Approximately three weeks ago, on national television, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy made a huge mistake. He gloated that the Republican led House Select Committee on Benghazi had been successful, in that it had brought former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton down in the polls, making her a less viable candidate for the office of President. This intent on the part of Republicans, of course, was something that most of us had known all along, but folks on the right, up until now, hadn’t dared to say so in public. No, in public, they were always very clear to say that their repeated investigations weren’t politically motivated. When asked about their motivations, they’d just say that they were trying to get to the bottom of what had happened that night three years ago in Benghazi when U.S. diplomat Christopher Stevens and three other Americans lost their lives. And that’s why, according to the Republicans, we needed eight separate Congressional committees looking into Benghazi, spending millions of dollars each, when only two had looked into the 9/11 attacks on the United States that had claimed the lives of over 3,000.
To date, there have been 32 separate hearings on Benghazi, and not one has produced evidence of either an administrative wrongdoing or an intelligence failure. Yet, in spite of this, we continue with no end in sight, because it’s good politics. Hearings, as the Republicans know, create the impression of scandal, and, just as importantly, they allow you to subject your political adversaries to intensive questioning on items that could perhaps yield information of use to your party’s presidential candidate… Speaking of which, it came out today that Republicans have been using the authority of the House Select Committee on Benghazi to aggressively question Clinton associates about the operations of the Clinton Foundation.
But at today’s hearing, perhaps emboldened by the Kevin McCarthy’s recent comments concerning the purpose of this inquiry, Democrats took the offensive. As Clinton sat before the House Committee with a slight smile on her face, Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, tore into his Republican colleagues, accusing them of abusing their power for no reason other than to “derail” Clinton’s presidential campaign. He even went so far as to suggest that the GOP should refund the American taxpayers the more than $20 million that has been spent to-date for what he referred to as their unsuccessful “fishing expedition.” [It’s worth noting that Cummings has been pushing back against the Republicans from the start. It’s just that, now, he’s actually getting traction in the media. And, as a result, his message is resonating more broadly.]
Understandably, the Republicans on the committee aren’t too happy about the shifting narrative around Benghazi. With each new article that comes out about these Benghazi hearings turning into an albatross around their necks, the Republicans circle their wagons a little tighter, and begin pushing back a little more desperately. While the conservative pundits today raised the volume of their attacks against the so-called “liberal media,” Republican members of Congress began accusing Clinton of… gasp… “politicizing” their hearing. [You’ve got to hand it to the Republicans… They’ve got balls.]
Clinton, for what it’s worth, is definitely making the most of this recent turn of events. She can sense the change in momentum, and she’s taking full advantage of it. A month ago, that idea that her campaign would be running a Benghazi-themed television ad would have been unthinkable, but that’s exactly what she’s doing. And it’s working. [Here’s her new ad.]
And all of the fact checking that’s been done this past three years is finally starting to break through in big way. Things that had pretty much been ignored in the past, like the book The Benghazi Hoax, are now suddenly very relevant.
Here, to give you a flavor of today’s hearing, is a clip from the transcript of Congressman Cummings’ opening statement, followed by the complete video.
…The Republican Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee conducted an extensive, bipartisan, two-year investigation and issued a detailed report. The Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee also conducted bipartisan investigations.
Those bipartisan efforts respected and honored the memories of the four brave Americans who were killed in Benghazi: Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty.
The problem is that Speaker Boehner did not like the answers he got from those investigations. So he set up this new Select Committee — with no rules, no deadline, and an unlimited budget — and he set it loose on Secretary Clinton because she is running for president…
As we all know, Rep. Kevin McCarthy — Speaker Boehner’s second-in-command and the Chairman’s close friend — admitted that they established the Select Committee to drive down Secretary Clinton’s poll numbers.
Republican Congressman Richard Hanna said the Select Committee was “designed” to go after Secretary Clinton.
And one of the Chairman’s own investigators—a conservative Republican—charged that he was fired in part for not going along with these plans to “hyper focus on Hillary Clinton.”
