Updated

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lied about what she knew about the Benghazi attack and American voters will deliver a "spanking," just like he does to his 5-year-old daughter when she lies.

Cruz made the comments Friday in response to a question from an audience member at a campaign stop in Iowa.

Cruz says Clinton knew the 2012 attack in Benghazi that left an American ambassador dead was a terrorist attack, but she said publicly that it wasn't terrorism.

Cruz says that if his 5-year-old daughter "says something that she knows to be false, she gets a spanking."

He says that in the case of Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, "the voters have a way of administering a spanking."