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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Coverage Of Hillary Clinton's Testimony On Capitol Hill; Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired October 22, 2015 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:00:31] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening. Thanks for joining us tonight.

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton long awaited highly anticipated politically charged testimony before the house select committee on Benghazi. The proceedings began at 10:00 a.m. this morning. They ended with fireworks between Secretary Clinton and committee chairman Trey Gowdy.

Republican lawmakers all day on the attack, but also on the defense a bit times after two member of their own party, including the majority leader suggested a partisan political motive for the hearings. Democratic members making a claim that they certainly see this as a political exercise aimed at damaging their leading presidential candidate.

Tempers on the panel growing hotter as the night went on. Things turning even more contentious, as you may have seen, toward the end right there.

Now, I want to go first to our nonpartisan team of CNN political analysts, David Gergen, Gloria Borger and Carl Bernstein who is also a bestselling biographer of Secretary Hillary Clinton, also senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

Carl, you covered a lot of Hillary Clinton and you have seen a lot of hearings over the years, what did you see?

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I thought we got a great look at who President Hillary Clinton would be for the first time where kind of competence, the kind of command over the whole scene that she was being asked to testify under. She knew the issues. There was nuance about her positions. It was impressive given what she was up against.

And the other thing is, I think you have to go back to Joe McCarthy for the house on American committee to find the process as abusive as a house congressional hearing as this one was.

COOPER: You really think you go back to McCarthy here?

BERNSTEIN: Yes, I do. I think this was reckless and outrageous hearing and the process is. That said, she has a problem with stonewalling on the question of these emails and her server. The FBI is looking at it, and that is probably the appropriate place. But I the think we have a real look at who Hillary Clinton would be as president, how she - her comportment, her composure, the nuance in terms of policy, her familiarity with the issues, down in the weeds, the fact that she had been on the Senate armed services committee, and what she knows about the world in policy. I thought we got a look at somebody we never saw before.

COOPER: And Gloria, we there a smoking gun to today? I mean, the idea that Sidney Blumenthal has special access to the Clintons is not exactly a headline. That could have been written 20 years ago.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: No. I would wager that most of the American public had no idea who Sidney Blumenthal was until today. He is an old friend of the Clintons who emailed her about, you know, all kinds of foreign policy things, including Libya. And you know, she forwarded some of his email, and their point was, the Republican point was, look, he emailed you more than Chris Stevens.

COOPER: And he had a more direct line to you than Chris Stevens.

BORGER: Exactly. He knew your personal email. Chris Stevens didn't know the personal email. And it was part of their larger, you know, their larger narrative here which was, a, you own Libyan policy which was bad, and they could make that case, but then they started going down this path of, you were derelict in 2012. You didn't pay enough at the attention to security which she answered. You were uncaring after the event. You were concerned more about your PR and that nobody wanted to admit that it was a terror attack, because it did not fit into the Obama legacy narrative.

These were all political points. We didn't learn anything new, Anderson, except I think for Hillary Clinton's own moving narrative of what occurred that night at her end and how frantic they were, and as she described it as the fog of war and they didn't know who was dead and who was alive and she was move and I think that anybody who was watching that would have been moved, because you sort of felt like it was something that was sparling out of control, that they were trying to get a handle on. And I think that is the first time that we have ever really heard that.

COOPER: And as we continue to see there, former secretary Clinton there talking with members on her way out, and also with her attorneys, David, first, anyone to say this committee is not divided among the partisan lines. I mean, Republicans, you know, clearly going after Hillary Clinton being as tough as they could, Democrats, you know, being as gentle really as they could here. What did you, and what did anything new for you come out of this?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No. Not a ton of information. I will tell you that, Anderson, I'm sure there are conservatives in the country who will be cheered by these hearings. They will think that she has basically got a free pass on a lot of Benghazi and good for the Republicans to press in. But I think a great number of other Americans and I'm in this group

will find that the hearings were very, very disturbing. I cannot remember a secretary of state to go back to Carl's point, I cannot remember a secretary of state in modern times who was ever grilled indeed badgers the wade she was tonight for 11 hours, she has been up there in these hearings. And it is unprecedented kind of grilling and I hope that we never see one like this before.

[23:05:37] COOPER: You think it is unfair?

GERGEN: Well, I'm not sure unfairness, I just thought it was a certain brutal quality about it. And a badgering quality as if, you know, and to take everything, everything that she said in the worst possible light, to try to accuse her of not caring enough, the fact that she went home, somehow the night of the Benghazi attack and -- you know --

COOPER: David, hold that thought, because I know that Dana has one of the committee members, I think committee member Congressman Schiff -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Anderson.

