WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that she took responsibility for the deadly assault on the American consulate in Benghazi, in an apparent bid to take the heat off President Barack Obama who is now under heavy criticism.
"I take responsibility" for the protection of U.S. diplomats, Clinton told CNN during her visit to Lima, Peru. But she said an investigation now under way will ultimately determine what happened in the attacks on the consulate.
"I'm in charge of the State Department -- 60,000 plus people all over the world, 275 posts," she said in the CNN interview, just one day before the second presidential debate between Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney.
"The president and the vice president certainly wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals," she said.
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