These stark admissions reflect exactly what we have seen inside the Select Committee for the past year. Just look at the facts.
Since January, Republicans have canceled every single hearing on our schedule for the entire year — except for this one with Secretary Clinton.
They also canceled numerous interviews that they had planned with Defense Department and CIA officials.
Instead of doing what they said they were going to do, Republicans zeroed in on Secretary Clinton, her speechwriters, her IT staffers, and her campaign officials. This is what Republicans did — not Democrats…
Carly Fiorina has said that Secretary Clinton “has blood on her hands,” Mike Huckabee accused her of “ignoring the warning calls from dying Americans in Benghazi,” Senator Rand Paul said “Benghazi was a 3:00 a.m. phone call that she never picked up,” and Senator Lindsay Graham tweeted, “Where the hell were you on the night of the Benghazi attack?”
Everyone on this panel knows these accusations are baseless — from our own investigation and all those before it. Yet Republican Members of this Select Committee remain silent.
On Monday, the Democrats issued a report showing that none of the 54 witnesses the Committee interviewed substantiated these wild Republican claims. Secretary Clinton did not order the military to stand down, and she neither approved nor denied requests for additional security…
[If you enjoyed that, check out the video of Cummings and Republican Trey Gowdy go at one another this morning over the recent questioning of Clinton friend Sidney Blumenthal.]
In a sane world, it never would have come to this. Someone inside Republican party leadership would have stepped up right at the outset and stopped this from happening. But all that mattered back in 2012 was weakening Obama, and all that matters now, it would seem, is keeping Clinton from the White House. And anyone inside the Republican party who wasn’t in lockstep agreement on this was driven out. And, as a result, this little lie has been allowed to fester and eat away at the foundation of our democracy. The Republicans not only stood by while Clinton was accused of murder, and while fake photos of a tortured Chris Stevens spread like wildfire across the internet, but they encouraged it. And, in doing so, they did irreparable harm. They allowed this cancer to spread in hopes that it would serve their political interests, and the financial interests of those individuals who fund their campaigns, without any concern for the truth, our nation, or the four men who died in Benghazi. And, as a result, we’ve all suffered.
I’d like to think that, perhaps, we’re collectively coming to our senses now. I’d like to think that all of the people behind these multiple Benghazi hearings will now be driven from office by voters who have finally come to realize that they’d been manipulated. I don’t think that’s going to happen, though. Regardless of the facts, which are finally being discussed in a substantive way, there are a good number of people out there who will always believe that Clinton and Obama gave orders that resulted in the deaths of these four Americans… ignoring not only the fact that no wrongdoing has been found, but that more deadly embassy attacks had taken place under Bush, and that, in spite of this fact, Republicans had voted to cut embassy security. But maybe enough people will come to their senses that, even if we can’t right the wrongs of the past, we can at least move on to something of real substance. [At some point you have to stop burning witches and actually do the hard work of governing.]
Here, for what it’s worth, are the first few words I wrote on the subject of Benghazi back on November 16, 2012.
(T)he Republicans, in the wake of last week’s crushing defeat at the polls, are desperately looking for something to cling to. They’re looking for an opportunity to delay introspection, come across to the American people once again as forceful, and, most importantly, weaken the President as he attempts to make the case that wealthy Americans need to give up the irresponsible tax cuts that were given to them by Bush. And, the only thing they have to work with, it would seem, is the consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans died…
[If you’re interested, you can read the entire post: “The manufactured Republican outrage over the attack of our consulate in Benghazi is not only disingenuous but morally reprehensible.”]
Part of me wonders how it is that we could possibly still be talking about this after three years, when the truth was right in front of us the whole time. Then I remember that the Republicans, at least for the past decade, haven’t really have a platform of their own… They don’t have a solution for health care. They don’t have a solution for the Middle East. They don’t have a solution for poverty… All they’ve really got, other than a desire to cut taxes and kill the EPA, is the suspicion that Obama was born in Kenya, the desire to build a wall around our country, and these four dead men in Benghazi.