Congressman, you sort of made the joke which luckily turned into the joke about being here still for the 3:00 a.m. phone call that she was going to get. But it was a long hearing. There was a lot discussed. I know that your role was to talk a lot about how it was political since you are on the Democratic side, but there were a few things that came up and came through with the hours and hours of hearing. Did you learn anything new?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI: Well, I mean, this is thing. We really didn't learn anything that the other investigations hadn't covered. For all the talk about the 50 witnesses we interviewed and all the emails that we saw, there was nothing new that my colleagues could point to that was knew or shed different light on the events that happened or altered the conclusions of these other reports. So I have to say, I don't think we have shown much of any progress and for all of the time and the money put into it, that is really disappointing.

BASH: Now, one of your colleagues on the Republicans side, Congresswoman Brooks was questioning the secretary about her communication with Chris Stevens, the ambassador who died in his horrible tragedy. And it was a bit surprising that she didn't seem to remember any communication with him, and that had to surprise you?

SCHIFF: Well, you know, I don't think it was email communication --

BASH: But wit was not just email, it was any communication.

SCHIFF: Yes. I don't know. And I don't want to speak for the secretary in terms of I don't recall precisely whether she had talked with him or not talked with him. But she did make it a very clear in terms of the issue that we are concerned about here, that he never did communicate directly with her on security. And he knew a way to reach her, but I think that it is quite apparent that the ambassador felt that it was not the appropriate level to make decisions about the security and that the office of the diplomatic security was the right venue for that. I think that is who he interacted with. And I think it is quite telling that is exactly who he thought that he should reach out to on that issue.

BASH: And the fact that there were so many are requests for security, I mean, maybe she is not responsible for the security, maybe she is, but the fact that there were so many requests that went unanswered, as somebody who is a member of this oversight committee, this select committee, that has to bother you?

SCHIFF: Well, it absolutely bothers me. But again, that is something that the accountability review board looked into extensively. They were deeply critical of the state department, deeply critical of how the security office handled those request, those requests should have been met, and they weren't. So, I certainly agree that it does concern me a great deal, but that is not new ground. We have known that for years now. We have known that those mistakes were made and they were serious mistakes.

BASH: OK. Thank you very much, Congressman. Appreciate it.

Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: All right. Dana, thank you very much. I want to join in -- back with our panel, Carl Bernstein, Gloria Borger, David Gergen, Jeff Toobin as well.

David, you were talking about I think what you termed battering or some of the aggressive questioning of the secretary. I want to play just one exchange and have you talk about and also Jeff as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN (R), HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI: Can you answer today, what were the search terms?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The search terms were everything that you can imagine that might be related to anything, but they also went through every single email.

JORDAN: But that is not answering the question. What were the search terms, means terms? What terms did you use and what were the date parameters and the end date and the emails in between that we are going to be looking at?

CLINTON: Well, Congressman, I asked my attorneys to oversee the process. I did not look over their shoulder and I did not dictate how they were going to do it, and I did not ask how they were doing it and how they may --.

JORDAN: So you don't know? You don't know what terms they used to determine which ones were your emails and which ones the state departments gotten there we may get?

CLINTON: The state department had between 90 and 95 percent of all the ones that were work-related. They were already on the system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:10:05] COOPER: And the chairman Trey Gowdy is speaking, and let's listen in.

REP. TREY GOWDY (R), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI: I don't draw conclusions until the end, and there are more witnesses to talk to. So from my standpoint, we keep toing on until we are able to interview all the witnesses that we think have access to relevant information, importantly access the documents.

I did tell you in my opening count how many times you hear my colleagues to the left ask the executive branch to produce documents. I counted zero. So the six of us, seven of us would be much closer to writing that final report if we could get just a little bit of help in gaining access to the document. So with that and --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Congressman, what do you find most relevant piece of information?

GOWDY: You know, everybody is going to have their own perspective on that. I have a very different interpretation of the phrase "personal review" than the ARB did. I think personal review means exactly what it says personal review. We had a lot of Q&A this morning about specific security (INAUDIBLE) and specific requests and her responses was, I have people in process that is place for that. That's fine. That's a fair answer. But you also need to be prepared to answer why you have people in processes is in place for security, but people in processes that were not in process for diesel fuel, gasoline, fish, or the drivel of Sidney Blumenthal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Mr. Chairman, what are some of the most new things you learned today?

GOWDY: I think some of Jimmy Jordan's questioning - well, when you say new today? I mean we knew some of it already. We knew about the emails. In terms of her the testimony?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Yes.

