hillary clinton and her team appeared to take a softer tone for her testimony to the house benghazi committee than the first draft of the statement. | ap photo by zach montellaro 10/13/16 12:36 pm edt hillary clinton and her team appeared to have toned down the opening statement for her high-stakes testimony before the house benghazi committee last october, striking a line from an earlier draft that tried to shame republican lawmakers by saying clinton <u+201c>will not be a part of a partisan slugfest on the backs of dead americans.<u+201d> a prior draft of clinton<u+2019>s statement was released by wikileaks in a hack of clinton campaign chairman john podesta<u+2019>s emails. clinton<u+2019>s camp asserts that wikileaks could be working with russia, and has refused to publicly confirm the authenticity of the messages. story continued below in the message exchange on oct. 14, clinton<u+2019>s director of speechwriting dan schwerin emailed the draft to senior staff asking for feedback. schwerin discusses the tone of the draft, saying he <u+201c>aimed for high minded but it's possible this will come off as fairly pugilistic. maybe that's just fine, but see what you think.<u+201d> a major difference between the draft and the final statement, according to a transcript from the washington post, is the tone of the opening minutes. in clinton<u+2019>s final statement, she takes a more biographical approach by describing her relationship to ambassador chris stevens, one of the four american men who died in libya on sept. 11, 2012. live blog by politico staff clinton includes more personal details from stevens<u+2019> life, including an anecdote from his mother (<u+201c>chris<u+2019> mother liked to say he had <u+2018>sand in his shoes,<u+2019> because he was always moving<u+201d>) and how he got himself to libya (<u+201c>on a greek cargo ship, just like a 19th-century american envoy<u+201d>). the final statement also includes brief details on sean smith, tyrone woods and glen doherty, the other americans who died in the attack. the first draft did not include much of the personal information, instead jumping directly to a defense of clinton. the draft also included a more extensive list of the administration<u+2019>s foreign policy accomplishments, specifically naming defending the iron dome system in israel and <u+201c>opening cuba to american ideas and american capitalism.<u+201d> both the draft and the final speech revolve around three points to take away from the attack <u+2014> but they are reframed from <u+201c>lessons<u+201d> clinton was offering the committee to <u+201c>observations<u+201d> instead. the final speech also includes clinton saying <u+201c>i took responsibility<u+201d> after the attacks, a statement that is not present in the earlier draft. one of the most pointed lines in the draft that did not make it to the final statement painted the investigation as politicized. by nick gass <u+201c>to those who seek to exploit the tragedy of benghazi for political gain, let me be clear: i will not be a part of a partisan slugfest on the backs of dead americans,<u+201d> the draft read. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s wrong, and it<u+2019>s unworthy of our great country.<u+201d> notably, neither the final statement nor the draft mention clinton<u+2019>s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, something aides considered. <u+201c>you'll see there's nothing in here about emails,<u+201d> schwerin writes. <u+201c>i think that's the right call.<u+201d> <u+201c>but if we decide that its impossible to ignore the elephant in the room,<u+201d> he continues, <u+201c>she could say this near the top: <u+2018>i am also ready to answer questions about my email use as secretary of state. as i have said many times, i should have used two separate accounts, one for work and one for personal matters. it was a mistake to use just one. it is up to you and ultimately to the american people to decide if it<u+2019>s wise and appropriate for a committee charged with investigating and learning from a national tragedy to spend its time focused on something like that.<u+2019><u+201d> by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
hacked emails show clinton toned down benghazi testimony - politico
zach montellaro michael grunwald