The Benghazi Committee Republicans have been trying all day, through around five hours of testimony, to produce a damning viral-quality clip to use against Hillary Clinton in her presidential campaign. Though they've produced plenty to make their base happy, they have yet to come up with anything that's likely to broaden the appeal of their anti-Clinton argument. Instead, Clinton has been widely televised speaking emotionally about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi—again, nothing likely to sway her committed haters, but a good set of images to have showing up on the news.
Going into this, Republicans needed to show that the Benghazi Committee is not partisan and is seeking the truth rather than targeting Hillary Clinton. They don't seem likely to have convinced many people of that. But they seem determined to ratchet up their questioning in hopes of getting Clinton to lose her cool. That could make the whole thing worth it, for them, so look for increasingly aggressive questioning.
You can watch a live stream of the hearing here.
Previous coverage of the hearing can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here.
2:03 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): And they're back. Bear in mind that we're entering the eighth hour of this hearing and are still not through the second round of questions. They're planning on four rounds. (Not kidding.)
2:12 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): In response to Rep. Roby's complaint about congress being blamed for underfunding security, Clinton points out that congress allots the money for specific items and they were underfunded despite requests from the Obama administration for more money.
2:26 PM PT: Ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings delves into the claim, peddled by many Republicans, that Clinton personally issued a "stand down" order to then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. That accusation has been thoroughly discredited, and Cummings reviews all of the investigations that have found it to be false despite the claims of Republicans like Rep. Darrell Issa. Clinton firmly says that no, she did not issue a stand down order and she knows that she and everyone else involved desperately wished the military had been able to get to Benghazi in time to defend the diplomats there.
2:53 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): Republican Jim Jordan is back and still yelling about the video. Also says of the 12-point statement Clinton put out on 09/11/2012, he'll only mention one point. Clinton laughs. And then helps him out by reading the other 11 points.
3:03 PM PT: Jim Jordan is still shouting, still apparently unable to wrap his mind around the idea that everything about the attacks in Benghazi and elsewhere was not immediately known, that there were multiple intelligence experts with different views of what happened, and that Clinton's evolving statements about what happened reflected what she was hearing at the times she made them.
Jordan has also apparently forgotten that he's not supposed to interrupt and bully because it will look bad. Not only is he interrupting and bullying, he's smirking while he does so.