Congressional investigations, by definition, are about finding facts. But some facts were twisted Thursday in a showdown between Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Republican questioners over how history — and voters — will remember the deadly 2012 attack on a diplomatic compound and CIA quarters in Benghazi, Libya.
A look at some of the claims in a House hearing where lawmakers quizzed Clinton, secretary of state during the Benghazi episode and now a 2016 Democratic presidential candidate:
REP. TREY GOWDY: The chairman of the special Benghazi committee defended his lengthy probe by arguing that the seven previous congressional investigations “were narrow in scope and either incapable or unwilling to access the facts and evidence necessary to answer all relevant questions.”
THE FACTS: What Gowdy didn’t mention: Five of those seven investigations were led and controlled by his fellow House Republicans, who were no pushovers. The other two congressional investigations, led by Senate Democrats, produced bipartisan reports.
While each panel investigated matters under its particular jurisdiction, the mandate was still broad and underlying facts behind the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were explored repeatedly. That’s not to say information that emerged after these investigations has been comprehensively explored.
Gowdy noted his panel demanded additional documents and was the first to get Clinton’s email — kept on her personal server — and the emails of Ambassador Chris Stevens, one of the four Americans killed in the attack.
___
CLINTON: In her opening statement, she painted her critics as arguing that it’s never reasonable to plant diplomats on dangerous ground: “They can’t do their jobs from bunkers.”
THE FACTS: Republican lawmakers aren’t arguing that diplomats should never venture into risky conditions to represent the United States. They cite investigations after the Benghazi attacks that condemned the decision to keep that post open with poor security despite a growing number of assaults on Western interests in the area.
The accountability board appointed by Clinton as secretary of state said the security in Benghazi was “grossly inadequate to deal with the attack.” A bipartisan Senate committee report called keeping the Benghazi mission open under those circumstances “a grievous mistake.”
The State Department pulled out of Benghazi immediately after the attack and left Libya altogether in 2014. The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli remains shuttered, the country still considered too unstable and dangerous for a return.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
“Five of those seven investigations were led and controlled by his fellow House Republicans, who were no pushovers. The other two congressional investigations, led by Senate Democrats, produced bipartisan reports.”
in other words, politics as usual.