As Benghazi compound smoldered, Hillary Clinton couldn't remember the name of her dead ambassador to Libya
- Emails released Friday by the State Department show the then-secretary inquired about Chris Stevens' death by asking about 'Chris Smith'
- 'Cheryl [Mills] told me the Libyans confirmed his death,' Clinton wrote her closest aides. 'Should we announce tonight or wait until morning?'
- Stevens was the most senior of the four US casualties when al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militia laid waste to a diplomatic station in Benghazi
- A US foreign service information management officer named Sean Smith was one of the other three men who were killed
Among the nearly 900 pages of Hillary Clinton's emails the U.S. State Department released on Friday is one that indicates she may have been confused, exhausted or careless on the September 2012 night when four Americans died in a Benghazi, Libya terror attack.
As U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other personnel lay dead and America's diplomatic outpost there lay in smoldering ruins, Clinton asked her three closest aides for advice about how to announce the death of 'Chris Smith.'
That name – the wrong one – was the subject line of the email Clinton sent them as night turned to day in Libya and the full extent of the Islamist terror attack was becoming apparent.
'Cheryl told me the Libyans confirmed his death,' Clinton, then the secretary of state, wrote. 'Should we announce tonight or wait until morning?'
OBLIVIOUS? Clinton called the late US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens by the wrong name just hours after he perished in a fiery terror attack
'CHRIS SMITH': The email chain released Friday by the Department of State has set off new discussions about Hillary's job performance before, during and after the 2012 terror attacks
'GOOD SAMARITANS': The State Department had to wait for confirmation that Stevens was dead because LIbyan bystanders had taken his lifeless body to a hospital
Cheryl Mills, then Clinton's chief of staff, replied to her and others on the chain – deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan and agency spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
'We are awaiting formal confirmation from our team,' she wrote. 'We are drafting a statement while we wait.'
A total of eight emails in the chain crisscrossed the Internet. None of Clinton's deputies corrected her or clarified whose death they were discussing.
Among the other three American personnel to die in the attack was Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer.
But it was Stevens whose death required confirmation from Libyan authorities.
A few 'good Samaritans among the hordes of looters and bystanders,' as a State Department review later described them, took his lifeless body from the Benghazi compound and to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead from smoke inhalation.
Clinton, now a presidential candidate and the Democratic Party's front-runner, is facing new rounds of questions about her job performance before, during and after the attack.
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'HAPPY': Clinton said Friday in New Hampshire that she's pleased to see her State Department emails released to the public
AMBASSADOR: Stevens (left) was greeted warmly by Libyan National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil (right) after presenting his credentials on June 7, 2012, just three months before he perished
TORCHED: Islamists with Ansar al-Shariah, a regional al-Qaeda affiliate, destroyed the US compound in Benghazi on September 11, 2012
Her tightly controlled campaign schedule and movements, however, have given journalists precious few chances to ask those questions.
On Friday in New Hampshire, Clinton would only say she was happy the documents were being released.
She also offered to buy a campaign pool reporter an ice cream.
'It's on me if you want anything,' Clinton offered, but there were no takers.
The pool reporter wrote that she told Clinton 'she would like some questions answered or an interview in place of an ice cream.'
As reporters across the country pored over her emails looking for smoking guns, Clinton paid no mind.
'You have to have a little relaxing break,' she said.
THE 2016 FIELD: WHO'S IN AND WHO'S THINKING IT OVER
More than two dozen people from America's two major political parties are considered potential presidential candidates in the 2016 election.
Eight – including two women, an African-American and two Latinos – have formally entered the race. A long list of others are biding their time and assessing their chances.
REPUBLICANS IN THE RACE
Ben Carson Retired Physician
Age: 63
Religion: Seventh-day Adventist
Base: Evangelicals
Résumé: Famous pediatric neurosurgeon, youngest person to head a major Johns Hopkins Hospital division. Created a charity that awards scholarships to children of good character.
Education: B.A. Yale University. M.D. University of Michigan Medical School.
Family: Married to Candy Carson (1975), with three adult sons. The Carsons live in Maryland with Ben's elderly mother Sonya, who was a seminal influence on his life and development.
Claim to fame: Carson spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast in 2013, railing against political correctness and condemned Obamacare – with President Obama sitting just a few feet away.
Achilles heel: Carson is inflexibly conservative, opposing gay marriage and once saying gay attachments formed in prison provided evidence that sexual orientation is a choice.
