Hillary Clinton says it’s “time to move on” after a congressional report on the deadly 2012 Benghazi attacks accused the Obama administration of lethal mistakes, but produced no “smoking gun” pointing to wrongdoing by the former secretary of state.
Not likely, especially in an election year with Clinton’s presidential rival — Donald Trump — lashing out.
An 800-page report by a special House committee makes no direct accusations of wrongdoing by Clinton, who was secretary of state during the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Still, Republicans point to Benghazi as a major failure by the administration and by Clinton during her tenure leading the State Department. The issue is likely to shadow Clinton as she continues her bid for president.
“Four Americans died, yet no one has been fired. No one even missed a paycheck,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Americans – including all our men and women serving overseas – deserve better.”
Clinton, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, said the report by Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee took more than two years and $7 million but “found nothing to contradict” the findings of earlier investigations.
“I’ll leave it to others to characterize this report but I think it’s pretty clear it’s time to move on,” Clinton said a campaign stop in Denver Tuesday.
Republicans were not ready to let the issue go, especially with an election that will decide who occupies the White House and which party will control the House and Senate. The Benghazi panel has scheduled a July 8 meeting to formally adopt the report — 10 days before the Republican National Convention begins in Cleveland.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican facing a tough re-election race, said the administration “ignored a deteriorating security situation” in Benghazi, “and the State Department disregarded repeated requests for increased security.”
Trump was uncharacteristically quiet on the topic Tuesday, but he has repeatedly blamed Clinton for the deaths in Benghazi.
Even after issuing the report the committee’s work is not over. On Wednesday the panel will interview a witness who posted on Facebook that he was a crew chief based in Europe on the night of the attacks. A committee spokesman said the interview would be posted on the panel’s website and any information he provides can be added to the report.
Democrats called the interview ridiculous.
The Libya attacks have been political fodder from the start, given their timing in the weeks before President Barack Obama’s re-election, and that has not abated despite seven previous congressional investigations. There has been finger-pointing on both sides over security at the diplomatic outpost and whether Clinton and the White House initially tried to portray the assault as a protest over an offensive, anti-Muslim video, instead of a calculated terrorist attack.
The prolonged investigation into the attacks has also been marked by partisan sniping. Republicans accuse the administration of stonewalling important documents and witnesses, while Democrats say the panel’s primary goal is to undermine Clinton’s presidential bid.
Republican insistence that the investigation was not politically motivated was undermined last year when House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., suggested that the committee could take credit for Clinton’s then-slumping poll numbers. His statements helped dash McCarthy’s chances of becoming House Speaker.
The committee interviewed more than 100 witnesses and reviewed some 75,000 pages of documents, but an almost accidental discovery by the panel last year has shadowed Clinton’s candidacy. The committee disclosed that she had used a private email server to conduct government business while serving as secretary of state, a practice that has drawn widespread scrutiny, including an FBI investigation.
Already bitterly partisan, Tuesday’s release of the report exposed divisions within Republican ranks.
Reps. Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Jim Jordan of Ohio issued a separate report slamming Clinton and the Obama administration, with Pompeo telling reporters that the former first lady and senator was “morally reprehensible.” Clinton’s public comments casting the attack as a possible protest over the anti-Muslim video differed sharply from her private assessments to family members and diplomats, Jordan and Pompeo said.
The panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., deflected questions, saying the report “is not about one person.”
The GOP report severely criticizes the military, CIA and administration officials for their response as the attacks unfolded, and their subsequent explanations to the American people.
Hours after the attacks began, “Not a single wheel of a single U.S. military asset had even turned toward Libya,” Gowdy complained. U.S. military leaders told the committee they thought an evacuation was imminent, slowing any response.
(AP)
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15 Responses
SMOKING GUN: The statements by Clinton saying the attack was the result of an internet video by a conservative Middle Eastern Christian that criticized Islam, combined with proof she knew all along the attack was planned by Muslim terrorists. She knew the truth all along, and she lied in the hope people would ignore the administration’s incompetence.
The ones that should be fired are the tea party republicans in congress who refuse to give the department of state the funding that it needs to properly staff and secure diplomatic outposts.
