Just days before Hillary Clinton testifies publicly before the Benghazi Committee, the committee's Democrats are
knocking down some of the common Republican accusations against Clinton. Pointing out (again) ways the Republicans on the committee have let their partisan agenda show, from all the canceled hearings and interviews with people not named Hillary Clinton to the barrage of press releases about Clinton, the Democrats are taking it another step. In a new report, they reveal that they've asked the committee's witnesses a consistent set of questions aimed at finding out if any of those Republican accusations are true. The results:
In stark contrast to these baseless political attacks, the 54 individuals who have now been interviewed by the Select Committee have identified:
- no evidence that Secretary Clinton ordered the military to stand down on the night of the attacks;
- no evidence that Secretary Clinton personally approved or ordered a reduction of security in Benghazi prior to the attacks;
- no evidence that Secretary Clinton pressed the United States into supporting the United Nations campaign in Libya under false pretenses;
- no evidence that Secretary Clinton or her aides oversaw an operation at the State Department to destroy or scrub embarrassing documents; and
- no evidence that Secretary Clinton or any other U.S. official directed or authorized the U.S. Mission in Benghazi to transfer weapons from Libya to another country.
These are not fringe Republican theories. As chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Darrell Issa floated the "Clinton told the secretary of defense to stand down" theory, for instance. Republican presidential candidates have been fully on board with some of these accusations. And of course, we've got this whole multi-million dollar special committee focusing its attention on Clinton. So it's useful to know what the dozens of people committee chair Trey Gowdy is so proud of having interviewed have said did not happen. Heaven knows he's not going to tell us.
Elijah Cummings, the committee's ranking Democrat, called for it to be disbanded, saying "This report shows that no witnesses we interviewed substantiated these wild Republican conspiracy theories about Secretary Clinton and Benghazi. It’s time to bring this taxpayer-funded fishing expedition to an end."