It is clear, in hindsight, that the facility was not sufficiently protected by the State Department and the Defense Department. But what was the underlying cause? Perhaps if Congress had provided a budget to increase security for all missions around the world, then some of the requests for more security in Libya would have been granted. Certainly the State Department is underbudgeted.
I do not blame Hillary Clinton or Leon Panetta. They were balancing security efforts at embassies and missions around the world. And their staffs were doing their best to provide what they could with the resources they had. The Benghazi Mission was understaffed. We know that now. But, again, Chris knew that. It wasn’t a secret to him. He decided to take the risk to go there. It is not something they did to him. It is something he took on himself.
 |
| Benghazi committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy |
The more than 800-page report paints a picture of a perfect storm of bureaucratic inertia, rapidly worsening security in Libya and inadequate resources in the months that led up to the killings of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues on September 11, 2012.
The attack was initially thought to be perpetrated by an angry mob responding to a video made in the U.S. mocking Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, but the assault was later determined to be a terrorist attack -- a finding Republicans accused the White House of covering up to protect President Barack Obama's re-election prospects.
The House Benghazi Committee report doesn't directly blame Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time and is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, for the attacks. But it does suggest she and other administration officials did not adequately address the risks involved. It also found Stevens himself bore responsibility for securing his post.
 |
| Click pic to enlarge |
Hillary Clinton has done a lot in her life. But I think she likely cleared her path to the Democratic nomination for president, and maybe very well the Oval Office itself, by what she didn't do. She didn't lose her cool.
Her performance in a grueling marathon of a Congressional hearing on Benghazi (or more accurately on Clinton herself and maybe Sidney Blumenthal?) was one of poise, stoicism, self-confidence and maturity. Just the sort of attributes her questioners lacked. In the language of poker, she was drawing aces and the committee was drawing deuces. They might not admit it publicly, but even many Republican leaders know it's true. Hillary Clinton is a stronger general election candidate today than she was before the hearing.
It has often been said that you vote for president with your heart more than your head. And I think for all the questions about Clinton's record among the Democratic base, whether she is progressive enough on economic issues or too hawkish on foreign policy, the real sense of unease boiled down to intangible questions about her personality, values and character.
Yesterday assuaged many of those concerns. When combined with her recent debate performance and Biden deciding not to run, this is arguably one of the best stretches of her political career. Where are all those whither Hillary articles now? It is still early and a lot can still go wrong, but I believe this is the Hillary Clinton that so many Democrats wanted to love - tough, smart, unflappable, a woman who is ready to be president.
There was one question at the Benghazi hearing that made Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton crack up in laughter Thursday.
Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the Benghazi attack, testified Thursday about the incident before the special House committee tasked with investigating it.
After hours of inquiries, a question from Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) made Clinton erupt with laughter.
"Who else was at your home, were you alone?" Roby asked.
"I was alone, yes," Clinton replied.
"The whole night?" Roby asked.
"Well, yes, the whole night," Clinton said, bursting with laughter.
"Well, I don't know why that's funny," Roby said.
 |
| Rep. Richard Hanna of New Yor |
"This may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people – an individual: Hillary Clinton," Hanna said in a live interview with Utica radio station WIBX (950 AM).
Clinton's campaign responded, "Yet another House Republican has admitted the House Select Committee on Benghazi is a politically motivated sham intended to damage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign."
In September, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talked about the success of the committee's investigation in hurting Clinton's poll numbers. McCarthy later said he misspoke.
A former staffer for the Benghazi committee came forward this past weekend and claimed that the panel's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., fired him for not keeping the investigation focused on Clinton.
"Kevin McCarthy basically blew himself up with that comment over the Benghazi committee," Hanna said, adding, "Sometimes the biggest sin you can commit in D.C. is to tell the truth."
An important message from Kevin McCarthy. No, not the Republican House Speaker-in-waiting. Another one. From Iowa.
Posted by Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Democrats are announcing their intention to unilaterally release full transcripts of private interviews that the committee has conducted, starting with the testimony of Hillary Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills. It’s a dramatic move from the five Democrats on the committee, which under the direction of Rep. Elijah Cummings has so far insisted that it won’t leak information to journalists while the investigation is underway.
[snip]
Democratic efforts to press back against the committee have reached an apex in the past week, as they attempt to capitalize on a misstep by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who linked the committee’s efforts to a political effort to hobble Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House.
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee,” McCarthy said on Fox. “What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known that any of that had happened had we not fought to make that happen.”
McCarthy Confirmed Benghazi Committee Political Charade
Speaker-in-Waiting Kevin McCarthy confirms: The Benghazi committee is a partisan effort to hurt Hillary's campaign.
Posted by The Briefing on Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Hillary responds to Kevin McCarthy
Hillary's response to Kevin McCarthy.
Posted by The Briefing on Wednesday, September 30, 2015
No wrongdoing in #Benghazi. So straighten that squirrel on your head and apologize, @SenRandPaul. Start here: pic.twitter.com/oLu3tv0cQl
— Steve Marmel (@Marmel) November 22, 2014
Similar to five other government reports, the one released by the House Intelligence Committee on Friday said that the administration had not intentionally misled the public about what occurred during the attacks in talking points it created for officials to use in television appearances that turned out to be inaccurate.
It also said that no order was given by the military to “stand down” in responding to try to save the four Americans killed in the attacks, a claim that Republicans have made based on the account of a member of the security team in Benghazi that day.
[snip]
“The effort to turn the Benghazi tragedy into a political scandal never had a factual basis,” said David Brock, founder of Correct the Record, a group that defends Mrs. Clinton in the news media, and author of the e-book “The Benghazi Hoax.”
“The Republican committee report should close the case,” he added. “If the scandal persists into 2016, it will only be for partisan reasons.”
The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee.
The panel voted Thursday to declassify the report, the result of two years of investigation by the committee. U.S. intelligence agencies will have to approve making the report public.
Thompson said the report "confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given."
Taken together, the deadly violence in Benghazi two years ago has now been investigated by the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the independent State Department Accountability Review Board, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
How many of them uncovered evidence of a cover-up? None.
It’s so much more fun to watch FOX when it’s someone else being blitzed & sacked! #SuperBowl
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 3, 2014