Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton criticized the White House on Twitter on Thursday for failing to defend an American ambassador.
Ambassador @McFaul is a patriot who has spent his career standing up for America. To see the White House even hesitate to defend a diplomat is deeply troubling. https://t.co/gI8K8Tjg3M
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 19, 2018
Clinton’s tweet addressed the White House’s inability to rule out, in a press briefing on Wednesday, letting Russia question former ambassador Michael McFaul in exchange for the United States questioning the 12 Russian hackers who hacked the Democratic National Committee.
About two hours after the tweet, the White House released a statement, saying that President Trump would not let the Russian government interrogate McFaul. The Senate shortly after passed a nonbinding, unanimous resolution, 98-0, that condemned the exchange.
Clinton’s advocacy for American diplomats struck plenty of folks as hypocritical given the terror attack in Benghazi, Libya during her tenure as secretary of state, in which a U.S. diplomat died at a compound where Clinton, for political reasons, had repeatedly refused to authorize increased security.
Oh my…she should probably sit this one out https://t.co/BlwPx1s7eC
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 19, 2018
Four Americans died during the attack, including American Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Nine months before the attack, a State department security officer informed his superior, who was under Clinton, that the Americans in Benghazi were at risk.
The consulate lacked many safety provisions, largely because it was designated as “temporary,” to avoid requiring the security that the State Department mandates for permanent consulates. Leading up to the attack, Stevens sent hundreds of letters of concern about security to the State Department, with no significant response. During the terror attack, no rescue efforts were made to save the lives of the Americans in the consulate.
In the wake of Benghazi, Clinton blamed the deaths on a protest resulting from an anti-Muslim video rather than a planned terrorist attack, despite saying otherwise to her daughter and to the Egyptian president.
The White House’s statements on Wednesday were troubling, and the executive branch should wholeheartedly defend our diplomats at home and abroad, especially against hostile foreign powers. However, given her reprehensible record at defending American diplomats , Clinton should be the last person to criticize the current administration as “hesitant.”
