nominating chris stevens to replies him. >> but you didn't -- you didn't talk to christy ven -- >> while i was in libya i don't recall that. we consult it with him as for the trip. we were trying very hard to get the people in positions of authority at that time in libya, and let us work with them on everything from border security to collec

you say chris stevens was a personal friend of yours. he asked numerous times for personal protection. i think anybody out there watching this would agree. if i had been mr. stevens and i had had a relationship with you, and i had requested 20 or more times for additional security to protect not only my life but the people that were there with me, i would have gotten in touch with you some way. i would have let you know that i was in danger, and that the situation had deteriorated to a point, i needed you to do something. he didn't have your personal e-mail? >> congressman, i do tnot beliee that he had my personal e-mail. he had the e-mail and he had the direct line to everybody that he had worked with for years. he had been posted with officials in the state department. they had gone through difficult, challenging, dangerous assignments together. he was in constant contact with people. yes, he and the people working for him asked for more security. some of those requests were approved. others were not. we're obviously looking to learn wh

chris stevens kept faith in the state department that i headed even when we broke faith with him. he accepted my invitation to work in benghazi even though he was denied the security we implored to give him. we breached our fundamental duty to mitigate his danger and secure his safety. and that of glenn dougherty, shawn smith, and woods, would that be accurate? >> i would not say that. i think it is a disservice for you to make that statement, congressman. and -- >> who does it disserve? >> well, it is a disservice of how hard the people who are given the responsibility of making these tough security decisions -- >> the people that were disciplined, did they keep faith with chris stevens? no. >> well, chris stevens was someone who had a commitment to our presence in libya -- >> there was no question. >> and we want to honor that -- >> there is no question. >> by continuing to do what we can to support the libyan people's transition. it is very much in my view in america's interest to continue to try to do so. >> i yield back. >> the gentleman's time has expired. the chair will rec

you sent chris stevens there.t yet when your compound is attacked in 2012, what kind of culture was created in the state department that your folks couldn't tell you in an e-mail about a bomb in april of 2012? >> well, congresswoman, i did not conduct most of the business that i did on behalf of our country on e-mail. i conducted it in meetings. i read massive amounts of memos, a great deal of classified information. i made a lot of secure phone calls. i was in and out of the white house all the time. there were a lot of things that happened that i was aware of and that i was reacting to. if you were to be in my office in the state department, i didn't have a computer. i did not do the vast is majority of the work on my e-mail. i bet there are a lot of sid blumenthal e-mails in there too. i don't want you to have a mistaken impression about what i did and how i did it. most of my work was not done on e-mails with my closest aides, with officials in the state department, officials in the rest of the government, as

chris stevens was there to serve hillary clinton's idea. he is dead because he went over there in service of hillary clinton's idea and hillary clinton did not provide him with enough security after he went over there. but they didn't actually lay it out that way because it is impossible to prove the connecting tissue in that argument. >> they were working their way in the early part of the session when they seem to be a bit more concentrated when they were building those circles. first she wrote the policy and then put chris stevens in there as the person to carry on the work and then later got in as ambassador and the time she was aware of security problems. steve kornacki, you are thinking about this because i think it is a hard time to write the main piece except hillary wrote over and over again responds well to the charges. i don't see a coherence except that somehow she let those people die. >> i was surprised by jim jordan like all of the members of this committee had two shots at hillary clinton on this. he decided to concentrate b

. >> and he had a more direct line to you than chris stevens. >> yes. and he knew the personal e-mail, and chris stevens didn't know the personal e-mail, and it is part of the larger narrative here which was, a, you own the libyan policy which is bad, and they could make that case, but then they started going down this path of, you were derelict in 2012 and you didn't pay enough at the tension to security which she answered. uncaring after the event and concerned more about your p.r. and that nobody wanted to admit that it was a terror attack, because it did not fit into the obama legacy narrative. these were all political points. we didn't learn anything new. anderson, except that i think for hillary clinton's own moving narrative of what occurred that night at her end. and how frantic they were, and as she described it as the fog of war and they didn't know who was dead and who was alive and she was move and i think that anybody who was watching that would have been moved, because you sort of felt like it was something that was pirling out of control,

