In one final interview before stepping down as secretary of state on Friday, Hillary Clinton told the Associated Press that critics of the Obama administration's handling of the fallout of the attacks on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, do not live in an "evidence-based world," and their refusal to "accept the facts" is both regrettable and unfortunate.
While admitting the attack symbolized the low point of her tenure as America's top diplomat.
"I was so unhappy with the way that some people refused to accept the facts, refused to accept the facts, refused to accept the findings of an independent Accountability Review Board, politicized everything about this terrible attack," she told the AP. "My job is to admit that we have to make improvements and we're going to."
On the same day she finished her term as secretary of state, a suicide bomber linked to a domestic terror organization there exploded a device just outside the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, killing himself and a guard. Before leaving office, she testified before Congress about the Benghazi attacks and admitted failures.
Clinton gave her final speech as secretary of state to a rousing, and thankful audience, many were her employees in the State Department.
"Please know that I hope you will redouble your efforts to do all that you can to demonstrate unequivocally why diplomacy and development are right up there with defense," Clinton said.
She spoke for seven minutes, surrounded by employees who sometimes interrupted her with cheers. One man near Clinton was holding a sign, which read, "Thank you!"
Clinton made her departure official in a letter to President Barack Obama on Friday, and by 4 p.m., she was succeeded by the new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who was confirmed earlier in the week. Clinton's departure will mark the first time in more than 20 years that a Clinton has not held federal office.
