U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks at the Clay County Regional Event Center Ballroom in Spencer, Iowa, Jan. 6, 2016.
Photo by Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters

Cruz suggests voters give Clinton ‘spanking’

CHARLES CITY, Iowa – Ted Cruz suggested on Friday that Hillary Clinton should be given a “spanking” by voters to hold her accountable for the Benghazi attack in 2011 when she served as secretary of state.

Cruz compared it to how he punishes one of his daughters for lying. 

“In my house, if my daughter, Catherine, the 5-year-old, says something that she knows to be false, she gets a spanking,” Cruz told the attendees at a crowded coffee shop here. 

He continued, “Well, in America, the voters have a way of administering a spanking.”

A supporter in the crowd prompted Cruz’s response after asking how – as president – he would hold individuals accountable for the attack that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. 

“There will be accountability for Benghazi,” Cruz continued. “We will answer the questions of who did what and why, and anyone that did wrong will be held accountable.”

There have already been seven congressional probes into events and decisions around the Benghazi attack. Cruz often uses Clinton’s role as secretary of state during the Benghazi attack as a rallying cry against the Democratic front-runner.

Just before Christmas, a man at a Cruz rally in Daphne, Alabama, interjected when the Texas senator rhetorically asked the crowd what he would do on his first day in the White House.

“Put Hillary in jail!” the man yelled.

Cruz responded to a raucous response from the crowd: “She may already be.”

Cruz is finishing a six-day, 28-stop bus tour through Iowa with just over three weeks until the Iowa caucus.

Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz

Cruz suggests voters give Clinton 'spanking'