Clinton: I gave ‘very direct instructions’ during Benghazi attack

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she gave “very direct instructions” to security experts during the 2012 Benghazi attack in an effort to secure the U.S. mission.

“I’m not equipped to sit and look at blueprints, to determine where the blast walls need to be or where the reinforcements need to be,” she said in an excerpt for the ABC News interview airing Monday night. “That’s why we hire people who have that expertise.”

{mosads}Host Diane Sawyer asked Clinton if there was anything she could have “personally” done to protect the Americans in Benghazi, Libya.

“What I did was give very direct instructions” to “the people who have the expertise and experience in security,” Clinton said. “That is personal.”

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. citizens died in the attack. Clinton wrote about Benghazi in her memoir Hard Choices, which hits bookstores on Tuesday.

Clinton declined to say whether she is willing to testify on Benghazi before the new House select committee investigating the attack.

“That’s going to be up to the people running the hearing,” she said. “We’ll see what they decide to do, how they conduct themselves, whether or not this is, you know, one more travesty about the loss of four Americans, or whether this is, in the best tradition of the Congress, an effort to figure out how — what we can do better.”

Clinton testified on Benghazi before House and Senate panels last year.

ABC News will air the Clinton interview Monday in a one-hour special at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Clinton will then be interviewed live on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday morning.

Clinton, considered the Democratic presidential front-runner if she runs in 2016, is about to embark on a national book tour and will sit down for more TV interviews in the coming weeks.

This story was updated at 4:56 p.m.