GOWDY: I don't know if she testified that much differently today than she has in previous time she has testified.

COOPER: And Trey Gowdy making comments about what he heard tonight.

We are going to take a short break. When we come back, we are going to try and do the impossible and bring you the most important moments, the best moments or the worst moments depending on your perspective perhaps boiled down to just few memorable minutes.

Also ahead more from our panel, and the thoughts of a victim's sister, one of the men killed in Benghazi and she heard in today's testimony when our special 360 coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [23:14:00] COOPER: Well, we have been watching history unfold all day on Capitol Hill hour after hour of testimony, roughly nine hours in all by Hillary Clinton, the stakes going in could not have been higher. The political heat surrounding the hearings could not have been higher either. And in case you didn't have nine free hours today, here are some of the most important moments from this very big day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

We are going to be writing the final definitive accounting of what happened in Benghazi. We would like to do it with your help and the help of our Democrat colleagues, but make no mistake we are going to do it nonetheless.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI: And last week the chairman told the Republican colleagues to shut up and stop talking about the select committee. What I want to know is this, and this is a key question, why tell the Republicans to shut up when they are telling the truth?

CLINTON: Well, I'm here. Despite all of the previous investigations and all of the talk about partisan agendas, I'm here to honor those we lost and to do what I can to aid those who serve us still.

[23:15:01] REP. MIKE POMPEO (R), SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI: I get asked constantly, why has nobody been held accountable and not a single person lost a single paycheck connected to the fact that we had the first ambassador killed since 1979? How come no one has been held accountable to date?

CLINTON: The personnel rules and the laws that govern those decisions were followed very carefully.

POMPEO: Yes, ma'am. I am not asking what the ARB did, but I am asking what you did?

CLINTON: I followed the law, Congressman.

POMPEO: So you --

CLINTON: That is my responsible.

JORDAN: And Libya was supposed to be as Mr. Koskam pointed out, great success story for the Obama White House and the Clinton state department. And now you have an attack, and it is a terrors attack in Libya and it is just 56 days before the election. You can live with the protest about a video, that won't hurt you. But a terrorist attack will, so you can't be square with the American people?

CLINTON: I thought more about what happened than all of you put together. I have lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been racking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done.

GOWDY: Madam Secretary, he had unfettered access to you. And he used that access at least on one occasion to ask you to intervene on behalf of a business venture, do you recall that?

CLINTON: You know, Mr. Chairman, if you don't have any friends who say unkind things privately, I congratulate you. But from my perspective --

GOWDY: I'd like to think that I'd correct them.

CUMMINGS: I move that we -- we put into the record the entire transcript of Sidney Blumenthal, and if we are going to be release the emails, let's do the transcript. Let the world see it?

GOWDY: Why is it that do you only want Mr. Blumenthal's transcript released? Why don't you all the survivors?

CUMMINGS: I like to have all of it released.

GOWDY: The Survivors? Even their names? You want that? You want that released?

CUMMINGS: No. Let me tell you something. Right now --

GOWDY: The only one that you have asked for is Sidney Blumenthal, that and Ms. Mills.

CUMMINGS: That's not true,

GOWDY: And that is 2 of 54 and if you want some fact witnesses.

(CROSSTALK)

CUMMINGS: And put a vote on the Blumenthal. You said from the beginning, we want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Why don't we just put the entire transcript out there and let the world see it? What do you have to hide?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one recommended closing, but you had two ambassadors that made several, several request, and here is basically what happened to their requests, they were torn up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, even with the several breaks, it was a test of endurance with just about everybody. Let's bring in our CNN political commentators, Donna Brazile is a Democratic strategist, vice-chair of the DNC voter project, Amanda Carpenter, Ted Cruz's former communications director, our contributing editor at the "Conservative Review" and Paul Begala is Democratic strategist and co-chair of the pro-Hillary Clinton super PCA.

Amanda, let's start with you. Did anything new come out of today? What did you think of it?

AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR SEN. TED CRUZ: After I have seen the long hearing, I do think there is three big takeaways for Republicans. The first is that I don't think anyone has a clear idea what Hillary

Clinton's policy was in Libya and it was so important that we did have an ambassador there in the dangerous situation.

The second thing is that although Hillary Clinton does take responsibility for the security situation there, it is really unclear what she did or did not do when it comes to the security requests other than say that she didn't receive them. There is a mismatch of information there.

And lastly, there is still some questions about the changing narrative. There is two pieces of information that came to light in the committee today. The first that she sent an email to her daughter saying clearly within hours of the attack, it was an Al-Qaeda-like attack and also that she called the Libyan prime minister and says that this had nothing to do with the film. There is a mismatch between what she was saying in private and what she was saying in public.

