Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he would have fired her if he had been president because she did not read the cables from Ambassador Chris Stevens, a failure on her part that he said led to the deaths of Stevens and three other Americans.

“Had I been president at the time and I found that you did not read the cables from Benghazi, you did not read the cables from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post,” Paul told Clinton during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “Not to know of the requests for security, really, I think cost these people their lives. Their lives could have been saved.”

Paul acknowledged that she doesn’t have to read everything, but said that she should have been “more available” to the Ambassador to Libya given the danger of that post. He also repeatedly told Clinton that he regarded her departure from the State Department, at this point, as effectively an acceptance of culpability for the Benghazi attack.

Clinton pointed out that the people who reviewed the security requests and denied them  have “been placed on administrative leave while we step through the personnel process.” She reminded Paul that under current rules “unsatisfactory leadership is not grounds for finding a breach of duty” — a policy she would like changed.