CLEVELAND (CNN) — The mother of a victim of the Benghazi attack told Republicans gathered in Cleveland on Monday that Hillary Clinton “should be in stripes.”
“This entire campaign comes down to a single question: If Hillary Clinton can’t give us the truth, why should we give her the presidency?” Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, said to cheers on the opening night of the Republican National Convention.
“That’s right,” she said. “Hillary for prison. She deserves to be in stripes.”
Her remarks come on a night focused largely on the Benghazi attack — which took place during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state — and immigration.
At the same time Smith spoke, Donald Trump was being interviewed on Fox News by Bill O’Reilly.
“I blame Hillary Clinton,” she said. “I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son — personally.”
Patricia Smith, mother of Benghazi victim Sean Smith, addresses the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Republican Party opened its national convention, kicking off a four-day political jamboree that will anoint billionaire Donald Trump as its presidential nominee. / AFP / Robyn BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)
Clinton was investigated by a special House committee and testified before the committee for 11 hours about the Benghazi attack. The committee’s final report, released last month, faulted the Obama administration for security lapses that led to the deaths of four Americans, but contained no revelations likely to further damage Clinton.
Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer, was killed along with U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and two CIA contractors in the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi.
“Hillary Clinton is a woman, a mother, and a grandmother of two,” Smith said. “I am a woman, a mother, and a grandmother of two. How could she do this to me?”
An audience member yelled, of Clinton: “She’s a liar!”
“She sure is,” Smith responded.
“Donald Trump is everything Hillary Clinton is not. He is blunt, direct and strong,” Smith said. “He speaks his mind and his heart. And when it comes to the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism, he will not hesitate to kill the terrorists who threaten American lives. He will make American stronger, not weaker.”