and he had your personal email address. >> uh-huh. >> you say chris stevens was a friend of yours. he asked numerous times for extra protection. now if i had been mr. stevens, around think anybody out there, anybody watching this would agree, if i had been mr. stevens and i had a relationship with you, and i had requested 20 or more times for additional security to protect, not only my life, burr the people that were there with me, i would have gotten in touch with you some way. i would have let you know that i was in danger, and the situation had deteriorated to a point, i needed you to do something. did he have your personal email? >> congressman, i, i do not believe that he had my personal email. he had the email and he had the direct line to everybody that he had worked with for years. he had been -- >> but not yours? >> officials with the state department. they had gone through difficult, challenging, dangerous assignments together. he was in constant contact with people. yes, he have and people working for him asked for more security. some of those requests were approved. othe

chris stevens. sean smith. woods.s the republicans in the caucus did not like the answers that they got from those investigations. they set up this committee with no rules, no deadlines, and an unlimited budget. they said them loose, madam secretary, because you are running for president. clearly, it is possible to conduct a serious bipartisan investigation. what is impossible is for any reasonable person to continue t 9 the republican squandering millions of taxpayer dollars on this abusive effort to derail secretary clinton's presidential campaign. the chairman's interview. try to defend by accepting the cash himself. he complained about a tax on the credibility of this select committee. his argument would be more compelling if republicans were not leading the charge. we all know representatives kevin mccarthy, speaker boehner's second-in-command, the chairman's close friends admitted to establish the select committee and drive down the phone numbers. democrats did not say that. second in command in the house said t

you say chris stevens was a friend of yours. he asked numerous times for extra protection. now, if i had been mr. stevens and i think anybody out there, anybody watching this, would agree if i had been mr. stevens, and i had had a relationship with you, and i had requested 20 or more times for additional security to protect not only my life but the people that were there with me, i would have gotten in touch with you some way. i would have let you know that i was in danger and the situation had deteriorated to a point i needed you to do something. did he have your personal e-mail? >> congressman, i do not believe that he had my personal e-mail. he had the e-mail and he had the direct line to everybody that he had worked with for years. he had been posted with officials in the state department. they had gone through difficult challenging dangerous assignments together. he was in constant contact with people. yes, he and the people working for him asked for more security. some of those requests were approved. others were not. we are obviously looking to learn what more we coul

i knew and admired chris stevens. he was one of our nation's most accomplished diplomats. o say that he had sand in his shoes because he was always moving, always working, especially in the middle east, that he came to know so well. when the revolution broke out in libya, we assigned chris as our envoy to the opposition. there was no easy way to get him into benghazi to begin gathering information and meeting those libyans who were rising up against the murderous dictator gadhafi, but he found a way to get himself there on a greek cargo ship, just like a 19th century american envoy. but his work was very much 21st century, hard-nosed diplomacy. it is a testament to the relationships that he built in libya that on the day following the awareness of his death, tens of thousands of libyans poured into the streets in benghazi. they held signs reading, thugs don't represent benghazi or islam. sorry, people of america. this is not the behavior of our islam or our prophet. chris stevens, a friend to all libyans. although i didn't have the privilege of meeting sean smith personally

you say chris stevens was a friend of yours. he asked numerous times for extra protection. now, if i had been mr. stevens and i think anybody out there, anybody watching this would agree, if i had been mr mr. stevens, and i'd had a relationship with you, and i had requested 20 or more times for additional security to protect not only my life but the people that were there with me, i would have gotten in touch with you some way. i would have let you know that i was in danger. if the situation had deteriorated to a point, i needed you to do something. did he have your personal e-mail? >> congressman, i -- i do not believe that he had my personal e-mail. he had the e-mail and he had the direct line to everybody that he'd worked with for years. he had been posted with officials in the state department. they had gone through difficult challenging dangerous assignments together. he was in constant contact with people. yes, he and the people working for him asked for more security. some of those requests were approved. others were not. we're obviously looking to learn what more we

the day after an ied attack on our compound, and chris stevens is being asked to read and react to an e-mail by sid me blumenthal from your deputy chief of staff. this is what he's writing on the 7th. this is after he's been turned down on a request for more security. this is our ambassador. appreciate you giving this proposal consideration even if the conclusion was not favorable

