The mother of one of the Americans killed in the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi said she blamed the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the tragedy.
Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, the U.S. foreign service information management officer who was among four Americans killed in the attacks, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, spoke Monday at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
“I blame Hillary Clinton personally,” she said. “She lied to me and then called me a liar,” she added amid loud boos from the crowd.
Clinton has defended her response to the incident.
“You know, look, I feel a great deal of sympathy for the families of the four brave Americans that we lost at Benghazi. And I certainly can’t even imagine the grief that she has for losing her son,” Clinton said during a debate in March, referring to Smith. “But she’s wrong. She’s absolutely wrong.”
The convention that will endorse Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee opened Monday on a “Make America Safe Again” theme labeling President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as weak on national security at home and abroad.
The message from numerous speakers repeatedly cited the September 2012 attacks on Benghazi that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, but was deliberately short on the specifics of what Trump as commander-in-chief would do to change course.
Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said Sunday that the convention would avoid specifics while helping the public “better understand the breadth” of Trump and pointing out “‘the failed policies of the Obama and Clinton administration.'”