Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination, testified before the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi on Thursday and members of the Florida delegation, like most members of Congress, divided on party lines over her testimony.
The House investigation of the Obama administration’s handling of the September 2012 attacks which led to the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and State Department personnel has drawn fire from the Democrats who insist this is all about damaging Clinton politically. The GOP’s cause was not helped when U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., implied that the investigation was political in nature.
The committee met for 11 hours on Thursday with its members exchanging shots but little in the way of dramatic revelations from Clinton. Chairman U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., conceded to Politico that the hearing produced no new information from Clinton.
“I don’t know that she testified that much differently today than she has the previous times she’s testified."
No representatives from the Sunshine State sit on the committee but members of the Florida delegation weighed in on the hearing on Thursday.
U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, pointed to comments Clinton made in 2013 and stressed the select committee was doing important work.
“No one has answered for the Benghazi attack on our American diplomatic compound in Libya,” Yoho insisted. “I remember when Sec. Clinton said, ‘Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?’
“Madam Secretary, it makes a difference to the families who will never see their sons, brothers, and husbands again,” Yoho added. “This is why these Benghazi hearings matter.”
But U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., dismissed the investigation as a partisan witch hunt and pointed to Gowdy’s handling of the hearing and McCarthy’s comments.
“I attended the House Select Committee on Benghazi hearing today,” Brown said on Thursday. “In the hearing, I witnessed Chairman Gowdy not only lose his cool, but go on to say to ‘wait until the next round.’ This is not a game -- indeed, today’s hearing amounts to another blatant example of the Republican Party playing politics at its lowest common denominator.
“Following Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s comments earlier this month that the committee was created for the purpose of sinking former Secretary Clinton’s poll numbers, it has become even more obvious that the creation of the Select Committee on Benghazi is nothing more than a witch hunt against former Secretary Clinton with the sole purpose of derailing her presidential campaign,” Brown added. “Indeed, Leader McCarthy’s comments are one more confirmation that House Republicans created this select committee not to investigate what took place at the U.S. consulate, but rather to score political points in the aftermath of a national tragedy that cost four American lives.
“Furthermore, after House Majority Leader McCarthy’s admission, another Republican member from New York, Rep. Richard Hanna, added that ‘there was a big part of this investigation designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton.’ Shortly thereafter, a Republican committee staffer (Bradley Podliska) who questioned the excessive and outright unnecessary criticism of Mrs. Clinton, while noting the committee itself was accomplishing absolutely nothing substantively, was fired,” Brown noted. “The Benghazi Committee has now been in operation for 16 months and has cost American taxpayers $4.5 million, even though only three hearings have been held and no new information has been uncovered. Moreover, this committee has duplicated the efforts of multiple other investigations, all of which have found no wrongdoing. If fact finding had been the committee’s true aim, the Benghazi Committee would have closed its doors a while ago since it has not accomplished anything nor produced any evidence! This committee needs to cease and desist and end this charade immediately.”
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
