The mother of one of the Americans who died during the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi ripped into former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch for invoking the tragedy during her public impeachment hearing.
During the Friday hearing, Yovanovitch said, “This is not a time to undercut our diplomats. It is the responsibility of the department’s leaders to stand up for the institution and the individuals who make that institution still today the most effective diplomatic force in the world. And Congress has a responsibility to reinvest in our diplomacy.”
She continued, “We are people who repeatedly uproot our lives, who risk and sometimes give our lives for this country … We are Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Patrick Smith, Ty Woods, and Glen Doherty. People rightly called heroes for their ultimate sacrifice to this nation’s foreign policy interests in Libya eight years ago. We honor these individuals.”
The mother of Sean Patrick Smith joined Laura Ingraham’s program on Fox News that night and asked, “Why is she bringing that in now?”
Ingraham explained that she felt Yovanovitch was trying to tie herself and other State Department employees to the “storied tradition of diplomats abroad” and their sacrifices but called it a “stretch.”
“He’s dead. He’s dead, and they don’t care,” Smith said while holding back tears. “And now she’s worried — I can’t talk very well right now. I’m quite upset about this. I don’t know why people keep bringing Benghazi into this. She had nothing to do with Benghazi.”
“Because you served your country in Ukraine doesn’t mean that you can kind of compare yourself to the heroes at Bengazhi,” Ingraham said.
Smith agreed, adding, “Leave it alone. I mean people died.”
Stevens, Smith, Woods, and Doherty died when the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked in 2012. At the time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed the attack was due to a controversial video, which turned out to not be the case.
