Ted Cruz Suggests "Spanking" for Clinton Role in Benghazi

CHARLES CITY, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Friday suggested Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, should get a "spanking" for her response to the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks.

Responding to an audience member, Cruz said there are still unanswered questions about what the former secretary of state knew about the attacks, which killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. 

“Was Secretary Clinton awake or asleep when four Americans were being murdered? We don’t know to this day," Cruz said before bringing up an email Clinton wrote to her daughter on the same day as the attacks. "We do know that Hillary told her daughter Chelsea, ‘Well, gosh, I knew it was a terrorist attack when we were out telling the American people it wasn’t.'"

"You know, I’ll tell you, in my house, if my daughter Catherine, the five-year-old, says something she knows to be false, she gets a spanking," Cruz added. "Well, in America the voters have a way of administering a spanking, and I can tell you this: As president ... there will be accountability for Benghazi." 

Clinton has taken responsibility for security lapses at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, though Republicans continue to question whether she is being forthcoming about how the attacks transpired. 

Cruz made the comment during a town hall in Charles City, one of six Iowa stops he was scheduled to make Friday.