49 Comments
Except recently released emails to the Egyptian leader showed Clinton denied that the attack had anything to do with the online video within 24 hours of the terrorist attack. Two weeks later, her spokesperson and the president were still spinning the deception about a protest against a poorly made YouTube video.
Except the State Dept did not respond to over 600 requests for increased security that came from the embassy in the year that led up to the killing of 4 Americans. Except that boots were on the ground at the time who could have stopped the attack and this administration is still spinning the facts and obscuring the truth about who told the military to stand down and left the annex defenseless and caused Americans to die.
Except that this administration sent a large number of CIA operatives to Libya to buy back the weapons they gave to terrorists who would proportedly use them to kill Quadaffi so that they could give them to ISIS in Syria to kill Assad. It was an insane foreign policy that blew up in their faces and they tried to deceive the American public about it.
Except that Clinton was incompetent as Sec of State and has continually lied about nearly every aspect of her public life.
I’m no Clinton fan, but I thought she did a great job at the hearing, better than Bernie Sanders could have ever done.
But, thankfully EOS cleared everything up for us. I was worried for a second.
Benghazi was a terrible tragedy, but the Benghazi Committee is nothing but a partisan witch-hunt designed to weaken Clinton’s bid for the presidency.
That said, who in their right mind serves as Secretary of State, then decides to use a private e-mail server set up in her basement, then openly mocks legitimate questions (among the press and public) about whether this was inappropriate?
Hillary (like Bill before her) is frequently her own worst enemy, when it comes to providing critics and enemies with political ammunition.
EOS– Paragraphs 1, 2,and 4 sound like business as usual in Washington. Paragraph 3 is unsupported. (I’m sure you’ll now provide some documentation– or, better, a long list of links!–using a tone of great authority but short on verifiable facts. ) With all your concerns about fiscal responsibility, doesn’t it bother you that congress has orchestrated this endless, expensive and fruitless sideshow to take down a leading candidate for president? We are a democracy– ok fine, Democratic Republic… I’m sure you feel it’s justified somehow, v. inquiry into the multitude of other sins and just plain blunders committed by our government. I’m just as sure you will now tell us all at length why it’s justified– more rationalization masked as logic.
Here’s the thing though. It’s not working. It’s making Hillary stronger. The only people who care at this point, are those who would never have supported her or any Dem. Everyone else thinks it’s making the right look ridiculous. People do want policy, not politics. The GOP can not help but dig itself deeper into its own hole these days– largely because it has capitulated to people with beliefs akin to yours. While I’m sure it feels great to believe you are the few, the righteous, the rest of America is sick of your ilk. Religious Fundamentalists never had real power; the rest of the country was just laissez-faire about you all. We just ignored you all and went on with our sinful ways. It’s almost over for the religious right in politics. Thank God for that. Someone must be looking out for us all.
We will go down in history as one of the dumbest nations of all time. The 9/11 attacks happened on Bush’s watch, shortly after he was handed a security briefing stating that terrorists were planning a strike within the United States, and, to my knowledge, there was never a hearing about it. He was on vacation, handed a document about how we were about to be attacked, and did nothing. Thousands died, and he’s still somehow seen as “the president who kept us safe.” Four people die on Obama’s watch, though, in a diplomatic outpost where security had been cut by the Republicans, and we’re led to believe that he (and Clinton) were accessories to the crime. It is testament to just how fucking stupid we are.
Jean,
Where to start…
Paragraph 3 is well supported any person who has paid attention and who is a knowledgeable reader. You want documentation and verifiable facts? Here you go: http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/02/08/repost-the-benghazi-brief-with-additional-research-and-source-vetting/#more-96338. That’s not to say that I couldn’t have provided you with a long list of links, however this blog itself links to more than 350 sources.
We are a Constitutional Republic. The Christian Right is aligned with the ultimate power source. All things are possible and we are more than conquerors. However, I don’t doubt that you have a laissez-faire attitude concerning the truth.
