...today House Government Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa decided that today would be a good day to feed the GOP base a brand new #Benghazi subpoena:
Today I announced a subpoena requiring Secretary Kerry to testify at a public @GOPoversight hearing on May 21. #Benghazi
— @DarrellIssa
Given that John Kerry was a senator when the Benghazi attack occurred nearly two years ago, it would be fair to ask why on Earth Darrell Issa thinks it makes sense to issue him a
subpoena. And if you asked a GOP flack you'd get some
gobbledygook about how the state department was allegedly withholding key documents from House Republicans while House Republicans try to get to the bottom of why Benghazi shows why Americans should vote for Jeb Bush instead of Hillary Clinton in 2016. That, of course,
is bunk.
But there's also another reason, and in many ways a more plausible one: Today we had a pretty good jobs report. And on days like this, if you're in the GOP leadership, you don't want your base talking about #Jobs, #Jobs, #Jobs. You want them talking about #Benghazi, #Benghazi, #Benghazi.
8:29 AM PT: Ah, in all seriousness, here's what might be the real driver of Issa's move: House Republican leadership is about to announce a House Select Committee to investigate Benghazi according to multiple reporters (Sam Stein, Chuck Todd, and Dana Bash.) This will move the focus of the Benghazi investigation away from Issa's committee, which he can't be happy with. So the Kerry move could have been his attempt to hold the spotlight.
12:01 PM PT:
State Dept aide: Kerry will be in Mexico on May 21 (day of Benghazi hearing), which Issa "would have known" if he'd reached out vs. subpoena
— @jbendery