UPDATED: Secretary Clinton Testifies on Benghazi Incident

On September 11, 2012 a group of armed Libyans stormed the United States Embassy.  Their violent attacks resulted in four deaths and the start of a huge investigation by Washington republicans into why there was not adequate security at the embassy. From here the narrative of the story becomes largely partisan. The right wing of the country claims that the Obama administration, in a stunning display of incompetence, knew and did not act as the events were unfolding. The left of the country would have you believe the Obama administration did everything they could and that the reason security was not as tight as it perhaps should have been is funding from Washington. The truth will probably lie somewhere in between. Today however Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified on what she knew about the Benghazi attack in Libya. The exchange between herself and Republicans started off nice enough but soon escalated to a heated exchange.

Here is the beginning of the hearings that displays a part  at the end where Clinton "goes off" on Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).

After the hearings Senator Johnson suggested that Clinton's angry outburst was just a dodge. Johnson said 

"I'm not sure she had rehearsed for that type of questioning." 

 "I think she just decided before she was going to describe emotionally the four dead Americans, the heroes, and use that as her trump card to get out of the questions. It was a good way of getting out of really having to respond to me." 

Johnson went on to criticize Clinton for having taken "full responsibility" for the attacks in Libya but then having dodged the question using "theatrics."

"She allowed politics to trump getting to the facts." Johnson said. 

Later on Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) mentioned the fact that as of today nobody but the filmmaker of the controversial anti-Islam film that was initially blamed for the outbreak had been arreseted. The filmmaker was arrested in California for allegedly violating his parole.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Towards the end of her testimony Secretary Clinton warned that there was a growing threat from Al Qaeda and its affiliates in North Africa. 

“The fact is they’re terrorists, they’re extremists, they have designs on overthrowing existing governments, even these new Islamist governments.”

Below are some further images of Secretary Clinton during her testimony.

Clinton's toughest critic, Senator John McCain, levied a harsh line of attack on Clinton demanding answers for the attacks and stating that "The people deserve to know."

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) bluntly told Secretary Clinton that he would have fired her over the events in Libya and how she handled them.

In a lengthy attack on the potential 2016 presidential foe Paul repeatedly hammered Clinton and the Obama administration.

"One of the things that disappointed me most about the original 9/11 was that no one was fired," Paul said, calling the 2012 attack the worst act of terrorism since 2001.

Later on in the questioning Paul aluded to the popular conservative conspiracy theory that the late ambassador to Libya was inolved in a CIA effort to ship guns to Turkey.

View the video here: http://on.aol.com/video/rand-paul-to-hillary-clinton--i-would-have-fired-you-517651092

Clinton did acknowledge that she ultimately takes repsonsibility for the attacks in Libya.



Amid the questioning Clinton teared up, an example of the type of "theatrics" Sen. Johnson referenced earlier.

Later on after the hearings in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer Rand Paul noted that Clinton had a "valid point" on Benghazi. 

Post hearing Fox News' "The Five" mocked Secretary Clinton for her answers.

Earlier in the hearing Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC) accused Secretary Clinton "You let the consulate become a death trap." 

THIS STORY IS ONGOING