you say chris stevens was a friend of yours. he asked numerous times for extra protection. did he have your personal e-mail? sec. clinton: congressman, i do not believe that he had my personal e-mail. he had the e-mail and the direct line to everybody that he worked with for years. john: mark, republicans have had hours to pick and poke and prod at hillary clinton. did they report or charge anything that was genuinely or relevantly new about benghazi today? mark: they teased out a little bit, something that no american i know cares about, which is her relationship with sidney blumenthal. on the events in benghazi before security in libya, during the evening of september 11 that year, and afterward. they plowed a lot of familiar ground on her e-mails. there is some nuanced new stuff, but nothing that will break through for the american people as a smoking gun, brand-new information that we're hungry to know more about. john: i have to say, the obsession with sidney blumenthal, for people like us who know sidney blumenthal and her relationship with him, we have talked about t

ambassador chris stevens. we'll have live coverage starting thursday at 10:00 a.m. eastern time on c-span3, c-span radio and c-span.org and of course you can hear the hearing in its entirety without interruption. coming up is a look at events leading up to thursday's hearing greatly began with secretary clinton's january 2013 appearance before the senate foreign relations committee where she takes questions about the lack of security and benghazi. the administration's response to the attack and how to prevent future attacks. we will then show you two news conferences hillary clinton conducted this year focusing on her private e-mail server is topic that is likely to be discussed during thursday's hearing. our presentation wraps up with clinton aides huma abedin in the committee's ranking member of elijah cummings followed by julian hattem at the hill. you'll join us to talk about the members of the benghazi committee itself. now if the senate foreign relations committee from january 2013. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

that attack resulted in the deaths of four americans including ambassador chris steven. we're joined by the chairman, republican trey gowdy who is in clemson, south carolina, this morning. good morning, mr. chairman. i want to talk to you about some people from your open party who have talked about this committee you're familiar with their remarks. but house majority leader kevin mccarthy suggested that this committee has driven down hillary clinton's l poll numbers. a congressman from new york says that this was political investigation, former investigator on your team has said that this was a politically motivated investigation. why would all these people say that? >> i guess because they don't have any idea what the facts are, john. if you look at the facts, we have done 50 witnesses, one of whom you could argue was exclusively related to her e-mail, that was shortest interview we have done. we have 50,000 new documents have anything to do with secretary clinton. she's an important witness, she is one witness and by the time we're through, we will have interviewed 70

chris stevens kept faith with the state department that i headed even when we broke faith with him. my invitation to serve in benghazi and even when i denied the security that i was to give him and i and my colleagues were distracted by other distractions of our own benefit, and would that be more accurate, secretary clinton? >> no, i i would not sthey and disservice for you the say that, congressman. >> and p.j., your reaction to that. >> well, in the answer to a different question, she said, hey, nobody has lost more sleep over this and no one else has focused to provide more security to chris stevens and the others in benghazi, and she has to live with this, and any secretary or state or any military commanders who sends the troops into the battle or sends the troops into the combat or the dif sult situation, not only understands the risk, but then it does weigh on you when, you know, these people are harmed and in some case, these people are killed. and i think that this is a challenging situation for the state department doing what we call, you know, expe diditioexp diplomacy a

. >> a more direct line to you than chris stevens. >> exactly. he knew your personal e-mail. chris stevens didn't know your personal e-mail and it was part of their larger, you know, their larger narrative here which was a, you own libya policy. which was bad. and they could make that case. but then they started going down this path of you were there in 2012 and didn't pay enough attention to security, which she answered. you were uncaring after event. you were concerned more about your p.r. and that nobody wanted to admit this was a terror attack because it didn't fit into the obama legacy narrative. these were all political points. we didn't learn anything new, anderson, except i think for hillary clinton's own moving narrative of what occurred that night at her end, and how frantic they were and as she described it as the fog of war and they didn't know who was dead and who was alive and she was moved and i think anybody watching that would be moved because you sort of felt like it was something that was spiraling out of control, that they wer

reporter: gregory hicks who serve offed under the ambassador chris stevens testified before the house oversight committee that no such protest ever happened. hick wahicks was at the base in tripoli. his last word, quote, we are under attack. hicks said he was floored when he herd the administration's take on this. >> would a highly decorated career diplomat told you there had been a demonstration outside his facility that day? >> yes, sir, he would have. >> did he mention one word about a protest or demonstration? >> no, sir, he did not. >> fast forward to the sunday talk shows and ambassador susan rice. she blamed this attack on a video and did it five different times. what was your reaction to that?

