Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) urged House Republicans to "absolutely" subpoena former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her role in the deadly 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, during an interview on Fox News' "Hannity" on Monday."
"One, we need to know who was responsible and she was in charge," Paul said in regard to House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) recent announcement of a new House select committee to investigate the State Department's response to the attack. "Some big mistakes were made under Hillary Clinton's watch."
Repeating several debunked charges on the Obama administration's alleged "stand down" orders at the U.S. diplomatic outpost, the potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate also cast suspicions on President Barack Obama's whereabouts during the attack, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
"If the president wasn't there during this period of time, who was really in charge? Was Hillary Clinton in charge?" Paul said. "And if Hillary Clinton was in charge, was she the one who gave the order to stand down, the order not to go and send reinforcements?"
Although Paul proposed cutting 71 percent of the State Department budget seven months before the fatal attack, he accused Clinton of denying additional security requests. He also suggested that one of her "big mistakes" was having the Benghazi facility "in the middle of a civil war ... under State Department command."
"[T]hey should have never had this embassy or consulate under State Department command," Paul said. "I would have had it under military command."
On Friday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, subpoenaed Secretary of State John Kerry to testify on the Benghazi investigation, although Kerry was still a U.S. senator at the time the American diplomatic mission was attacked.
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