Hillary Clinton declared U.S. involvement in deposing Libya strongman Muammar Gadhafi didn't cost any American lives — failing to mention the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.
During an MSNBC town hall in Springfield, Ill., Monday night, the Democratic presidential front-runner — and former secretary of state — called Libya "a different kind of calculation" while comparing military involvement there in 2011 and current efforts in Syria.
"We didn't lose a single person," she said. "We didn't have a problem in supporting our European and Arab allies in working with NATO."
"We've got to continue to support the Libya people, to give them a chance, because otherwise you see what happened in Syria, with the consequences of millions of people flooding out of Syria, with more than 250,000 people killed, with terrorist groups like [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] taking up almost — huge blocks of territory, as big as some of the states in that area."
Clinton didn't, however, mention the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi that killed Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty — questions about which have dogged Clinton throughout her 2016 presidential campaign and that have led to an investigation of the private email server she used while secretary of state.
Meanwhile,
Fox News reports earlier in the day, Clinton's campaign was forced to clarify comments she made about coal jobs at a CNN town hall Sunday night.
"I'm the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country," Clinton said, "because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."
Clinton's campaign then quickly put out a statement stressing "Coal will remain a part of the energy mix for years to come" and that Clinton's plan would also safeguard workers' retirement and health benefits, Fox News reports.
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