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MSNBC Panels Slam Clinton's Reaction To Benghazi, Report

June 29, 2016

A Wednesday panel on Morning Joe, as well as a focus group of voters, ripped Hillary Clinton's reaction to Benghazi and the House committee report on the terrorist attack there released this week.

MSNBC's Chris Jansing spoke with a focus group of voters. The group was made up of two Clinton supporters, two Donald Trump supporters, and three undecided voters.

An undecided voter, Markeese Young, made his point well known. He said that Clinton needed to take accountability and slammed her for infamously asking "what difference at this point does it make" regarding who was behind the assault.

"She needs to take some kind of accountability and stop, you know, don't say what difference does it make, as if you don't care," Young said.

A Clinton supporter then said that the "why does it matter?" comment has been used out of context. She added that Benghazi was handled as best as it could.

Young had a fiery rebuttal.

"But, it does matter," he said. "I do think for someone who's been a 30-year career politician. You should know not to say certain things and when you have four people who died and the family is sitting right there, in the third or second row, you don't say what difference does it make. No matter what."

Another undecided voter pointed out the hard truth of the Benghazi tragedy.

"People who were representing the United States' interests under the command of our government were left to die," she said.

Jansing asked the voter if she believed that Clinton was responsible in some way for this, to which the voter said that someone needs to "assume personal responsibility for decisions that are made under their command."

This was only the beginning of the attack on Clinton's reaction.

Jansing explained that the voters were not ready to move on from this tragedy, citing that even her own supporters agree that she could have phrased this differently.

"These folks are not ready to move on, clearly," she stated. "Her most ardent supporters, yes. But, even they acknowledge that she was not maybe–artful–in the phrase that she used."

Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough had similar reactions to the focus group.

Brzezinski spoke about how the U.S. lost precious lives that day. She said that the fact that Americans were taken should have been the first thing Clinton had said.

Scarborough mirrored this sentiment, citing he was sure "she wishes she could take that back."

He noted that the bigger problem for Clinton now is that Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) delivered on a fact-based report about Benghazi.

"I'm sure she wishes she could take that back," he said. "I think the bigger problem is that for Hillary Clinton is that Trey Gowdy actually did what people said Trey Gowdy would do ... Trey Gowdy actually delivered a congressional report that has fair-minded, independent Americans stopping and going, wait a second, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and our foreign policy apparatus responded that way while Americans' lives were on the line? While a U.S. ambassador's life was on the line? I actually think that it's time to move on actually doesn't work now."