Hillary is an extremely weak candidate with high negatives and no credibility. Even Lanny Davis has called her an extremely good liar. However, the current outrage is over the policy, not the politics. That some RINO called it a political witch hunt does not make it true.
Cummings is going to be your next Senator from Maryland.
I thought it ended then. This group of Republicans and the American Freedom Caucus do not belong in government. They don’t govern at all.
If, as the CDC says, someone is killed by U.S. gun violence every 17 minutes, then yesterday’s hearing was long enough for 39 people to die. A hearing (or 8) into that would be good.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/16/16547690-just-the-facts-gun-violence-in-america?lite
Glad EOS has her finger on the truth. Whew.
Here you go Peter. This link has bullet points and pictures for slower readers.
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?Bsrc=Share&Bpub=SDX.SkyDrive&resid=E59CF5984317BA79!150&cid=e59cf5984317ba79&app=PowerPoint&authkey=!AqD08jr6_IO6sMU
Hmmm. My brother just worked on a big GAO report about embassy security. He is town too. If I remember to ask him, I am sure he has some insights.
Whew. Bullet points. Glad to have EOS on this site. Not sure what we would do without her.
If only EOS were on an investigative committee, we might have only had to do this once, rather than 32 times.
Does he want to do a radio interview sometime, Lynne?
I can ask him. He might! I am not sure if he is allowed to because so much of his work involves confidential stuff.
MSNBC on yesterday’s 11 hour hearing.
Read more:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-left-and-right-can-agree-benghazi-comm-republicans-blew-it
Most telling development of the day:
“Fox News abandoned coverage of the hearing in the afternoon – about three-and-a-half hours before it was actually finished – and started covering unrelated topics, despite the network’s near-obsession with the deadly 2012 attack for years.”
EOS– I asked for verifiable details on ‘operation zero footprint.’ What I got was two links to authored by the same guy referring in oblique ways to covert operations. There are many many links (most not from the same tunnel think tank and few from official sources) that together create a compelling if far-fetched– even for the CIA–narrative. Standard MO for conspiracy theory sites, liberal or conservative– overwhelm with truthiness. BUT, there is no actual news source that verifies the same conspiracy narrative. Nor is there any evidence from all the hearings that verifies it. There are however three Hollywood movies coming out eager to tell the story based on the tell-alls of supposed ex-CIA operatives. Because ex-CIA are always telling their stories, right? Especially for hollywood money. The CIA has no problem with that, right? No means of dealing with rogue agents or whistle blowers right? It all could be true. (I cant prove it’s not) It could be completely fabricated.(You cant prove it’s not) Or the truth could be in the middle. It’s the CIA and we’re never going to know for sure. That is for sure true. The rest is speculation.
I liked the part where she laughed in the Congresswoman’s face.
http://m.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/10/gop-congresswoman-wants-know-if-hillary-spent-night-alone-benghazi-attacks
Jean,
No. Most of the links are from Reuters, New York Times, Washington Post and other reputable news sources. There’s no conspiracy theory, merely a compilation of existing news sources. The information has been readily available for years. If you spend all your time reading left wing spin doctors then you most likely missed it.
Thank god Sundance on Conservative Treehouse is out there protecting the people.
Where is TaterSalad when you need him?
I’m surprised that Ben Carson hasn’t weighed in.
“If only Chris Stevens had been armed, this would have never happened.”
Or
“Hey guys, let’s take them, they can’t get all of us.”
EOS– Quotes taken out of context from reputable news sources establishes that something happened— ie arms getting into the wrong hands– not causality, much less a secret CIA operation. What conspiracy theories most often do is take a series of events caused by human error in highly complex and unmanageable geopolitical situations–essentially chaos– and overlay causality, intention, narrative and the exercise of supreme power. (Now that I think of it, religion does the same thing) I actually read a few of the articles cited when they came out. I don’t read spin journalism from left wing sources, unless MM counts. The links you posted (and always post) are the very definition of spin journalism. I’ll take just one example– the quote pulled (with no internal link btw) :
As the New York Times reported in an Oct. 14 2012 article, “Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster.”
the actual article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/world/middleeast/jihadists-receiving-most-arms-sent-to-syrian-rebels.html?_r=0
That arms sopplied by the West (and others) are getting into the wrong hands in the Middle East (and elsewhere) is not a question. The idea that the CIA is doing so intentionally in order to try to kill off Assad or Gadaffi is overreach and unestablished and not even implied in any of the articles by reputable sources cited by your right wing spin piece. It makes no sense strategically or logistically. The CIA does not actually control the Middle East– shocking I know. Not that they haven’t tried for a long time.
