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Dr. Stevens said that “I do not blame Hillary Clinton or [then Secretary of Defense] Leon Panetta. They were balancing security efforts at embassies and missions around the world. And their staffs were doing their best to provide what they could with the resources they had. The Benghazi Mission was understaffed. We know that now. But, again, Chris knew that. It wasn’t a secret to him. He decided to take the risk to go there. It is not something they did to him. It is something he took on himself.”
When asked if she thought the issue was politicized, she replied “Yes! Definitely politicized. Every report I read that mentions him specifically has a political bent, an accusatory bent.” She then went on to place to blame for the attacks where it truly belongs: with the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.
“It is clear, in hindsight, that the facility was not sufficiently protected by the State Department and the Defense Department. But what was the underlying cause? Perhaps if Congress had provided a budget to increase security for all missions around the world, then some of the requests for more security in Libya would have been granted. Certainly the State Department is underbudgeted…It would be much more useful for Congress to focus on providing resources for security for all State Department facilities around the world—for increasing personnel, language capabilities, for increasing staff to build relationships, particularly in North Africa and the Middle East. I would love to hear they are drastically increasing the budget.”
In 2009, the House of Representatives cut $1.2 billion dollars from the State Department budget. In 2011, Secretary Clinton warned Congress that continued cuts to the State Department security budget would be placing Americans at risk across the world – and she was promptly ignored by House Republicans, who slashed security funding by $128 million in 2011 and $331 million in 2012.
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