Cheney: Benghazi could keep Clinton from nomination in 2016

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that the Benghazi attacks could contribute to Hillary Clinton failing to attain the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

“I don’t think it’s a slam dunk for her by any means,” Cheney said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show. “I’m not even sure that it’s guaranteed that she’ll get the Democratic nomination. I think there’s a lot to answer for, Benghazi, and many other points that I think will be arguments against her.” 

{mosads}So far, it has been predominantly Republicans, not Democrats, focusing on Clinton’s role as secretary of State during the attacks.

Cheney went on to criticize Clinton’s performance on her book tour.

“I think her performance in the last few months hasn’t been all that sterling,” he said. “The book tour got her in a fair amount of trouble. She hasn’t been as smooth an item as one might expect. I think there are a lot of wannabes over on the Democratic side who are holding back because she’s still sort of occupying the space as the expected, preferred option, but I’m not at all sure that’ll be true two years from now.”

Cheney also linked her to President Obama’s foreign policy — which he views as a failure — despite a widely publicized interview in The Atlantic over the weekend where Clinton appeared to break from Obama in a more hawkish direction on some issues.

The Weekly Standard, which often supports the Bush-Cheney foreign policy, praised Clinton’s comments.

But Cheney criticized Clinton on foreign policy.

“I think she’ll have a lot of things she’ll have to answer for, a lot of baggage,” he said. “She’s got to explain why serving as Barack Obama’s secretary of State she shouldn’t be held accountable for being the one who implemented those policies, such as they are.”