Clinton email

QUESTION: Right. And I lived in New York on September 1 lth at the time.

SECRETARY CLINTON: And it was a searing, painful experience in every way, and so every September Ilth I'm on hyper alert for what's going on around the world. And we always have discussions in our security — among our security experts — okay,
September Ilth is coming up. Because we pick up intelligence, we pick up chatter that people might want to do something somewhere in the world. So everybody is watching. That's — but we had a very strong set of standards that we've tried to follow around the world.

And then simultaneously, we had this video coming out, which we were getting lots of feedback from our posts that this was a problem, that people were reacting to it. So there was a lot swirling around. And clearly, when we started hearing about what was happening in Cairo, what was happening in Tunisia, what was happening in Benghazi and other places — because there were demonstrations going on in many places, and they were being, to some extent, hijacked by extremists with other agendas.

But then when we were alerted to what was going on in Benghazi, we were all just totally focused on trying to find out what we could under quite difficult circumstances, and we're still trying to get to the bottom of what happened when. But that day, it was all consuming. We were all just as active as we could given the distance, trying to manage everything that was happening, and be responsive in real time. And of course, it was primarily the duty of the security experts who have those responsibilities, but I was here and others were here trying to sort through all the information as it was coming in.


QUESTION: Do you — today the front page of the Post says this is now going to mar your — what had been your great record at State. I mean, are you ultimately, Hillary, going to have to take responsibility for this?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh, I take responsibility. That's not even — that's not a question. I take responsibility. I'm the Secretary of State. I have 60,000-plus employees around the world, and this is like a big family. I mean, these Foreign Service and Civil Service officers, many of whom have worked with each other, they know each other, I have — I'm working with people today
that I first met when I was First Lady, and they were a young diplomat somewhere that I showed up. I sent Chris Stevens to Benghazi in the height of the Libyan conflict.

QUESTION: Yeah, yeah.

SECRETARY CLINTON: And he was eager to go, and he was very effective, and then I recommended him to be our ambassador, and I had the highest regard for him.

QUESTION: Gosh, that must make it that much —

SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh, it's painful, Monica. It's absolutely painful, because it's not just a faceless person.

QUESTION: Yeah, exactly.

SECRETARY CLINTON: It's people who, if! didn't know them personally, somebody close to me in this building knew them, had worked with them, was at the same post five or ten years ago. So there's an extraordinary sense of loss and responsibility. Every one of us who had any responsibility, from the security experts on up, we all feel like we have to figure out what happened, because we
clearly want to make sure it doesn't happen again. But there is an inherent risk in this job.

When I okayed sending Robert Ford to Hama at the beginning of the Syrian conflict, that was a risk. We said, "Robert, do you want to go there? It's dangerous. We can't guarantee your safety, because we have to rely on host nations."

QUESTION: Yeah, yeah.

SECRETARY CLINTON: But you think it's the right thing to do. It clearly sends a message about where the United States' values are. Or when I was in Egypt, and we were protested against in Cairo, and then the security people came to me and said, "You're supposed to go to Alexandria. It's a much less fortified position than we have in Cairo. Maybe you shouldn't go." I said, "No." I said, "I'm
going to go." I went. But, I mean, we had people throwing shoes and tomatoes. This is an inherently risky world. It is a dangerous world. And we will do our very best, as our military and intelligence colleagues do, to try to think through how to provide as much security as possible, but you can't keep people behind 20-foot walls and expect them to do their jobs. And whether it's the Marine barracks in Beirut being blown up or a CIA outpost in Afghanistan, Americans need to realize that it's not only our soldiers; it's our civilians serving our country who are also putting their lives on the line to —

QUESTION: Well, that's been the wakeup call of this incident.

SECRETARY CLINTON: -- to do the job that we ask them to do.

QUESTION: So one thing that a lot of people have said in this is another — somebody from the White House told me they thought watching you and Obama at the Andrews Air Force Base, there was a new bond between you two, that everybody knows you all aren't buddy-buddy, but you all clearly respect each other and work together. Do you feel that you had a new bond? I mean, I saw
that you touched his hand — on watching the — watching it, you touched his hand after he spoke, and then when you all walked back to the families that he put his arm around your waist. Do you feel this gave some — did you feel that at that moment? Somebody at the White House saw it, and then somebody at the State Department also thought so.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I feel like there have been a number of moments — maybe not public moments —that have been very, very precious to me in my relationship with the President. I was in that very small group that made the decision about bin Ladin and was there in that Sit Room, and --

QUESTION: Right, which we've all seen that picture.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes, going up and down the emotional rollercoaster. And walked with him across the Colonnade in the White House for him to address the nation. I mean, there are a lot of moments, but that was a particularly poignant time for both of us because we live every day — he as President, I as Secretary — with the knowledge that decisions we make, sending a Chris Stevens to
Libya, are ones that have risk and danger attached to them. And so I --

QUESTION: When he came here that --

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes.

QUESTION: -- next day, did you call him and say, "I'd love you to come over?"

SECRETARY CLINTON: I did. I did.

QUESTION: Do you call him, like, on the secure phone?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh, yes.

QUESTION: Where's the secure phone?

SECRETARY CLINTON: In my office.

QUESTION: Oh.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yeah, yeah, we have a secure phone. Yeah.

QUESTION: I know. Did you call him on the secure phone?

SECRETARY CLINTON: We wanted --

QUESTION: Or do you only do that if there's, like, a real emergency?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yeah. We communicate in lots of different ways. But I thought it was important if he could, but it was  I knew that he has a lot of other demands on his time, and I was going over to the Rose Garden and then I said, "Mr. President, can —do you have time to come by and see our people if we can get them gathered?" And he didn't hesitate, absolutely. And it was --

QUESTION: Do you say Mr. President or do you say Barack?

SECRETARY CLINTON: I do. I say Mr. President. I believe strongly in saying Mr. President.

QUESTION: Okay.

SECRETARY CLINTON: I mean, I called him Barack when I was a senator with him, but --
QUESTION: Yeah, yeah.

SECRETARY CLINTON: -- now he's the President and I respect that.

QUESTION: Okay. Now let's start going toward UNGA. The — on September 15th, I think the Saturday before Netanyahu was going to be on Meet The Press, you had a private call with him.

SECRETARY CLINTON: I did, I did.

QUESTION: Okay. And that — the Mideast thing and Iran, it's kind of been in tumult. So the relationship — do you feel that you need to work your — work on that with your past relationship with him? I mean, this is — as two politicians to one another, what's —show me how this works.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, look. I've known Bibi a long time, and I consider him a friend. He is somebody who I've spent a lot of time talking to in New York, in Washington, in Jerusalem. We have had long in-person conversations, long telephone conversations. And I respect the fact that he is trying to protect Israel, that — I often tell people, put yourself into the position of the Prime Minister of Israel at a time of great tumult and uncertainty. And so I guess I would say, on a pretty regular basis, we — I check in with him.

QUESTION: Does that help, though, given that, kind of, people view his relationship with the President as rocky, that you all --

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well --

QUESTION: -- are in kind of— have your own relationship?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, here's — I think he's been around so long he has good relationships with a lot of people, and I think he has a relationship of mutual respect with the President. And his concerns about what's going to happen are totally legitimate. They're concerns that the President shares, which is why the President has said our policy is prevention, not containment. And he's been very, very clear about that.