House Republicans Question Benghazi Report

Republicans sought to discredit the findings of a report of last year's assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and they were particularly critical of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's response to the attack.

"The system failed the people in that compound in Benghazi," said Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Our investigation has shown that waivers and exceptions occur every day often defining a facility as different than what it actually is."

Issa went on to say the family of murdered Ambassador Christopher Stevens had given him a letter that described how he traveled the country "with the lightest of escorts," talking to passers-by and sitting in open cafes.

"He knew there were risks to that kind of accessibility and he accepted those risks," Issa read in the family's letter.

But House Democrats were quick to defend the Obama administration's actions and the State Department's internal review under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the attack that killed Stevens and three other Americans.

Republicans, however, questioned why military assets in the region were not ready to go to attempt to rescue the Americans kept in a poorly guarded diplomatic posting in Libya, a country that's among the most dangerous in the world. GOP lawmakers also want to know why Clinton and the Obama administration officials issued a false narrative that blamed the attack on a spontaneous response to an anti-Islam video online. Republican House Committee members charge that the State Department's review of the attack, ordered by Clinton, failed to answer the questions raised about the poor security.