Hillary Clinton says Benghazi was a tragedy 'politicized' by opponents

A question on Benghazi from moderator Jorge Ramos during the Univision Democratic debate was met with lengthy boos by the audience.

Ramos played a clip from Fox News showing the mother of a person killed in the attack saying Clinton "knew" the incident was not caused by an anti-Muslim video as previously stated, and asked Clinton if she lied to the families. Clinton said she has a "great deal of sympathy" for the loved ones of the "four brave Americans we lost in Benghazi," and she "can't even imagine the grief she has for losing her son, but she's wrong. She's absolutely wrong."

After the attack, Clinton said "everyone in the administration" was "scrambling to get information that was changing literally by the hour. When we had information, we made it public, but sometimes we had to go back and say we had new information to contradict it." Clinton brought up her 11-hour testimony in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, and "anybody who watched that and listened to it knows that I answered every question that I was asked. When it was over, the Republicans had to admit they didn't learn anything. Why? Because there had already been one independent investigation, seven or eight congressional investigations, mostly led by Republicans, who all reached the same conclusion: There were lessons to be learned."

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Clinton pointed out that Benghazi wasn't the first time Americans were killed in a terrorist attack, with thousands dying on Sept. 11, 2001, and hundreds lost in the Beirut attack under President Reagan and the embassy attacks in Tanzania and Kenya under President Clinton. "In no other time during those tragedies were they politicized," Clinton said. "Instead, people said, 'Let's learn the lesson and save lives.' That's what I did."