GRETA VAN SUSTEREN (HOST): Ed, what's the [Hillary Clinton] campaign saying?
ED HENRY: They're feeling good tonight. They feel like there's been barely a glove, you know, on the secretary, that she has been pushing back very strong. Let's be clear though, there were tough moments for her. I mean, the fact that, you know, this came up again and again that Ambassador Chris Stevens sent not just dozens, but really hundreds of security requests. Do more. And she basically said “it didn't reach my desk.” That might save her today in terms of saying, you know, “it wasn't my fault that more security wasn't sent there. It was lower level folks.” But at the end of the day, when you were the former secretary of state and trying to show leadership, run for president, that's something that's going to come up again. But in terms of the narrative on Benghazi, there was no major new development that, sort of, rocked her side of the story that changes this in some way.
And in fact, rather than just talking about the Clinton camp, I just got off the phone a few moments ago with a Republican operative working for one of the leading contenders. There's, what, 15 or 16 of them? This is somebody in the upper tier, OK? And this person said “for the second straight big event,” and this is a Republican, “Hillary Clinton looked presidential and was in command.” And this person went on to say, this Republican, that it was a total wipe out for the Republicans on the committee. Now, maybe he's exaggerating, but she did look presidential, she did look in command today, just like she did at that last debate. And so, what you have here is another big test for Hillary Clinton, and another big test that she appears to have passed. And so, you know, you've got the same week where Joe Biden doesn't get in. Jim Webb, who wasn't much of a threat but still was an alternative as a moderate Democrat, he gets out. The field is clearing for her.
