Led by Chairman Darrell Issa, Republicans on the House Government Oversight Committee—
aka the Committee to
Stop Hillary Clinton 2016—have leaked yet another draft report on Benghazi, this time taking aim at the State Department's post-Benghazi Accountability Review Board investigation ... and sure enough,
Republicans say it all comes down to Hillary Clinton:
The State Department review of the Benghazi terror attack let senior officials off the hook for the policy decisions that led to sub-standard security at the U.S. compound in eastern Libya, according to a draft House committee report obtained by Fox News. [...]
A central finding is that the department, as a result of the board’s findings, meted out discipline to four mid-level officials (who were later re-instated anyway), but the board glossed over the actions and decisions of senior-level officials. The report claims the internal review identified many of the security problems with the Benghazi compound, while ignoring who was behind the policy decisions that led to them.
Keep in mind that this isn't a report on the attack—it's a report on the State Department's Accountability Review Board
report in the aftermath of the attack and on the State Department's reaction to the ARB's report. And its main contention seems to be that both the ARB and the State Department were essentially protecting Hillary Clinton and senior State Department officials:
Specifically, the report points to the authorization by Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy to continue operating the ad hoc compound in Benghazi. [...] The report also noted that it’s unclear which other senior leaders were involved in this decision but said it is likely, based on email evidence, that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s views played a role in the decision-making. [...] The draft interim report, which was produced by the Republican majority, states clearly that Clinton wanted to extend the Benghazi operation.
Okay, the idea that Hillary Clinton's views influenced State Department policy-making is not exactly an Earth-shattering revelation. She was Secretary of State, after all—it's not exactly a secret that she ran the place. And she has taken responsibility for Benghazi, as any administrator in her position should.
But Republicans apparently believe that she has as much blood on her hands as the people who carried out the attacks, and that any report that does anything less than indict her for murder is a coverup. Either that, or maybe they're just scared about her continuing good poll numbers.