Clinton: Embassy's security my responsibility

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last night she accepts responsibility for what happened in last month's attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the American ambassador.

Clinton said in an interview with CNN that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden aren't involved in diplomatic security decisions and shouldn't be blamed for the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

"I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha," Clinton, who is traveling in Lima, Peru, said on the CNN program "Out Front."

The Libya attack has turned into an issue in the presidential race, with GOP nominee Mitt Romney and fellow Republicans saying the Obama administration failed to secure the facility before the attack and painted a false picture of it afterward.

During the vice-presidential debate Thursday, Biden defended the administration's handling of the attack, saying the White House wasn't aware of any requests for added security. A day later, Romney chastised Biden, citing congressional testimony from State Department officials who said the post had requested additional protection.

"He's doubling down on denial, and we need to understand exactly what happened, as opposed to just having people brush this aside," Romney said.

Clinton, in her CNN interview, tried to deflect criticism that administration officials had stuck with a mistaken depiction of the attack as a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Islamic video that was hijacked by extremists. After such an incident, there is always "confusion" and the information has since changed, she told CNN.