So those are three things that I think are going to have long lasting impact as we go forward and get the final report eventually from these committee.

COOPER: Paul is, to Amanda's point, are those significant for you?

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, no. If we need to have a debate about foreign policy, that is not what this was. This was an attempt to just to harass Hillary to her politically. We went into this hearing this morning with a new CNN poll saying that 72 percent of Americans think that it is partisan. In fact, 75 percent of independents. Does anybody believe that a fair-minded independent set aside Democrats like me, Republicans like Amanda, that any fair-minded independent look at this and said, that is really a legitimate and fair inquiry. I don't think so. Not at all.

COOPER: Do you think Hillary Clinton comes out of this stronger?

BEGALA: Absolutely. At first, I thought it was just because the house majority leader Kevin McCarthy admit it that this was a political thing. And then this staff guy who said this. But no, this in fact -- let me speak to my friend Hillary because I can't speak to her in person, Hillary, go home. Have a nice vodka martini. Have a goodnight sleep. Here is the good news. You don't have to appear on Capitol Hill again, Hillary, until January 20th, 2017 when you are going to sworn in as president.

COOPER: Amanda, just to Paul's point before I go to Donna, because Donna is also a Democrat. Amanda, do you think Hillary Clinton comes out of this stronger in anyway?

[23:20:03] CARPENTER: Well, I'm not going -- she performed well under the conditions. This was a long hearing. I mean, Donald Trump should never complain about a three-hour debate ever again.

COOPER: And I was having that thought as well, because it was like what did they to blame of the three-hour debate. This was nine to 11 hours.

CARPENTER: And the implications of the 2016 elections which will be a referendum on the Obama-Clinton foreign policy. Hillary Clinton doubled down on the fact that she is willing to send diplomats into very dangerous places without any clear explanation of what we are trying to accomplish. I have a lot of questions about that policy, and that is something that will certainly play out for someone campaigning to be a commander in-chief as we go forward.

COOPER: Donna, how do you see what happened today?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, to the grieving families and their friends, I am sure that they are watching this, you know, charade today thinking, what about my children? What about my husband? What about my father? What about my spouse?

And let me just say this. For that reason I think Secretary Clinton showed up, but because she wants everyone to understand what happened. Her description of the events leading up to it that night and what happened afterwards I think will hold well in the coming days and months. And so that the families know that there was an attempt to try to get help. And I think that is important.

I thought personally, she was stoic, she was steely, she was stately, clearly more sophisticated than some of the people, you know, questioning her. But overall, I think she came to the committee to try to answer those questions to ensure the American people that we have in place now more protection, more assets for those who are serving the country. And to the extent that it was a political charade, look, the Republicans have a narrative, and we know that narrative is. We hear it every day. Paul and I have talked about it. And yes, we talk about it because we are Democrats and we care about our fellow citizens who are serving.

But that narrative did not fit today. And I think there need to basically do some transparency work on their own and release Sidney Blumenthal's emails. I want to read them. Hell, I read all of hers, I want to read his.

And you know, Anderson, at the end of the day, it has to be about those four Americans. Let's continue to do what is best for them and their families. And the politics, well, you know, what, Amanda, she can hold her own. What I saw today was a stately, steely, stoic sophisticated individual who is well prepared to be the next president of the United States after she wins the primary, because I am neutral.

COOPER: OK.

Paul, I mean, Sydney Blumenthal, very much unseen inspector in today's hearing. A lot of people maybe heard about him for the first time. Obviously, a longtime friend of the Clintons. I don't know if he is a friend of yours or not. David Axelrod tweeted about it saying quote "I ironic that career kibitzer and conspiratorialist Sidney Blumenthal should be elevated to epic heights in GP Benghazi conspiracy theory. Were you surprised how much the Republicans brought up her friendship with Blumenthal? BEGALA: Yes, he is a former colleague of mine and a friend of mine.

And it is astonishing to me that somehow they think that somehow Sidney Blumenthal, a former high ranking White House official who I served with and longtime journalist. He has written some terrific books. He asked me to plug his book. He has got a new book coming out about Abraham Lincoln, (INAUDIBLE).

It is amazing to me. And what they should do is what Donna suggest, release the transcript of the interviews. I can't recall a series of congressional hearings that have been conducted this secretively. Now, some of it has to be classify, I respect that and they should redacted and be careful. And do respect that because we talking about national security. But fundamentally, all this should have been in an open. Iran-contra rarely held private session, and they did the work in the light of day. And I think everybody cares about the transparency ought to call on the committee to release, and certainly Sidney Blumenthal is not a government official, release those and any other transcripts they can without endangering national secrets.

