03 clinton cnn
Tough Choices: Hillary's Town Hall
03:19 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

After nearly three decades in public eye, there's much still to be known about Hillary Clinton

Clinton takes questions Tuesday in a CNN Town Hall in Washington

After four years as secretary of state, there are many questions on foreign policy hot spots

Washington CNN  — 

Hillary Clinton did at CNN’s town hall meeting on Tuesday what most politicians do: She staked out a position on some issues, catered to her base in others and avoided some questions altogether.

There were comments during her hour-long interview with CNN International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour and a studio audience at the Newseum as well as Tumblr that are sure to make the base happy.

Those included how far Clinton went to attack pro-gun activists and her states-rights approach to marijuana, which was a departure from her earlier position.

Between the answers and dodges, though, Clinton sounded, acted and presented herself very much like a candidate, not solely as a former secretary of state.

She was careful, at times, about not going too far on an issue and when asked about forward looking policy questions, she regularly used the word “we.”

Clinton also entertained questions about 2016.

She said she’s “not going to be rushed to” decide on whether to run for president and that she was not moving any closer to making a decision.

Here are six key moments where citizen Clinton sounded like candidate Clinton.

1. Benghazi: Since leaving the State Department in 2013, the deadly Benghazi terror attack has been the most talked about question around Clinton.

Conservatives see it as her biggest weakness, while liberals say it shows how worried the right is about a Clinton presidency.

On Tuesday, Clinton said she’s “very pleased” that special forces captured Ahmed Abu Khatallah, a militia leader alleged to have been a mastermind of the armed assault on the U.S. diplomatic compound in eastern Libya in September 2012 that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Her comments lined up with much of what she has said previously. She defended the fact that Americans were in Benghazi in the first place but said not everything around what occurred is clear yet.