Carly Fiorina says Hillary Clinton was some combination of lying and careless when, in her testimony about the attacks on Benghazi, Clinton claimed that she had nothing to do with documents bearing her signature that denied additional security to the consulate.
Fiorina claimed – in an attempt to draw a contrast between her and the former secretary of state -- that as an executive she used an "auto-pen" but she looked at all the documents.
"When the whole Benghazi scandal was swirling, she made the comment – and people discovered through FOIA – that she had signed the documents, turning down request for additional security," Fiorina said to radio host Hugh Hewitt.
"And those were presented to her, because she had said, 'Oh, I had nothing to do with that.' And they said, 'Well, look, these documents have your signature on them.' And her basic answer was, 'Well, that was an auto-pen. That was one of those things that just signs my signature for me.'"
Clinton testified before Congress that requests for additional security in Benghazi "did not come to my attention or above the assistant secretary level." Clinton's claim, as noted by Washington Post's fact-checker is backed by State Department's Accountability Review Board report on Benghazi. It is State Department protocol for all cables from Washington D.C. to have the secretary of state's signature on them.
The Post's fact-checker added "odds are extremely long that Clinton ever saw or approved this memo," rating the claims to the contrary a "whopper."
"Well, I can tell you as a chief executive who sometimes used auto-pen – I looked at every single document upon which the auto-pen would be used," Fiorina continued. "And the reason to use an auto-pen is because you're out of the country or out of town or something. But you look at it."
"So this reminds of that where somehow she's in charge, but she's not accountable for anything," Fiorina continued. "So again, it's some combination of complete carelessness, saying to some underling 'handle it,' and prevarication."