COOPER: I can't - Amanda, I mean, I still, at the end of the day of watching this, I still don't know where is, Sidney Blumenthal's emails just the annoying email sent by somebody in your circle like, you know, people who send around joke emails or in this case they were very serious, but were kind of unwelcomed, you know, or just tolerated emails or was he playing some sort of a role. My sense was that he didn't have any official role, what do you make of it?

CARPENTER: Well, apparently, Hillary Clinton did find them important enough for other people to review. And the point that the Republicans are trying to make is that Sidney Blumenthal, whatever kind of character he may be was able to get inside the Clinton's circle --

COOPER: Right. More than Chris Stevens.

CARPENTER: When other people who had legitimate security requests were put through a bureaucratic process and did not have access to her. That's a legitimate point. Did they spend too much point on it? I could concede that. But it is a legitimate point and they gets to the idea that Clinton relies on a close inner circle, loyalists people who only tall to her, and you know, other people just within the department she was not willing to listen to, and that is damaging.

[23:25:02] BRAZILE: We don't know that. We don't know. There are over 200 diplomats. We heard that today. And many of them had access. But the truth is I think Sidney Blumenthal, I don't know him as well as Paul, because I don't have a book, either, but she is somebody that she talks to. Look, she is capable of having friends. She is capable of hearing from the outside people. And I know, Anderson, I have to tell you this. I am quite annoyed, too. I like I send emails to people who don't really want my advice, but I give it to them anyway.

COOPER: And I will be happy to get an email from you any day, Donna Brazile.

BRAZILE: Well, Anderson, you know, I have already stated that you are my boo and I don't want to mess up anything else in your life.

BEGALA: Wait, Donna, I thought it was me.

COOPER: Go ahead, Amanda.

CARPENTER: It does get to the idea that she was accepting these kinds of email, and what I said before, the second is key take away is that she accept responsibility for the security situation, but at the same time, she doesn't seem to want to be in the charge in making those security decisions. So that is the mismatch. Either she was in- charge or she wasn't. She had direct role with Libya in making decisions to send the diplomats there and make them safe or not. But she can't have it both ways.

COOPER: OK. Amanda --

BRAZILE: We have to hear from General Petraeus, and Mr. Panetta. We need to hear from more individuals. It maybe the committee can finally get to the bottom of all of their transcripts and work, because we still have answers. But they don't want to talk to everybody, just wanted to get to Hillary, and that is what it looked like today.

CARPENTER: I think that they will interview David Petraeus at some point.

BRAZILE: Well, good.

COOPER: Amanda, thank you as well. Paul Begala as well.

Up next, and Donna mentioned this a moment ago, reaction from someone for whom these hearings are deeply personal, the sister of Glen Doherty, a CIA contractor killed in Benghazi. Her reaction to today's hearing when we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:29:32] COOPER: Before the politics of the surrounding of the Benghazi tragedy almost since day one, the fact is the killings and all that followed have been deeply personal. Four people lost their lives, four families in the larger state department and security committee is still feel their absence. Secretary Clinton made that clear in her opening statements.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: The terrorist attacks at our diplomatic compound and later at the CIA post in Benghazi Libya on September 11th, 2012, took the lives of four brave Americans. Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. I'm here to honor the service of those four men. The courage of the diplomatic security agency and the CIA officers who risk their lives that night. And the work their colleagues do every single day all over the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Kate Quigley is Glen Doherty's sister. She joins us with her impressions of the hearing.

Kate, I know you watched Secretary Clinton's testimony. What did you think? For you, did she put any lingering questions you and your family have to rest?

KATE QUIGLEY, GLEN DOHERTY'S SISTER: Overall, you know, I thought she did a fairly good job answering some of the questions. You know, as expected, a lot of the real answers that we're looking for were kind of brushed off or not answered in the detail that we would like but in general, it was what I expected it to be.

QUIGLEY: When the attack first happened, I mean, it was initially linked by the administration to protest happening elsewhere over an anti-Muslim movie, Secretary Clinton was pressed on what she knew when, and I want to play a little bit of that for the viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDAN: At 10:08 on the night of the attack you released this statement, some have sought to justify the behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet. Here is what you said. At 11:00 that night, approximately one hour after you told the American people it was a video, you said to your family two officers were killed today in Benghazi by an Al-Qaeda-like group. The next day within 24 hours, you had a conversations with the Egyptian prime minister, you told him this. We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack, not a protest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: You obviously met with Secretary Clinton a few days after the attack. What did she tell you then about your brother's death?