I don’t know a lot about this. Neither do you. I read everything Dexter Filkins (New Yorker, formerly New York Times) because he is consistently middle of the road on the wars, veering slightly pro war, but also acknowledges the complexity of the situation and the propensity for blunders. He’s a for-real war correspondent– with years on the ground. Not too many left. His article Thin Red Line reviews the hot mess that is US Syria foreign policy options and our inability to control events and outcomes in the region. It was a big deal when it came out. As a comprehensive review of the situation by an on the ground journalist with deep contacts, it was notably missing from the spin article you posted, EOS. They didn’t even dare to pull quotes that were readily available:
“The Middle Eastern official told me that the Saudis had coöperated with Turkey and Qatar to supply arms but stopped last year, largely because they were worried that guns were going to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group. Some evidence suggests that arms have gone to extremists. In April, Al Nusra posted a propaganda video online. According to O’Bagy, the video shows the fighters holding Croatian-made weapons identical to those covertly shipped to other rebels only weeks before. “We can direct the arms, to a certain degree, but once they are inside Syria we’ve essentially lost control over how they are used,” she said.
American officials have tried to make sure that sophisticated weapons—particularly, portable anti-aircraft missiles, often called by their military acronym, MANPADs—do not leak out. Rebel groups have managed to get them anyway, in some cases by acquiring them from Qaddafi’s old armories. The American intelligence official told me that rebels have an estimated thirty shoulder-fired missiles, and that they have used two of them to shoot down Syrian helicopters. These kinds of missile “would have a huge impact’’ on the war in Syria, the White House official told me, but would be nearly impossible to secure after the conflict ended: “If a U.S.-made MANPAD were ever used to shoot down an El Al jet, I imagine some members of Congress would be having a hearing on that subject.” http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/13/the-thin-red-line-2
I suggest you read more Filkins. I wish everyone would. Last of a breed.
Lastly, I also suggest you apply Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit to any future conspiracy theories and your own rhetoric to address your ‘chronic discomfort with ambiguity.” It actually describes almost perfectly your rhetorical approaches on this site. Perhaps, if we were were wise, we would simply cite it every time you comment here rather than engaging the impenetrable absurdity that is your logic model. https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/
Or “you don’t want to kill me, it’s him that you want.”
How inept are Republican investigators, EOS, that they’ve had 8 inquires into Benghazi, spending over $20 million, and haven’t been able to find evidence of anything verifying the claims of your researchers in the Conservative Tree House?
The entire story is obviously bullshit. Tea baggers and anyone offended by blatant government waste should punish every one of these clowns on election day.
I hate to see Hillary elevated to hero status over thus though. I don’t think she’s fundamentally honest about this, or much of anything. I can’t for the life of me understand why she would take this relentless abuse, or even wants to be President.
It’s going to be a grim Presidential term if she’s elected. Committee after committee, impeachment threat after impeachment threat.
Context for my earlier comment.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/56167d3be4b0e66ad4c69e25
Well, of course they’ve found no evidence. It’s a conspiracy! If they did, then they wouldn’t have needed so many investigations! It’s really, really hard to prove a negative.
I talked to my brother about this and he said that the GAO has been warning Congress about embassy security issues since the Bush administration. Also, some of the very people on that committee were the ones most against appropriating any funds for improvements. Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell also didnt act on the warnings and while it is true that Clinton didnt either, it isnt like she was the only one.
Also, sorry Mark, he isnt allowed to talk on the record about his work. They are very strict about that, I guess.