he could not find chris stevens.ne of the horrors after the attack was our failure to be able to find where the ambassador was. we hoped against hope that he had somehow gotten himself out of the compound and he was alive somewhere maybe in the back. and additional efforts by the diplomate security officers and by the cia enforcements that arrived find his body or to find him hopefully were unsuccessful and they had to withdraw because of the continuing attack back to the cia and annex before we knew what happened to the ambassador and we were desperate and we were trying to call everybody we knew in benghazi and libya get additional help. what appears to have happened at some point later is that libyans found ambassador stevens and they carried him to the hospital in benghazi and libyan doctors labored nearly two hours to try to resuscitate him. i mentioned all of this because i want not just the committee members but any viewers in the public to understand that this was the fog of war, that the diplomatic security

committee panel of house lawmakers charged with finding the facts and reconstructing why ambassador chris stevens, tyrone woods, glen da ter. it took more than an hour for any lawmaker to put the first question about the actual events of september 11th, 2012 to then-secretary clinton. much of the morning session instead revolved around issues that clinton defenders insist are political. her relationship with friend sydney blumenthal for instance. who was blackballed from the obama administration. her e-mails printed out and stacked side by side as props to suggest that she was engaged in libya in 2011. not so much in 2012. instead of focusing on what clinton called the swirl and whirl of september 11, 2012. and the scrambled response to save americans on the front lines. cnn senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny is here with me along with cnn legal analyst jeffrey toobin and paul begala and amanda carpenter. jeff, let me start with you. walk us through this marathon day of testimony. >> jake, this day was 17 months in the making. and clinton's appearance in that witness chair has been the t

chris stevens communicated regularly with the members of my staff. he did not raise security with the members of my staff. i communicated with him about certain issues and he did not he raised security with the security professionals. i know that's not the answer that you want to hear because it is being asked in many ways by the committee members, but those are the facts, mr. chairman. >> moderator: hillary clinton, the front runner for the 2016 presidential nomination was on capitol hill this week. this is clinton gave testimony on her for your service as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013. specifically in relation to the september 2012 terrorist attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya in which four americans, including ambassador chris stevens were murdered. it is believed that mrs. clinton did not have the opportunity to tell the whole story including the time leading up to them benghazi attack. democrats say they are playing politics -- the republicans are the clinton campaign.>> i want to draw your attention to an this is informat

he could not find chris stevens. one of the horrors of the hours after the attack was our failure to be able to find where the ambassador was. we hoped against hope that he had somehow gotten himself out of the compound and he was alive somewhere, maybe in the back. and additional efforts by the diplomatic security officers and then eventually by the cia reinforcements that arrived to find his body or to find him, hopefully, were unsuccessful. and they had to withdraw because of the continuing attack back to the cia aneck before we knew what had happened to the ambassador. we were desperate. and we were trying to call everybody we knew in benghazi and libya, get additional help. what appears to have happened at some point later is that libyans found ambassador stevens, and they carried him to the hospital in benghazi. and libyan doctors labored nearly two hours to try to resuscitate him. and i mention all of this because i want not just the committee members but any viewers in the public to understand that this was t

i was responsible for recommending chris stevens to be the ambassador. i was responsible for working on the policy both before and after the end of the gadhafi regime. i was responsible for quite a bit, congressman. i was not responsible for specific security requests and decisions. that is not something i was responsible for. >> the gentleman's time has expired. the chair will now recognize the gentleman from california, mr. schiff. >> thank you, mr. chairman. madam secretary, we're now almost to the end of the second round of questions and i find it necessary to amend something i said after the first round, and that is i don't understand the core theory of this case. i thought i did, but after this round i honestly don't understand where my colleagues are coming from. i'm probably not as good a lawyer, undoubtedly not as good a prosecutor as our chairman. most of what we've gone over in this round, frankly, were questions that asked to you when you testified before the house the last time, when you testified before the senate. they were the subject of