QUIGLEY: I did. I met her when we were at Andrews Air Force base. And, you know, she spoke to my family about how sad we should feel for the Libyan people because they are uneducated and breeds fear which breeds violence and leads to protest. And you know, I remember thinking at the time, how, you know, how selfish of me, I never really thought about the Libyan people, because I have been so consumed with my own grief and loss and concern, and you know, when I think back now to that day and what she knew, you know, it shows me a lot about her character that she would choose in that moment to basically perpetuate what she knew was untrue.

COOPER: It seems an odd thing to bring up in that moment which is a moment that is obviously a moment of extreme grief for you and your family. I mean, it seems like something that she did not necessarily need to go down that road.

QUIGLEY: Yes, it was very strange. And you know, I thought about it, and I never spoke about it for a long time. But, you know, eight days later was Glen's funeral and at funeral the priest mentioned in his eulogy how sad he was that religion involved in his death. This is eight days after the attack that story is still out there. And, you know, I would say that's a big difference, you know. You don't get a second eulogy. So that makes a big difference to me. COOPER: You obviously are very proud of your brother, Glen, loved him

deeply. What do you want people to know about him?

QUIGLEY: Glen mostly, you know, he would do anything for his friends. He kept in touch with people from all walks of life, which I'm in awe of and ultimately I believe that's what led him onto the roof early in the morning of September 12th. You know, his love for his brothers and, you know, he would just lay down his life for his friends and unfortunately, he did.

COOPER: And I know in the wake of his killing you have become an advocate for families like yours who lost a loved one working as a contractor for the United States. What are you hoping to change for contractors?

QUIGLEY: Contractors are required to purchase an insurance policy before they go overseas. And there is an out of date law in the books which holds an exemption for specific contractors so they are in essence buying a false sense of goods, and the CIA has agreed to retroactively change this policy, which is an amazing things and it will help so many families in order to fund the new policy, four committees within the Senate and the house need to approve it. Three of those committees have, and we are waiting for the Senate intelligence committee.

[23:35:13] COOPER: That is final one?

QUIGLEY: Yes, and I look forward to speaking to them. That is the final one, and you know, it is just the right thing to do.

COOPER: Well, Kate, we'll continue to follow that, as well. Thank you so much, Kate. Really appreciate it.

QUIGLEY: Thank you so much.

COOPER: Well, just ahead tonight, one of Secretary Clinton's toughest questioners you saw him a moment ago, Jim Jordan when our special 360 coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:39:28] COOPER: There is no surprise that some of the most contentious questioning in the Benghazi hearings today came from the seven Republicans on the house select committee. Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio used some of his lot of time to grill Hillary Clinton about whether the state department intentionally misled the public by suggesting early on the protest over that an anti-Islamic video played a role in the attack.

I want to go back to Dana Bash who with the congressman right now.

BASH: Thanks so much, Anderson.

And Congressman Jordan, thank you so much for joining me.

I just want to start with something that your chairman said right here just a few minutes ago, Trey Gowdy, the question was did you-all learn anything new and the answer was I don't know that she testified that much differently today than the previous times she testified. So --

[23:00:00] JORDAN: She gave a lot of the same answers. But I think the American people learned something new.

BASH: Which is what?

JORDAN: That she told Egyptian prime minister that it wasn't the film, that it wasn't a protest, that it was a planned attack. I mean, she told the Egyptian prime minister that one thing. She told the American people no, no, no, this is a video inspired protest. So one thing public, one thing private. She told her family it was a terrorist attack. She told the Egyptian prime minister it was an attack.

BASH: And tell me why this matters when you are trying to get to the bottom of what happened that night. Tell me -- explain why that matters so much.

JORDAN: It matters in a much more fundamental sense than that. The American people expect their government to give it to them square. They expect the truth from their government. We can handle the truth. I mean, so they expect government officials to give it to them straight and she obviously didn't do that. She gave it straight to people in private like her family. She gave it straight to the Egyptian prime minister and to the people of Libya, but not to the American people.

BASH: Now, you've been in this hearing all day so I'm not sure you've been able to get briefed on the buzz generated out of this, but even some Republicans are saying this actually ended up being political but not in the Republican's favor but in that it made her look good. Her look capable. Her look presidential.

JORDAN: Yes. I leave that to other people.

BASH: Does that concern you? You are Republican.

