Maggie Haberman
gets her hands on a 34-page chapter from Hillary Clinton's memoir about the Benghazi attack:
Hillary Clinton offers a detailed account of the deadly attack on the American embassy in Benghazi — and a pointed rebuttal to Republican critics who’ve laced into her over the incident — in a much-anticipated chapter of her forthcoming book, “Hard Choices,” obtained by POLITICO.
“Those who exploit this tragedy over and over as a political tool minimize the sacrifice of those who served our country,” Clinton writes in the gripping chapter, “Benghazi: Under Attack.”
Based on the quotes reported by Haberman, Clinton isn't planning to be a wilting flower in the face of the GOP onslaught. Not only will she pointedly castigate their crass decision to politicize the deaths of four Americans, she'll challenge them on the facts as well. For example:
“There were scores of attackers that night, almost certainly with differing motives,” she writes. “It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video. It is equally inaccurate to state that none of them were. Both assertions defy not only the evidence but logic as well.”
And she rebuts the absurd suggestion that President Obama ordered the military to stand down on the night of the attack, saying he ordered them to do "whatever was necessary," adding:
Our military does everything humanly possible to save American lives — and would do more if they could. That anyone has ever suggested otherwise is something I will never understand.
As absurd an "issue" as #Benghazi may be, it's clearly at the center of the GOP's 2016 strategy against Hillary Clinton. And by squaring her shoulders and taking the GOP attacks head on, Clinton is making it clear she won't run away in fear—and that
she's running to win.