A report by Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi found that former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is not responsible for the 2012 terror attacks in which four Americans were killed.
Democrats issued their minority report on Monday, pre-empting the upcoming Republican-led report, which is expected to be unfairly critical of Clinton.
“We are issuing our own report today because, after spending more than two years and $7 million in taxpayer funds in one of the longest and most partisan congressional investigations in history, it is long past time for the Select Committee to conclude its work.”
Along with declaring the Benghazi investigation a waste of time and money, Democrats singled out the chairman of the committee, South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy, as “an overzealous prosecutor desperately trying to land a front-page conviction rather than a neutral judge of facts seeking to improve the security of our diplomatic corps.”
Democrats continued accusing Republicans of partisanship, calling them out for dragging out the investigation for years in order to release their findings right before the Democratic National Convention. A biased Republican report could purposely put a dent in Clinton’s reputation as competent and experienced, qualities that are centerpieces of her campaign.
“In one of the most serious abuses, Chairman Gowdy personally and publicly accused Secretary Clinton of compromising a highly classified intelligence source. Although the Intelligence Community quickly debunked his claim, Chairman Gowdy has yet to apologize to Secretary Clinton for his slanderous accusation.”
They went on to criticize how Republicans have frequently played up conspiracies and myths in the investigation.
“We have been hampered in our work by the ongoing Republican obsession with conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality. Rather than reject these conspiracy theories in the absence of evidence—or in the face of hard facts—Select Committee Republicans embraced them and turned them into a political crusade.”
Republicans have obviously denied these accusations, but there is ample evidence that they have indeed been driven by partisanship. On Fox News, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy bragged about the committee’s success in bringing down Clinton’s poll numbers. “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 any of that had happened, had we not fought.”
In regards to Clinton herself, the Democratic report found that neither Hillary Clinton nor the Pentagon could have done anything to save the lives of the four Americans killed in the attacks on September 11, 2012. The report goes on to say that though “the State Department’s security measures in Benghazi were woefully inadequate as a result of decisions made by officials in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security,” Hillary Clinton was not at fault, as she never personally denied requests for increased security.
The Democrats on the committee also dismissed the Republican claim that the Obama administration could have sent out a rescue team or stopped the attacks earlier, citing excerpts from several interviews of Pentagon officials, witnesses, and drone pilots.
The report also used statements from intelligence officials, including former CIA Director David Petraeus, to answer the Republican question of why the Obama administration initially characterized the Benghazi attack as a spontaneous escalation of protest rather than an organized terrorist effort. They found that administration officials “relied on information they were provided at the time under fast-moving circumstances,” which did not indicate that the attackers were terrorists acting upon a specific plan.
In response to the Democratic report, Republicans accused the minority of partisanship and claimed that the committee had always been conducting a “serious, fact-centered investigation.”
“Benghazi Committee Democrats’ obsession with the former secretary of state is on full display,” said Matt Wolking, the press secretary for the Republican-led committee. “The dishonest Democrats on this committee falsely claimed everything had been ‘asked and answered.’ They said the committee had found ‘absolutely nothing new.’ If that’s changed, they should come clean and admit it. If not, everyone can ignore their rehashed, partisan talking points defending their endorsed candidate for president.”
Democratic Benghazi committee member Adam Schiff retorted: “The majority opted to conduct its business in shockingly partisan fashion – not even sharing its draft report with the minority for input or comment – and although we found some new details about the events of that tragic night, they merely provided context rather than changing what we already knew.”
The Democratic report concludes with “12 recommendations to improve both the security of U.S. diplomatic facilities overseas and the integrity of future Select Congressional investigations.” It focuses mostly on foreign policy, but also says that “Congress should not establish or use future investigative select committees or panels for political purposes, including to impact elections or to raise campaign funds.” It also recommends “procedures to promote the cooperation and participation of all Members,” which are meant to prevent “abuses of power that can arise from poorly-defined mandates.”
In a final attempt to put the whole investigation into historical perspective, Democrats wrote:
“Decades in the future, historians will look back on this investigation as a case study in how not to conduct a credible investigation. They will showcase the proliferation of Republican abuses as a chief example of what happens when politicians are allowed to use unlimited taxpayer dollars—and the formidable power of Congress—to attack their political foes.”