Carly Fiorina Former CEO
Age: 60
Religion: Episcopalian
Base: Conservatives
Résumé: Former CEO of Hewett-Packard, former group president of Lucent Technologies, onetime US Senate candidate in California
Education: B.A. Stanford University. UCLA School of Law (did not finish). M.B.A. University of Maryland. M.Sci. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Family: Married to Frank Fiorina (1985), with two adult step-daughters. Divorced from Todd Bartlem (1977-1984).
Claim to fame: Fiorina was the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, something that could provide key ammunition against the Democratic Partys' drive to make Hillary Clinton the first female president.
Achilles heel: Fiorina's unceremonious firing by HP's board has led to questions about her management and leadership styles. And her only political experience has been a failed Senate bid in 2010 against Barbara Boxer.
Mike Huckabee Former Arkansas governor
Age: 59
Religion: Southern Baptist
Base: Evangelicals
Résumé: Former governor and lieutenant governor of Arkansas, former Fox News Channel host, ordained minister, author
Education: B.A. Ouachita Baptist University. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (did not finish).
Family: Married to Janet Huckabee (1974), with three adult children. Mrs. Huckabee is a survivor of spinal cancer.
Claim to fame: 'Huck' is a political veteran and has run for president before, winning the Iowa Caucuses in 2008 and finishing second for the GOP nomination behind John McCain. He's known as an affable Christian and built a huge following on his weekend television program.
Achilles heel: Huckabee may have a problem with female voters. He complained in 2014 about Obamacare's contraception coverage, saying Democrats want women to 'believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar.' And in 2015 he earned scorn for hawking herbal supplements in infomercials as a diabetes cure.
Ted Cruz Texas senator
Age: 44
Religion: Southern Baptist
Base: Tea partiers
Résumé:US senator, Texas solicitor general, US Supreme Court clerk, associate deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush
Education: B.A. Princeton University. J.D. Harvard Law School.
Family: Married to Heidi Nelson Cruz (2001), with two young daughters. His father is a preacher and he has two half-sisters.
Claim to fame: Cruz spoke on the Senate floor for 21 hours in September 2013 to protest the inclusion of funding for Obamacare in a federal budget bill.
Achilles heel: Cruz's father Rafael, a Texas preacher, is a tea party firebrand who has said gay marriage is a government conspiracy and called President Barack Obama a Marxist who should 'go back to Kenya.'
Rand Paul Kentucky senator
Age: 52
Religion: Presbyterian
Base: Libertarians
Résumé: US senator, board-certified ophthalmologist, congressional campaign manager for his father Ron Paul
Education: Baylor University (did not finish). M.D. Duke University School of Medicine.
Family: Married to Kelley Ashby (1990), with three sons. His father is a former Texas congressman who ran for president three times but never got close to grabbing the brass ring.
Claim to fame: Paul embraces positions that are at odds with most in the GOP, including anti-interventionist foreign policy, criminal drug sentencing reform for African-Americans and limits on government electronic surveillance.
Achilles heel: Paul's politics are aligned with those of his father, whom mainstream GOPers saw as kooky. Both Pauls have advocated for a brand of libertarianism that forces government to stop domestic surveillance programs and limits foreign interventions.
Marco Rubio Florida senator
Age: 43
Religion: Roman Catholic
Base: Conservatives
Résumé: US senator, speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, city commissioner of West Miami
Education: B.A. University of Florida. J.D. University of Miami School of Law.
Family: Married to Jeanette Dousdebes (1998), with two sons and two daughters. Jeanette is a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader who posed for the squad’s first swimsuit calendar.
Claim to fame: Rubio's personal story as the son of Cuban emigres is a powerful narrative, and helped him win his Senate seat in 2010 against a well-funded governor whom he initially trailed by 20 points.
Achilles heel: Rubio was part of a bipartisan 'gang of eight' senators who crafted an Obama-approved immigration reform bill in 2013 which never became law – a move that angered conservative Republicans. And he was criticized in 2011 for publicly telling a version of his parents' flight from Cuba that turned out to appear embellished.
DEMOCRATS IN THE RACE
Hillary Clinton Former sec. of state
Age: 67
Religion: United Methodist
Base: Liberals
Résumé: Secretary of state, US senator, US first lady, Arkansas first lady, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville law faculty
Education: B.A. Wellesley College. J.D. Yale Law School.
Family: Clinton's husband Bill was the 42nd President of the United States. Their daughter Chelsea is marreid to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, whose mother was a one-term Pennsylvania congresswoman in the 1990s.
Claim to fame: Clinton was the first US first lady with a postgraduate degree and presaged Obamacare with a failed attempt at health care reform in the 1990s.