Akuperma – There is no proof that Hillary “knew all along”. There was an attack on an embassy in Cairo a day earlier over the video and intelligence mistakenly assumed that both motives were the same. Move on.
Now that another Clinton associate “died” just days before testifying, she feels more sure about herself that the truth will never be known, hence her statement “time to move on”.
How many more will she take care of so that she can continue her dream of replacing the current president?
Reply to No. 4
Those like you who spin out these mindless conspiracy theories and implying Secy. Clinton was complicit in various mysterious deaths will likely end up being the victims of their own hateful rants. Be careful what you wish for? Without question you qualify as a Trumpy….he will provide a kindrid spirit to your nareshkeit…in fact yesterday, his chief lawyer (a yid named Cohen) accused Secy Clinton of murdering our former ambassador to Libya (an accusation even Ambassador’s Stevens family said was the product of a demented mind).
To: crazy kanoiy
You are wasting your time. By repeating lies over and over again will not make it into truth.
Four thousand Americans died in Iraq. No one was fired.
Get over it. The Republicans continue to spend millions and millions and more millions and yet people lie on theyeshivaworld.com regarding the truth. Motzi shem ra is a biblical issur, you know.
“By repeating lies over and over again will not make it into truth.”
Correct. At no time did Clinton knowingly deceive anyone, she was not responsible for the death of Ambassador Stevens, and no military action was possible. Those who continue to insist otherwise will have to answer in the next world for their motzi shem ra.
Moshe in Gaius – I suggest that you read the comments of Ambassodor Stevens’s sister (who is also the family spokesperson) Congress funds the executive branch. If funding is cut then cuts in personell are made. Congress tried to pin this on Hillary but after years of investigation and millions of dollars spent there is nothing new to report and no funding of negligence on the part of secretary Clinton. Instead of wasting time on political witch hunts congress should pass a bill banning the sale of guns to people on the terror no fly list
#5 Typical closed minded people who only follow news on this site will instantly pronounce it as conspiracy theories. It would be more clever for you to read some newspapers or other media before broadcasting your naivete. And for the latest Clinton fellow to die, do some research on John Ash.
And by the way, I’m no Trumpy but he’s definitely better than Clinton.
Arye – Clinton murdered John Ash and Vice Foster. Obama was born in Kenya. Raphael Cruz was hanging out with Lee Harvey Oswald. Man never landed on the moon and Elvis is still alive. Go vote for your man Trump.
charliehall and crazykanoiy, please stop writing Hillary’s and Obama’s talking points here. It makes you both look silly and boring to the rest of the readers of YWN.
Moshe in Gaius – I will let the readers decide who looks silly. Try to stick to actual logical arguments instead of broad sweeping unsubstantiated name calling like “liar” and “silly”. Please do not stoop to the level of Trumpian debate.
No, MIG is quite correct – it’s one thing to choose to believe liberal rhetoric and support a criminal anti-semitic, anti-Israel evil woman – it’s another to try to persuade the rest of us to follow suit.
Calling anyone who criticizes Hillary Clinton “Trumpy” etc. is every bit as ridiculous as saying anyone who criticizes Obama is a racist.
Fact:
Clinton knew at the time of the attack that it was a premeditated terror attack carried out by al-Qaeda affiliates/sympathizers and had nothing to do with a ridiculous obscure video on YouTube.
We know this because she emailed as much to her daughter Chelsea. Yet she and the rest of the Obama administration continued to blame it on the YouTube video, going so far as to arrest the man who produced it – in complete violation of his First Amendment rights.
There is nothing untoward about American citizens wanting to know why their President, Secretary of State et al insisted on deliberately deceiving them.
Fact: Ambassador Stevens emailed Hillary repeatedly about the need for more security. His emails went unanswered. That is negligence of the first order.
Fact: There was a continuous attempt on the part of the administration to play down the attack. Hillary Clinton said that “Libyans carried Chris’s body to the hospital.” Nice. What actually happened is that they dragged his body through the streets while stopping to let onlookers snap photos. But as Clinton might say, what difference does it make?
Answer: When you’re running for president, a whole lot.