chris stevens, sean smith, glen doherty and tyrone woods served this country with courage and with honor. and they were killed under circumstances that most of us could never imagine. terrorists pour through the front gate of an american facility, attacking people and property with machine guns, mortars and fire. it is important that we remember how these four men died. it is equally important that we remember how these four men lived and why. they were more than four images on a television screen. they were husbands and fathers and sons and properties and family and friend. they were americans who believed in service and sacrifice. many people speak which is fully of a -- wisttfully about better world but do little about it. these four went out and tried to make it better and it cost them

i knew and admired chris stevens. he was one of our nation's most accomplished diplomates. s' mother liked to say he had sand in his shoes. he was always moving, always working, specially in the middle east, that he came to know so well. when the revolution broke out in libya, we named chris as our envoy to the opposition. there was no easy pay to get him into benghazi to begin gathering information and meeting those libyans who were rising up against the murderous dictator gadhafi. he found a way to get himself there on a greek cargo ship just like a 19th century american envoy. hihis work was very much 21st century hard-nosed diplomacy. it is a testament to the relationships that he built in libya that on the day following the awareness of his death, tens of thousands of libyans poured into the streets in benghazi. they held signs reading thugs don't represent benghazi or islam. sorry, people of america. this is not the behavior of our islam or our prophet. chris stevens, a friend to all libyans. i didn't have the privilege of meeting sean smith personally. he was a valued

ambassadad chris stevens,ean smith, glen doherty and tyrone woods. republicans are searching for any mistakes made on secretary clinton's watch. democrats say the benghazi matter has been thoroughly investigated and the hearing is only designed to damage her. her testimony began at 10:00 in the morning on thursday and lasted all day into the evening. nancy cordes is on capitol hill. >> reporter: the h hrings started out cordially with hand shakes. things grew tense. >> i think if you look at the statement i made i clearly said it was an attack. >> calling it an attack is look calling the sky blue. republicans accused clinton of ignoring requests from ambassador chris stevens for security. georgia's westmoreland. >> how many instances would it have taken you to say, we need to look at security over there. >> no one ever came to me and said we should shut down our compound in benghazi. >> i'm not saying shut it down. i am saying protect it. >> it was this committee that private e-mail system. >> there is 795 e-mails in this pile. >> reporter: the commi

she ignored hundreds of requests for more security from the late ambassador chris stevens. we hear more about how the narrative was basically a lie at the very beginning. that this email to her own daughter, hillary clinton at the beginning says it was a terror attack, al qaeda may have been involved. the public was hearing a different thing. there's a lot to pick on right there. those are big problems for her. short-term and long-term politically. but there's also a lot for democrats to say look, heading into this, kevin mccarthy saying this was about bringing down her poll numbers, obviously that was a gaffe that really hurt this committee number one. but number two, the clinton campaign today is telling me that when this hearing finally ended after some 11 hours last night, they raised more money in one hour than they had ever raised in this campaign. why is that? republicans were fired up during this hearing, but so were democrats. >> eric bolling? >> no wonder they raised more money. they were waiting to see how she performed. all she had to do was sit back and let the

the constant reframe is that chris stevens chose his destiny.hen adam smith said he chose to go to benghazi. it's the political version of saying, he shouldn't have gone out dressed like that. basically saying he had it coming. blame the victim by saying he took the job. first time ever democrats are talking about saving money. they keep saying $5 million, the hearing cost $5 million. that's a rounding figure on the viagra. it's a bunch of garbage. they've never cared more about money than now. >> so, dana points out, the very night of the attack now remember, these attacks were ten years to the day of the initial world trade center bombings, hello so that very night she emails hillary clinton, calls out, looks like an al qaeda-type attack. jim jordan came with the second one, which, here's the smoking gun, guys. this is it right here. clinton emails the prime minister say week know that the attack, we know that the attack in libya had nothing to do with the film. it was a planned attack, not a protest. that's the day after the attack. 9-12-11.