Hillary: No reason for new Benghazi probe

ABC US News | ABC Business News

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said there is no reason for a new GOP-led committee to probe the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Clinton said she is satisfied with what is known about the events surrounding the attack that killed four Americans during her tenure at State, but she said Congress’s actions were out of her hands.

“Of course, there are a lot of reasons why, despite all of the hearings, all of the information that’s been provided, some choose not to be satisfied and choose to continue to move forward,” she said during an interview at the Ford Foundation with ABC’s Robin Roberts. “That’s their choice, and I do not believe there is any reason for it to continue in this way.

{mosads}“But they get to call the shots in the Congress,” she added.

House Republicans are preparing to set up a select committee to investigate the attacks, after previously unreleased emails that were not provided to Congress when it subpoenaed relevant documents surfaced last week. 

Some Republicans say the email from deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes advising then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to discuss Muslim protests over an anti-Islam film show the administration tried to downplay the terrorist nature of the attack ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

But Democrats have pushed back, saying that both chambers of Congress and the administration have conducted numerous probes on the attack. Some Democratic lawmakers have pushed to boycott a committee they see as politically motivated. 

During the interview, Clinton also spoke out about the kidnapping of nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by the radical Islamist group, Boko Haram. 

She called their actions abominable and an act of terrorism, and placed some of the blame on the Nigerian government, noting that it has squandered its wealth, is infused with corruption and is losing control of parts of the country. 

“The government of Nigeria has been, in my view, somewhat derelict in its responsibility toward protecting boys and girls, men and women, in northern Nigeria over the last years,” she said. “They need to make it a priority to do everything they can to try to bring these girls home safely. And that, I believe, requires assistance from others, including the United States. We have offered.” 

The administration on Tuesday said Nigeria had accepted law enforcement help from the United States to rescue the girls, and President Obama has vowed to do everything he could to assist in their recovery. 

Describing her forthcoming book, Hard Choices, Clinton said it consisted of a series of vignettes spanning from the end of the 2008 presidential campaign through her time at the State Department. 

She pointed out a notable hard choice made by President Obama in deciding to go after Osama bin Laden, which is covered in her book. 

Clinton revealed little new about her potential plans to run for president in 2016. She declined to speculate on whether she would consider Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro (D) as her running mate. 

“Aside from never answering any hypotheticals,” she said both were great political leaders and Democratic advocates. 

“I admire both of them greatly,” she said.