Hillary Clinton said the Benghazi deaths made no difference
| Hillary Clinton said the Benghazi deaths made no difference | |
|---|---|
| MISLEADING | |
| "When asked about the four Americans killed in Benghazi, Hillary Clinton said, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"" | |
| Domain | Politics & Elections |
| Tactic | False Context |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | January 2013 |
| Origin | Clinton's testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 23, 2013, clipped and replayed in ads and commentary |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-29 |
| Further reading: books on Politics & Elections | |
At a Senate hearing on January 23, 2013, Senator Ron Johnson pressed Hillary Clinton on why the administration had initially described the Benghazi attack as arising from a protest. Clinton responded, in a heated moment, asking what difference it made at that point whether the attack came from a protest or from men who decided to kill Americans, and went on to say the job was to find out what happened and prevent it from happening again. The line was widely clipped to suggest she was dismissing the deaths.
The claim
The short clip, "What difference, at this point, does it make?", became a slogan in ads and campaign speeches as proof that Clinton did not care about the four Americans killed.
What the evidence shows
- The question. Johnson was asking about the motive of the attackers and the administration's early public statements, not about the deaths.
- The full answer. Clinton continued by saying it was the government's job to figure out what happened and do everything possible to prevent it from happening again.
- Fair criticism. Critics argue the administration's early account of the attack was inaccurate and that Clinton's answer was dismissive of that problem. That is a legitimate debate, separate from the claim that she called the deaths irrelevant.
See also
Sources
- US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, hearing on the Benghazi attack, January 23, 2013 (transcript and video).
- FactCheck.org, analysis of the exchange, 2013.