Rand Paul backtracks on Clinton criticism: Iraq war actually worst tragedy since 9/11

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) toned down his criticism of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday afternoon, admitting on CNN that the Iraq war was a greater tragedy than the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

At a hearing on the attack in Benghazi earlier that day, Paul said Clinton should "accept the culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11." He added that Clinton should be fired from her position for failing to protect the four Americans who were killed during the attack.

But CNN's Wolf Blitzer pointed out that the intelligence failures and casualties involving the invasion of Iraq seemed like a greater blunder.

"Yeah, I agree with you," Paul said. "There is no comparison to a beginning of a war in Iraq as well as the war in Afghanistan. The tragedy of those wars is of a different scale, and I guess we are talking more about a diplomatic mission than we are talking about a beginning of the war."

But he insisted Clinton was still culpable for ignoring intelligence reports.

The Kentucky senator said the Department of Defense should have provided military protection to diplomats in Libya, as well as diplomats in other war zones.

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below: