Hillary Clinton claimed Wednesday that she has unique experience to be commander-in-chief — but quickly found herself playing defense under aggressive questioning from host Matt Lauer.

Twice in the first five minutes of the Commander-in-Chief Forum in New York City, Clinton acknowledged critical errors in judgment — over her email practices as secretary of state and her vote in favor of the Iraq war. On a pair other controversial decisions — the Iran nuclear deal and the use of military force to topple Muammar Gaddafi in Libya — she doubled down.

“On the nuclear issue, no. I think we have enough insight into what [Iran is] doing to be able to say we have to distrust but verify.”

Clinton bragged about putting together a coalition of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and the Arab League to fight in Libya. She said inaction in the North African country would have resulted in a civil war as bad or worse than the one ravaging Syria.

“We were able to save lives. We did not lose a single American in that action,” she said, without mentioning the four Americans who died later in a terrorist attack at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi. “And I think taking that action was the right decision.”

Clinton also insisted that the deal with Iran, finalized after she left office, “put a lid on their nuclear weapons program.” Lauer asked if she had concerns that Iran could cheat its way to nuclear weapons.

“On the nuclear issue, no,” she said. “I think we have enough insight into what they’re doing to be able to say we have to distrust but verify.”

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Trump has been highly critical of Clinton on both issues. He said Iran will take over Iraq and grow in power and influence in the region.

Clinton argued that she has judgment and temperament, notwithstanding her decision to bypass the government system with a private email server.

“As I have said repeatedly, it was a mistake to have a personal account,” she said. “I certainly would not do it again. I make no excuses for it.”

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But Clinton said she was careful with classified information, telling the audience she “did exactly what I should have done” when communicating while she traveled abroad.

“Classified material has a header which says ‘top secret,’ ‘secret’, ‘confidential,'”she said. “I will repeat this, and this is verified in the report by the Department of Justice: None of the emails sent or received by me had such a header.”

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FBI Director James Comey has publicly stated that agents found some Clinton emails that had classified and confidential markings, however. He called Clinton’s handling of that material “extremely careless.”

Clinton acknowledged discussing drone strikes on her private email system, as detailed in FBI investigative files. But she argued that she did not discuss classified aspects of the program on a non-secure system. Clinton even suggested that her private email server might have been as secure as the government’s system. Responding to a question about Comey’s contention that foreign agents may have hacked into her system, she noted that there is no proof that actually occurred.

“Anything is possible,” she said. “But what is factual is the State Department system was hacked. Most of the government systems are way behind the curve.”

Clinton also tired to blur the differences between her record on Iraq and Libya and Trump’s views. She said Trump had the same position in favor of going to war in Iraq at the time and of toppling Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Trump denied that when it was his turn on stage.

Trump, for his part, said the classified briefings he has received as the GOP nominee for president have not changed his mind about the challenges in the Middle East or the solutions.

“What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts … said to do. And I was very, very surprised,” he said. “In almost every instance — and I could tell, I’m pretty good with the body language — I could tell they were not happy our leaders did not follow what they were recommending.”

Pressed by Lauer about a previous statement that he knows more than the generals, Trump said there would be new generals in charge if he wins in November. He said famed World War II Gen. George Patton would be rolling in his grave.

“Under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble,” he said. “They have been reduced to a point where it is embarrassing to our country.”

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Trump reiterated his opposition to the Iraq war, adding, “Perhaps almost bad was the way Barack Obama got out.”

He said Obama withdrew in a way that destabilized the region and strengthened Iran and Islamic State.

“If we would have taken the oil, you wouldn’t have had ISIS,” he said.

Trump also repeated his assertion — derided by critics — that it would be foolish to telegraph his strategy for defeating ISIS.

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“If I win, I don’t want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is,” he said.

Trump addressed concerns that compliments he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have traded indicate that he would be soft on Russian aggression.

“It’s not going to get him anywhere,” Trump said. “I’m a negotiator. We’re gonna take back our country … The fact that he calls me brilliant is going to have zero impact.”

Trump said he expects to have a strong relationship with many foreign leaders and vowed to work with Russia on issues where the two countries have shared interests.

“Russia wants to defeat ISIS as badly as we do,” he said. “If we had a relationship with Russia, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could work on it together and knock the hell out of ISIS?”