I was just checking out Conservative Tree House. This is some really hard hitting stuff. Apparently, they was us all to be Andrew Breitbart, the true American rebel fighting for the rights of all Americans, except those on “welfare.”
Apparently, refugees are “rats,” Obama is a Muslim and Trayvon Martin needs a whole section to himself so that people can talk about “welfare” and “rats” some more.
This is a pretty serious news source. Hillary Clinton should be running scared here.
“He isnt allowed to talk on the record about his work. They are very strict about that, I guess.”
Ya think?
I have to say that the GAO site is great. It is one of my favorite government websites.
Those guys do a great job. Lynne’s brother is a lucky guy to be able to work there.
I heard Dexter Filkins almost left the New Yorker for the Conservative Tree House, but he bailed, because, as everyone knows, he’s just in it for the money.
Eel,
These claims are not disputed and the committee has all the documentation. This is all public knowledge and has been published in reputable newspapers. Hillary has witheld the emails, she had medical reasons not to testify, she is stonewalling, and she is the major reason why the costs are so high. After 4 years, we finally have some of her emails and she finally testified. She may soon be charged with mishandling classified information and perjury. If she is guilty, Obama will pardon her, but at least it will be on record. Not a waste of time.
I remember all of Tater Salad’s grand predictions of what indictments would come of whatever manufactured crisis during the 2008 election.
None of it came true.
None of this changes the fact that Obama is a black Muslim from Kenyan who was molded by Bill Ayers into an America-hating monster determined to end capitalism and destroy our Christian nation from the inside. Wake up Sheeple! Sure he bailed out the banks, and increased the use of drones to kill Muslim extremists, and a lot of other stuff like that, but that’s all part of his plan. And it illustrates just how devious he is.
The John Galt shtick is so tired. Satire that gums, not bites.
Common people! Don’t you know IMPORTANT news, like the Ann Arbor News highlighting online – “Meet the U-M student in the yellow Lamborghini turning heads in Ann Arbor” – Now THAT is what everyone needs to talk about.
Things are getting even more interesting.
“CIA: Trey Gowdy Altered Documents To Frame Hillary Clinton”
Read the article:
http://samuel-warde.com/2015/10/cia-trey-gowdy-altered-documents-to-frame-hillary-clinton/
This sure doesn’t seem to keep Beal up at night.
Another Republican conspiracy theory falls apart.
“Republican Conspiracy Theory Discredited: Dept. Of Justice Closes Tea Party IRS Probe”
Read more:
http://samuel-warde.com/2015/10/republican-conspiracy-theory-eviscerated-dept-of-justice-closes-tea-party-irs-probe-video/
EOS, pray for the House Republicans. It is obvious they know their investigations have yielded zero, they’re not going to make ANY changes as a result of their non-existent findings, and even the stupidest of hicks should know by now that the only reason they persist beating this long barren horse’s dry carcass is to try to manipulate an emotional response from their base. Hey Rubes, watch us confront Hillary! Remember, we like the same things!
I was just reading Conservative Tree House. There was a powerful report on black lives matter. People leaving comments believe that Obama will remove the voting process entirely and become a dictator through the power of his black army.
Hard hitting stuff. I think EOS is onto something here.
EOS is not biting, you trolls:)
Re: “Those guys do a great job. Lynne’s brother is a lucky guy to be able to work there.”
Yes. He keeps track of how much money he has personally saved the government and last time I asked him, it was in the millions. He likes the job because he gets to travel to places most people don’t get to travel to. Still, it is funny because a certain political party is always trying to cut the budget of the GAO even though every dollar they spend having people audit government spending tends to save many more dollars in waste.
EOS, I apologize for my tone. I’m very disappointed by the Republicans. It bothers me that they play us for suckers. Surely you can see that too.
It is unfortunate that most people who complain about government don’t even know the GAO exists.
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[…] bullshit. She knew that, despite there having been 32 separate, well-funded hearings on Benghazi, not one single instance of administrative wrongdoing had been identified, but she made the statement anyway because she was lagging in the polls and she knew that the […]