Achilles heel: A long series of financial and ethical scandals has dogged Clinton, including recent allegations that her husband and their family foundation benefited financially from decisions she made as secretary of state. And her performance surrounding the 2012 terror attack on a State Department facility in Benghazi, Libya, has been catnip for conservative Republicans.
Bernie Sanders* Vermont senator
Age: 73
Religion: Judaism
Base: Far-left progressives
Résumé: US senator, US congressman, mayor of Burlington, Vermont
Education: B.A. University of Chicago.
Family: Sanders is married to Jane O’Meara Sanders (1988), a former president of Burlington College. They have one child and three more from Mrs. Sanders' previous marriage. His brother Larry is a Green Party politician in the UK and formerly served on the Oxfordshire County Council.
Claim to fame: Sanders is an unusually blunt, and unapologetic pol, happily promoting progressivism without hedging. He is also the longest-serving 'independent' member of Congress – neither Democrat nor Republican.
Achilles heel: Sanders describes himself as a 'democratic socialist.' At a time of huge GOP electoral gains, his far-left ideas don't poll well. He favors open borders, single-payer universal health insurance, and greater government control over media ownership.
* Sanders will run as a Democrat but has no party affiliation in the Senate.
REPUBLICANS IN THE HUNT
Jeb Bush, former Florida governor
Bush has a father and a brother who occupied the Oval Office, and the capacity to raise massive amounts of campaign cash. He has alienated conservatives, though, by embracing immigration reform and 'Common Core' education standards.
Chris Christie, New Jersey governor
Pugnacious and unapologetic, Christie would bring an ego-driven brashness to the race – although his abrasive style and echos of his 'Bridgegate' scandal might ultimately sink him.
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina senator
Graham was a non-factor until a March summit in Iowa where he stole the show and put himself on the map. Arizona Sen. John McCain has praised him as the best person to help right America's foreign-relations ship
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor
Jindal's main claim to fame is his strident opposition to federal-level 'Common Core' education standards, which included a federal lawsuit that a judge dismissed in late March.
John Kasich, Ohio governor
Kasich is a popular governor in the battleground Buckeye State, but has little name-recognition elsewhere. He has accommodated liberals on some issues and could be seen as a more palatable version of Jeb Bush for Republicans who are anxious about electing a family dynasty.
DEMOCRATS IN THE HUNT
Joe Biden, U.S. vice president
Biden would be a natural candidate as the White House's sitting second-banana, but his reputation as a one-man gaffe factory will keep Democrats from taking him seriously.
Jerry Brown, California governor
Brown has been a presidential candidate three times and earned the nickname 'Moonbeam' for his liberal policy ideas. Today he's seen as a centrist but is likely leaning against another run.
Lincoln Chafee, former Rhode Island gov.
Chafee is a Republican-turned-Democrat who has launched a presidential exploratory committee and has distinguished himself from most in his party by attacking Hillary Clinton.
Martin O'Malley, former Maryland governor
O'Malley is a guitar-playing everyman who had limited success as his state's chief executive, showing political weakness by failing to secure a victory for his hand-picked successor.
George Pataki, former New York governor
Pataki is a long shot with almost zero name-recognition outside his home state, but he pared down the size of the state government and cut taxes during 12 years in office. He toyed with a run in 2012 but ultimately decided against it.
Rick Perry, former Texas governor
Perry was a top-tier candidate in 2012 until his 'Oops!' moment in a debate, when he couldn't remember one of his own policy positions. He now also faces a criminal indictment in Texas over tenuous claims that he abused his power.
Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania sen.
Santorum is a perennial White House hopeful who won the GOP Iowa Caucuses in 2012 on the strength of ceaseless retail campaigning. He's best known as a religious-right crusader.
Scott Walker, Wisconsin governor
Walker built his national fame on the twin planks of turning his state's budget shortfalls into surpluses and beating back a labor union-led drive to force him out of office. Both results have broad appeal in the GOP.
Donald Trump, real estate tycoon
Trump, the host of 'Celebrity Apprentice,' could self-fund an entire campaign without spending a life-changing portion of his net worth. He has loudly criticized President Obama and claims he can negotiate with foreign governments better than anyone else.
Mark Warner, Virginia senator
Warner is a former Virginia governor who won a tough Senate race in a battleground state. He's also known as a tough budget negotiator.
Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts senator
Warren is a populist liberal who could give Hillary Clinton headaches by challenging her from the left, but she has said she has no plans to run and is happy in the U.S. Senate.
Jim Webb, former Virginia senator
Webb is a centrist Democrat and a Reagan-appointed former Navy Secretary who's hawkish on defense policy. He has launched a presidential exploratory committee.
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