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NEW YORK -- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called the kidnapping of 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria "abominable" and said the government of Nigeria must accept aid in the effort to bring them home.

"The seizure of these young women by this radical extremist group, Boko Haram, is abominable," Clinton said while speaking Wednesday at Philanthropy New York's 35th Annual Meeting at the Ford Foundation. "It's criminal, it's an act of terrorism and it really merits the fullest response possible - first and foremost from the government of Nigeria."

Clinton said the Nigerian government has been "somewhat derelict" in protecting its citizens.

"The Nigerian government must accept help, particularly intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance help," she added. "Their troops have to be the ones who do what is necessary but they can do a better job if they accept the offers that are being made."

Clinton has previously weighed in on the issue on social media. On Sunday, she tweeted "Access to education is a basic right & an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls. We must stand up to terrorism. #BringBackOurGirls"

A massive social media campaign via the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls has taken off globally in recent days and protests have been held all across the country.

The United States government announced Tuesday they are sending a team to Nigeria to help with finding the missing girls.

"We're going to do everything we can to provide assistance to them," President Barack Obama said Tuesday during an interview with NBC News, noting it is a terrible situation.

The Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

Clinton was also asked about House Republicans efforts to form a committee to investigate the 2012 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi that occurred while she headed the State Department.

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Hillary Clinton: Kidnappings in Nigeria Are 'Abominable'

Former PA Chairman Samson Pleads Fifth
David Samson says he will not answer questions of the special committee investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures, asserting his Fifth Amendment rights. For more New Jersey news,...

By: NJTV News

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Former PA Chairman Samson Pleads Fifth - Video

NATIONAL

November 7, 2003 | John J. Goldman, Times Staff Writer

The captain of the Staten Island ferry that crashed into a pier last month, killing 10 people, finally met with investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday, but would give only his name and age. NTSB head Ellen G. Engleman said that Michael Gansas exercised his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions about the Oct. 15 accident. "We hope we will be able to talk to Capt. Gansas in the future," Engleman said in a statement.

BUSINESS

March 23, 2002 | DAVID STREITFELD, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Nancy Temple, a lawyer for accounting firm Andersen being quizzed about her role in the shredding of Enron Corp. documents, cited her 5th Amendment right to keep silent 138 times Friday. Temple was deposed by lawyers who had filed a class-action suit against Andersen, which approved Enron's financial statements. In an unusual move, a federal judge in Houston permitted Temple and eight other Andersen employees to be questioned much earlier than such a case would normally allow.

NEWS

February 26, 2002

People who play the market are now at each other's throats. The Bulls & Tigers of Forest Hills, a ladies investment club of 10, meets every month to play the stock market. This month the meeting was held at Jane Peters' house. The club had made $20,000 in the year 2000, and while things went down in 2001, they could still barely hold their heads above water. When the going was good, they called themselves the Sunshine Ladies because they couldn't lose as far as their investments were concerned.

BUSINESS

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Articles about Fifth Amendment - Los Angeles Times

Lois Lerner, former director of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division at the Internal Revenue Service, exercises her Fifth Amendment Right against self incrimination during a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill on March 5. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

WASHINGTON - The Republican-led House voted Wednesday to hold former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions related to the agency's undue scrutiny of certain tax-exempt groups.

The vote to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress was 231-187, with all Republicans voting in favor and all but a few Democrats voting against.

It's now up to a local U.S. attorney to consider criminal charges against Lerner. The Justice Department, however, has ignored past contempt charges against executive branch officials, including contempt charges against Attorney General Eric Holder.

While the vote may have no practical impact, it does up the ante in the political bout between Democrats and Republicans over the IRS scandal.

Republicans maintain they are determined to get to the bottom of the scandal and find out why IRS officials, starting in 2010, unfairly targeted groups for their political activity.

"All we're doing as Article One is saying an employee of Article Two, the executive branch, didn't properly assert her rights," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., explained to his congressional colleagues Tuesday night in a meeting of the House Rules Committee. "We want Article Three, the federal court, to decide whether or not... we should be entitled to answers to some of our questions. ... Nothing could be less partisan than, in fact, to let the federal court decide."

In addition to holding Lerner in contempt, the House also voted 250-168 to approve a resolution calling on Holder to appoint a special counsel to investigate the IRS targeting.

Democrats have dismissed the GOP's aggressive pursuit of this issue as a partisan witch-hunt. They've noted that multiple investigations into the IRS have already been launched, including an ongoing Justice Department investigation. Democrats have also stressed that the IRS inappropriately targeted both conservative and liberal groups, while pointing to evidence showing the misconduct wasn't politically motivated.

On top of all that, Democrats assert there is no basis for the contempt charge.

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House votes to hold former IRS official in contempt

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Acting on a conservative battle cry and potentially triggering a court battle with the Obama administration, the Republican-led House voted Wednesday to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about her agency's targeting of conservative and other groups.

The 231-187 vote fell almost entirely along party lines, a decision that cut across three sharp divides: balance of power issues between the branches of government, political questions over the IRS scandal, and a Constitutional debate over Lerner's individual Fifth Amendment rights.

Lerner is in the middle of that trio. Until she retired last year, she ran the IRS division in charge of tax exempt status. An inspector general's report concluded her staff had inappropriately targeted Tea Party and other groups for extra scrutiny.

The term "progressive" was also flagged but the inspector general report indicated that conservative terms drew more attention from the IRS.

The Fifth Amendment question

For nearly a year, Lerner has refused House requests to testify on the matter, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Republicans insist that doesn't apply here, that she waived the right by first asserting her innocence when she appeared before the House Oversight Committee last May.

"Mrs. Lerner made 17 separate factual assertions before invoking her right to remain silent," proclaimed Rep. Richard Nugent, Republican of Florida, as he opened up Wednesday's debate. "You can't make selective assertions and still invoke your Fifth Amendment right."

Lerner's attorney, William Taylor, has dismissed that argument repeatedly and sent a statement rejecting it again Wednesday.

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House holds Lois Lerner in contempt