JORDAN: Well, what concerns me is getting to the truth. What concerns me is accomplishing the goal of the committee. And I don't think my questions were partisan. My questions were taking her statements and saying these are completely opposite. These contradict each other. So that was my question. I also asked her about this. I said, look, if you are the most transparent person in history as you claim, then why won't you allow a neutral third party like a retired federal judge to examine these 60,000-some emails that your legal team said that 30,000 are public, right, belong to the taxpayer and 30,000 are public the you are not going to get to see. One year later, federal judge and the FBI has the server for goodness sake. They may find something there, and let a federal judge say, does that belong to our committee as relevant to out committee getting to the truth about what happened last night.

BASH: So getting to the truth, what's next? What is next to the committee? Are you about to wrap it up or sometime soon? JORDAN: Well, we have several more people to interview.

BASH: Who is that? Who is that going to be?

JORDAN: Well, you have to talk to the chairman, but there is a plan to do that. We have already interviewed 50 people. We just got 5,000 Chris Stevens' emails today. So know that committee has seen his emails, we get 5,000 pages in the last week. We have to look at that, and so it would be nice, and it is frustrating that we have to keep saying this, but it is frustrating. It would be nice if the Democrats and the administration would help us instead of dragging their feet, take us and get us the information and help us to get the truth and write the report and give the American people some truth and closure to this and in particular the families of the four individuals who lost their lives.

BASH: Congressman Jordan, thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.

COOPER: All right, Dana, thanks.

I want to bring back our nonpartisan panel David Gergen, Gloria Borger, Carl Bernstein Jeffrey Toobin. Also joining us CNN foreign affairs correspondent Elise Labott.

Elise, you covered the Clinton state department for years, covered when the Benghazi tragedy occurred. What do you make of what you just heard from Congressman Jordan and what you heard today?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a lot, Anderson, about this video, obviously and the protest. And I want to go back to the testimony that secretary Clinton made the day after the Benghazi attacks. She said some have sought to justify this vicious behavior referring to the Benghazi attack that he condemns. As a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet. She does not say it was borne out of the protest. She just said says that some have sought -- it is a carefully worded statement. And she talk about throughout the hearing of the fog of war and the information coming many if, and she was sending a message as she said throughout the day to countries around the world particularly in the Middle East.

If you remember the coverage back to that day in addition to reeling from the attack on the Benghazi facility, the U.S. was also fending off violent protests in Cairo, in Yemen, in Tunisia, some of which damaged some of the embassies. So what the secretary was saying, if you are justifying your attacks as a result of this video, she is sending a message to people around the world and the countries that the U.S. need their help.

So there is a lot of focus on that video, a lot focused on the fact that Clinton said to her family, she sent an email to Chelsea Clinton I believe saying that it was a terrorist attack --

COOPER: Or she said it was an Al-Qaeda-like group.

LABOTT: And Al Qaeda-like group. Remember that there was a claim on Facebook by a member of Anwar al-Sharia which was an al-Qaeda linked group, who claims attack the very next day they retracted that attack, Anderson.

COOPER: Jeff, I mean, legally speaking, we haven't heard from you, is there anything new to this? Is there anything to this? Or in your opinion, it is just politics.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This is politics. And I am really glad Dana had the chance to talk to Representative Jordan, because I think he was clearly the worst and the most unprofessional, the most misleading, the most really demeaning to the Congress in the terms of his questioning.

You know, really actively misleading about the evidence that was present, and I thought, you know, the questioning at first, was actually about something important. It was about the policy in Libya. It was about whether the protection was adequate. But towards the end when Representative Jordan really went after Hillary Clinton, it turned into this really repulsive spectacle that I think will be (INAUDIBLE), very poorly for the Congress.

And I don't know if it is going to help Hillary Clinton or not, but the idea of congressional investigations which actually has a pretty noble history in the United States has been demeaned by the second half of the testimony today.

[23:45:51] COOPER: I want you all to stick around. We are going to hear more from you ahead. We have to take a short break. As we said Hillary Clinton, obviously, was not expecting an easy time today. This wasn't her first, you know, time in front of a committee like this. We will look closer on how she stood up to it next as you saw just her arriving home a moment ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:49:58] COOPER: Hillary Clinton back home tonight in Washington after one of the longest days of her political and public service life. Whatever you think of her answers, plenty of people were also focused on her demeanor, how she appeared even on her facial expressions, her composure. He is a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[23:50:11] CUMMINGS: So they set up the select committee with no rules --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead and read the note if you need to.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: I have to -- I have to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not done with the question, I am giving you the courtesy of reading your notes.

CLINTON: That is all right. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wittingly or unwittingly, meeting with al-Qaeda on

the ground of Benghazi, and Libya. On the ground in Benghazi Libya, just hours before the attack?

