Republican House Speaker John Boehner still has a few weeks left of Congressional duties, and Senate Democrats have called upon Boehner to disband the House Select Committee on Benghazi. The call comes after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said the committee was designed for the specific purpose of damaging Hillary Clinton.
During an interview with Sean Hannity on Tuesday, McCarthy all but admitted that the Benghazi special committee was designed to hurt Clinton and that it’s part of why her presidential polls numbers are suffering.
“We put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee,” said McCarthy “What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable [sic]. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen.”
Sens. Harry Reid (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray(D-WA), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) responded by sending a lengthy letter to Boehner, calling for the decommission of the special Benghazi committee.
Dear Speaker Boehner:
We are writing to ask you to disband the House Select Committee on Benghazi after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s recent comments admitting that the Select Committee was put together to serve the political purpose of defeating Secretary Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential elections by hurting her in the polls, rather than conducting a serious investigation into a terrorist attack that killed four Americans. We should not disrespect their sacrifice by further politicizing this tragedy.
Specifically, Majority Leader McCarthy said, when discussing his beliefs about a strategy for a conservative Congress:
“And let me give you one example. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. 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.”
The Select Committee on Benghazi has already cost the American tax payers over 4.5 million dollars on what the House Majority Leader has now made clear is nothing more than a political attack against Secretary Clinton. This investigation is one of the longest in Congressional history, surpassing the length of the Watergate Committee, the Joint Committee investigating Pearl Harbor, the Warren Commission, and the Iran Contra investigation.
We would also note that the Select Committee on Benghazi, after months of investigation, found no evidence supporting any of the original Republican conspiracy theories on Benghazi. Republicans are now continuing to use the Committee for ongoing political investigations of Secretary Clinton with absolutely no linkage to the terrorist attacks in Benghazi.
It is unconscionable that the US House of Representatives is continuing to use millions of dollars in taxpayer funds for political purposes, and we urge you to immediately disband the Select Committee on Benghazi.
For more on this story, visit Talking Points Memo “Senate Dems Urge Boehner To Shut Down Benghazi Panel After McCarthy’s Remarks”
