He didn't actually use the words "witch hunt."
It's been a rough week for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. First, she was "
privately urged" not to run for one of the top three leadership posts in the House, even as all her clearly more capable male colleagues jockey for position. Then she had to endure some pretty harsh backlash to
a bombshell statement dropped by one of the those more capable male counterparts—Kevin McCarthy, to be exact.
Rodgers, who holds the No. 4 post as conference chair, defended the statement of the presumptive House speaker after he voluntarily pulled back the curtain on what the Benghazi commission really was—a political witch hunt to take down Hillary Clinton. Tierney Sneed reports on the scene at Thursday's Washington Ideas Forum:
According to The Huffington Post, the audience booed, hissed and yelled "You're lying!" while McMorris Rodgers attempted to deny that the Benghazi committee was politically-motivated. She had been asked by ABC's Jonathan Karl to weigh in on comments made by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in which he boasted that the committee's investigation had taken a toll on Hillary Clinton's poll numbers.
"I do believe that the work that we're doing in the Benghazi committee is very important," McMorris Rodgers said, during which, according to the Huffington Post, the audience's disapproval only grew louder.
"We've not yet had important questions answered," she continued.
Sell it, Cathy. But don't expect any credit for mopping up your No. 1's mess.