Rand Paul takes anti-Hillary Clinton Benghazi battle to Iowa
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 5/10/13 6:49 PM EDT
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The battle over Benghazi has come to Iowa, colliding head-on with the earliest phase of the 2016 presidential race.
On a campaign-style visit to the first-in-the-nation caucus state Friday, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul sharply and repeatedly accused former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of failing to stop the chaos and bloodshed at the American diplomatic facility there in September.
At a pair of events here in eastern Iowa, Paul seized every opportunity to assail Clinton, the popular former first lady and potential Democratic presidential candidate.
Speaking to a group of about two dozen voters at a household event hosted by the Iowa Federation of Republican Women, the first-term senator went so far as to say Clinton should never be allowed to serve in government again.
“I think it precludes Hillary Clinton from ever holding office,” Paul said of the Benghazi affair. “I think her mistakes were of such significance that she should never again be in that position, to make those decisions.”
Hours earlier, Paul told reporters at a press conference that Clinton was “absolutely responsible” for the inadequate security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi. The facility sustained a terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2012, that claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
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If this week’s anti-Clinton pile-on has turned into something of a rhetorical bidding war, it may be difficult to top Paul’s extended bombardment Friday.
Indeed, at his public appearances Friday afternoon, Paul sounded like an undeclared candidate eager to draw aggressive contrasts with the most formidable of his possible Democratic foes.
Whenever an Iowa Republican brought up Benghazi, Paul immediately trained his fire on Clinton, casting her as a delinquent leader at the State Department who failed to heed calls for additional diplomatic security.
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