"As I have said many times since September 11 , I take responsibility." Clinton told two long-anticipated congressional hearings examining the attack that became a major issue in the November president election.

Conservative Republicans challenged Clinton on the lack of security at the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were killed, as well as the erroneous account  provided four days later by UN Ambassador  Susan Rice that the attack grew spontaneously from a protest over an anti-islam film produced in the United States.