Embattled Hillary Clinton, who faces a House probe into her handling of the Benghazi crisis, has admitted in her new book "Hard Choices" that she wishes she could "revisit certain choices" she made as secretary of state.
The potential Democratic presidential front-runner said earlier this year that "my biggest regret is what happened in Benghazi." Four Americans were killed in the seven-hour siege of the Libyan mission by Islamic militants, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, during her tenure in the State Department.
Now Republican House leaders have formed a special select committee to learn the truth of what went wrong that day, Sept. 11, 2012, and what could have been done differently to save the American lives.
In the Author’s Note forward to the book, due to be released June 10, Clinton appears to reiterate her regrets, according to the segment of the autobiography obtained by
Politico.
"As is usually the case with the benefit of hindsight, I wish we could go back and revisit certain choices," she wrote, controversially adding, "But I’m proud of what we accomplished."
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And Clinton may have been referring to Benghazi when she wrote, "What’s true in our daily lives is also true at the highest levels of government. Keeping America safe, strong, and prosperous presents an endless set of choices, many of which come with imperfect information and conflicting imperatives."
Clinton, who was secretary of state during President Barack Obama’s first term, seemed to be echoing the comments she made in January while talking about Benghazi: "You make these choices based on imperfect information."
The former first lady and ex-New York senator has come under fire for her actions involving the
investigation into the tragedy, amid accusations of lax security and a cover-up over who carried out the attacks. The Obama administration initially claimed it was a spontaneous attack resulting from an anti-Islamic video.
In the Author’s Note excerpts, Clinton also said, "While my views and experiences will surely be scrutinized by followers of Washington’s long-running soap opera — who took what side, who opposed whom, who was up, and who was down — I didn’t write this book for them.
"As secretary of state, I thought of our choices and challenges in three categories: The problems we inherited, including two wars and a global financial crisis; the new, often unexpected events and emerging threats, from the shifting sands of the Middle East to the turbulent waters of the Pacific to the uncharted terrain of cyberspace; and the opportunities presented by an increasingly networked world that could help lay the foundation for American prosperity and leadership in the 21st century."
According to Politico, the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, ordered an initial printing of a million copies of the book, which was sold out online after "reveal" excerpts were run in Vogue magazine. Bookstores and other retail outlets have ordered another 1 million copies.
In the segment released to the media on Tuesday, Clinton said she wrote the book for people who wonder "whether the United States still has what it takes to lead."
She continued, "For me, the answer is a resounding 'Yes.' Talk of America’s decline has become commonplace, but my faith in our future has never been greater. Everything that I have done and seen has convinced me that America remains the 'indispensable nation.'
"I wrote it for Americans and people everywhere who are trying to make sense of this rapidly changing world of ours, who want to understand how leaders and nations can work together and why they sometimes collide, and how their decisions affect all our lives."
Clinton’s memoirs are being released while she’s still deciding whether to run again for president in 2016. She has maintained that she will make a decision later this year, but if she does enter the race, the GOP is certain to focus its campaign on her involvement in the Benghazi scandal.
The Benghazi select committee, headed by South Carolina Rep.
Trey Gowdy, is expected to subpoena Clinton to testify at the hearing or make a deposition.
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