--- title: Why Republicans Aren’t Attacking Hillary Clinton over Benghazi description: On Sunday's talk shows, Republicans remained indignant about Joe Biden's statement in last week's debate that "we did not know" about requests for more security... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7184059/why-republicans-arent-attacking-hillary-clinton-over-benghazi/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-10-15T18:38:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-18T07:25:58.285Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Republicans Aren’t Attacking Hillary Clinton over Benghazi og:description: On Sunday's talk shows, Republicans remained indignant about Joe Biden's statement in last week's debate that "we did not know" about requests for more security... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7184059/why-republicans-arent-attacking-hillary-clinton-over-benghazi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35ea4cf83f550b01/698b23549d83e831baba1844/600_hilllaryandobama_0914.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama Speaks On The Death Of US Ambassador In Libya Christopher Stevens og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Republicans Aren’t Attacking Hillary Clinton over Benghazi twitter:description: On Sunday's talk shows, Republicans remained indignant about Joe Biden's statement in last week's debate that "we did not know" about requests for more security... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35ea4cf83f550b01/698b23549d83e831baba1844/600_hilllaryandobama_0914.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) # Why Republicans Aren't Attacking Hillary Clinton over Benghazi by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 15, 2012 6:38 PM UTC  WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 12: U.S. President Barack Obama (R) heads back into the Oval Office after making a statement about the death of U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Rose Garden at the White House September 12, 2012 in Washington, DC. Stevens and three other embassy employees were killed when the embassy in Benghazi was attacked by a mob potentially angered by an American-made video mocking Islam's founding prophet. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 12: U.S. President Barack Obama (R) heads back into the Oval Office after making a statement about the death of U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Rose Garden at the White House September 12, 2012 in Washington, DC. Stevens and three other embassy employees were killed when the embassy in Benghazi was attacked by a mob potentially angered by an American-made video mocking Islam's founding prophet. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 15, 2012 6:38 PM UTC On Sunday’s talk shows, Republicans remained indignant about [Joe Biden](http://topics.time.com/joe-biden/)‘s statement in last week’s debate that “we did not know” about [requests for more security](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/state-dept-downgraded-security-in-libya-before-deadly-attack-ex-officer-claims/2012/10/10/d7195faa-12e6-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a%5Fstory.html) to protect the U.S. consulate in Benghazi shortly before the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The White House has clarified that Biden was not talking about the entire Obama Administration, but the White House itself, which seems an entirely reasonable position. But senior Romney adviser Ed Gillespie was not buying that line when pressed by Fox’s tenacious Chris Wallace: more --- > “” --- This debate is strange on a couple of levels. One is the simple logic of it. Why is it not “sustainable” for the White House to say it was unaware of a bureaucratic fight over security at a second-tier diplomatic site? It seems overwhelmingly plausible, and it’s hard to imagine most voters would disagree. Even stranger, however, is the position Republicans have adopted of _defending_ [_Hillary Clinton_](http://topics.time.com/hillary-clinton/). The Secretary of State has been an archvillain of Republican campaigns for decades now. And when it comes to the debate over security in Benghazi, it would seem that the buck should stop with her. But suddenly it doesn’t suit the [GOP](http://topics.time.com/gop/) to attack Clinton. Her approval ratings are sky-high. Romney already has a problem with female voters. And Hillary’s not on the ballot this November. The GOP wants to concentrate its political attacks on Obama, even at the cost of sounding nonsensical. (**PHOTOS:** [Political Pictures of the Week, Oct. 5–11](http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/12/political-pictures-of-the-week-oct-5-11/)) The Benghazi security debate is really a proxy for something larger anyway. Republicans don’t argue that Obama was somehow indifferent or incompetent when it came to protecting Chris Stevens. They say that the Libya attack illustrated the “unraveling” of Obama’s larger foreign policy. As [Joe explains](http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/12/benghazi-the-october-mirage/?iid=sl-main-arenapage) well, that thesis doesn’t make much sense either. But all that may be beside the point. At his infamous “47%” fundraiser, Romney assured a concerned donor that if a foreign policy crisis emerged late in the campaign, “I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity.” And so he has. **Update**: [The latest on who’s responsible for security in Benghazi.](http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/16/clinton-obama-romney-and-the-benghazi-buck/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7184059/why-republicans-arent-attacking-hillary-clinton-over-benghazi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7184059/why-republicans-arent-attacking-hillary-clinton-over-benghazi/"},"headline":"Why Republicans Aren't Attacking Hillary Clinton over Benghazi","datePublished":"2012-10-15T18:38:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-18T07:25:58.285Z","description":"On Sunday's talk shows, Republicans remained indignant about Joe Biden's statement in last week's debate that \"we did not know\" about requests for more security...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7184059/why-republicans-arent-attacking-hillary-clinton-over-benghazi/","keywords":["Jobs","Economy","Romney"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35ea4cf83f550b01/698b23549d83e831baba1844/600_hilllaryandobama_0914.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35ea4cf83f550b01/698b23549d83e831baba1844/600_hilllaryandobama_0914.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Speaks On The Death Of US Ambassador In Libya Christopher Stevens","caption":"President Obama Speaks On The Death Of US Ambassador In Libya Christopher Stevens","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7184059/why-republicans-arent-attacking-hillary-clinton-over-benghazi/","name":"Why Republicans Aren't Attacking Hillary Clinton over Benghazi"}}]}] ```