Rubio slams Clinton for Benghazi remarks

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) slammed Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for remarks she made about Benghazi in an interview that aired Monday.

In the interview on ABC News, Clinton was asked if the politicizing of the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, is a reason not to run for president.

“Actually, it’s more of a reason to run because I do not believe our great country should be playing minor league ball. We ought to be in the majors,” she said.

“I don’t think the issue of Benghazi is minor league ball,” Rubio said on “CBS This Morning.” “Four Americans have lost their lives serving our country. We need to investigate it, to understand what went wrong, so that the people responsible for those decisions can be held accountable and so that we can put in place measures so that it doesn’t happen again. That, to me, is a very valid inquiry.”

{mosads}Asked whether Rubio holds Clinton responsible for the security failure during the attack, he said, “Ultimately, this was s systemic breakdown of the State Department’s security apparatus, and she ran the State Department. She should have known of the dangers that existed there.”

Clinton has to have “some level of responsibility,” Rubio added, “because if she’s going to brag about her time at the State Department, she also has to talk openly about her failures.” 

The former secretary of State explained in the ABC News interview that she gave “very direct instructions” during the attack to security experts.

In an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Monday, Rubio questioned why the U.S. mission in Benghazi was even kept open despite warnings the State Department received about threats.

He said he hopes the House select committee investigating the attack will be able to hold hearings in a classified setting in order to obtain more information.

Rubio also said people might question the back flap of Clinton’s memoir Hard Choices, which shows the return of the dead from Benghazi.

“I think many people are going to question the use of a photo like that, and by the same, I mean, especially when it’s surrounded by just about everything else there is in the picture other than the bin Laden raid one is upbeat things,” Rubio said. “But I think more importantly is what she’ll say about it or has said, and I haven’t read that account.

Rubio and Clinton are potential presidential candidates for 2016.