CLINTON: I know nothing of this, Congressman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was relying --

CLINTON: That is factually not right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it is absolutely --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She lied on Mr. Blumenthal for most of her in telling--.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take look at the email. You will see.

CLINTON: I'm sorry. What did you ask me?

The president deserves the lion's share of the credit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then why is the White House uptight that you are taking the credit?

CLINTON: Well, I was often asked that, and the president had a lot of other stuff going on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And joining us once again David Gergen, Gloria Borger, Jeffrey Toobin and Carl Bernstein.

Carl, do you believe that with some of the panels earlier that she comes out of this better off than she went into it?

BERNSTEIN: Absolutely. And she was a great thespian as well as we just had a look at there. Three weeks ago we were talking about Hillary Clinton, and the failure of the campaign and whether she was going to be able to finish almost. She is now in the cat bird seat. She has appeared presidential. We have a look at her as she would be as president, steely, competent, informed, and not giving an inch, and in all things, trying to rise tonight above the cultural wars.

I never thought that I would see it, but Benghazi is a centerpiece of the cultural wars. The Republicans were crazy to take it up that way, because it is a complex event. And we see why it is complex. She rose above. Showed the complexity and they kept trying to oversimplify and make it an article of faith that she had been a terrible person. The worst thing they could have done.

COOPER: David Gergen, I mean, it is a little bit like a Rorschach test. I mean, people can kind of see into this what they want to see into it, depending on which side of the aisle they are on and what they think of Hillary Clinton.

GERGEN: That is absolutely true, Anderson. And I think it is little early to coronate her as president. But I do think that the last two or three weeks, she has gone through a trial by fire, and she has come out of both the debate and today extremely well with the American public, because she has been composed. She has been command of her facts, and she kept her emotions under very, very cool control.

And so, you know, and as you are look looking at the Republican contest, especially the contrast with the Donald Trump who is now, you know, leading the Republican pack and Hillary Clinton is the alternative, I think she is benefiting from this. But too early to say, this election is not settled at all. There are a lot of bigger issues still to come.

COOPER: Gloria?

BORGER: Anderson, one of the reasons I think that Hillary Clinton look so good in addition to her good performance today is that the congressional committee looked so lousy. It was completely partisan, the Democrats supporting her gently at every opportunity, not really asking a lot of tough questions --

COOPER: Not really asking any tough questions.

BORGER: Right. Which a lot of Democrats have raised about the security issues, about Libya policy for example, and the Republicans just going at her in every which way without seeming to have a plan or a design to actually extract real information that would be useful to the public, trying to make up its mind.

So, if I look at the whole thing in totality as we watched all of the hours today, you know, on CNN, I'd have to say that if you went into it, and you didn't like Hillary Clinton and you were thinking, you weren't going to believe her, you'd probably feel the same way coming out. And you know, and those you know, those who like her probably think that she did a good job, which she did.

But the Republican intention was not to turn Hillary Clinton into Mother Teresa, right? But I think in the end, they ended up doing her a great service today just by the comparison of their partisanship.

COOPER: And Jeff, legally, just in terms of what is ahead to Hillary Clinton on this issue, I mean, there is still this FBI investigation, and that is probably the biggest concern for her now moving forward as opposed to what this committee says.

TOOBIN: I think at least in theory, that is the worst problem. I don't even understand what criminal exposure she has at au all. I mean, I really don't think the FBI has any grounds to investigate her. And it is worth point in pointing out they have never said that they are investigating her. They are sort of investigating the whole is security situation involving these emails.

So, you know, look, I don't think she has any legal problems. Politically, this is probably going to be a very close election. And there are a lot of Democrats and Republicans and as usual, the election will probably be a close one, but as a legal matter, I just don't see any of this going much of anywhere at all, especially after today which did seem to be a pretty convincing Clinton victory over her seven pursuers on the Republican side.

[23:55:26] COOPER: David, you agree with Jeff on that? That legally, she is, you know, not being placing that much from someone from the FBI or others?

GERGEN: I do. I usually just follow Jeff's opinions on this. And I do on this one. But I do think that look. I think there are other issues that may arise. You know, the Clintons have this unfortunate history just one there, you know, seem to be victorious, something else comes up and bites them. So -- but we will have to see how it all turns out. But I think that - I think she emerged today legally and politically much stronger position.

COOPER: All right. I want to thank everybody on the panel who joined us tonight.

There is a lot more ahead on this very big. We will be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:59:57] COOPER: It has been quite a day, the repercussions of it still playing out. Hillary Clinton's marathon testimony on Capitol Hill is over.

That does it for us. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.