Obama campaign traveling press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Hillary Clinton's statement Monday night that she was taking responsibility for the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Libya was "absolutely not" a political move to shield the president.
"President Obama takes responsibility for the safety and security of all diplomats serving overseas," Psaki told Fox News. "Secretary Clinton, of course, has a great amount of responsibility as Secretary of State and she was doing interviews yesterday as she often does on the first day of a foreign trip and said, 'Look, we do own, the State Department does own decisions around funding for diplomats.' ”
During an interview with CNN on Monday night, Clinton said she took responsibility for denying requests for additional security at the consulate and emphasized that President Obama and Vice President Biden were not involved in decisions at that level.
"I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha," Clinton said.
Pressed whether Clinton's comments were calculated to shield the president politically, Psaki again rejected the argument.
“She said exactly what the vice president said last week, which is, you know, he wasn’t aware of the request, neither was the president," Psaki said. "It’s pretty common knowledge that these decisions are made at the State Department. That doesn’t change the fact that the president takes absolute responsibility for the safety and security of diplomats serving abroad and that’s why he wants to get to the bottom of this more than anybody.”
Earlier Tuesday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) told radio host Laura Ingraham that he believed Clinton "took the bullet" for the president.
“I think it was a cover-up. I think they want everything to go away, everything’s wonderful until after the election. Remember [how] it took us a while to uncover all the problems with Watergate? This is worse, because this involved people’s lives," McKeon said.
