ADVERTISEMENT

NYT: Aides Viewed Libya as the 'Cornerstone of a Hillary Clinton Doctrine'

April 28, 2016

White House correspondent for the New York Times Mark Landler was asked about Hillary Clinton's role in Libya, and said how some of Clinton's aides saw Libya as the "cornerstone of a Hillary Clinton doctrine" in an interview Tuesday on CNN.

The terrorist attack that occurred while Clinton was secretary of state in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.

Landler was asked whether Clinton was responsible for what occurred in Libya after Donald Trump criticized her handling of the situation.

"She's acknowledged that the State Department dropped the ball on security in Benghazi that terrible night. On the broader question of the intervention, it will be a tough issue for her in the campaign because she's as closely identified with that intervention as anyone in the administration," Landler said.

"She was really the person who made the case to President Obama, who was reluctant to back the NATO bombing campaign, and I think you saw in that speech yesterday that Donald Trump will lose no time in connecting her to that policy."

"At the time when things looked like they might work out well in Libya, her aides were saying this could be the ‘cornerstone of a Hillary Clinton doctrine,’" Landler said. "So I think you'll have to, you'll see a lot of her on the trail defending that policy. I think the argument she's likely to use is, ‘Look, Libya's a work in progress. I don't think we can determine yet what the final outcome is.’"