Chair Trey Gowdy, ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings, and Hillary Clinton have given their opening statements and questions have begun.
Gowdy's opening was simultaneously defensive and prosecutorial and thoroughly political beginning to end, while being almost entirely about how non-political the committee's investigation is. Cummings dismantled Gowdy's claims to non-partisanship, which wasn't hard to do. And Clinton put herself largely above the political fray, opening by speaking about those who died in Benghazi and making the case for American diplomacy despite the risks that diplomats have long faced and will continue to face.
As questioning begins, Rep. Peter Roskam stops and points out each time Clinton's staff hands her a note. Clearly he thinks there are points to be scored here, though exactly what that might be is not clear, especially since Clinton remains poised and courteous in response to his bizarre behavior.
You can watch a live stream of the hearing here.
Previous coverage on the hearing can be found here.
8:16 AM PT (Kerry Eleveld): GOP Rep. Brooks compares Clinton's stacks of emails from 2012 vs. 2011. "I'm troubled by what i see in these piles." Very astute. Certainly this is the type of precise detail we have been looking for from the Benghazi committee. Finally, we're getting somewhere.
8:21 AM PT: Brooks really thinks she has something here with Clinton's email mentioning Libya more in 2011 than in 2012. Clinton patiently explains that email wasn't the only way she communicated with people—and that in fact she didn't mostly communicate by email but rather by meetings, memos, secure phone calls—and that after the attacks, naturally communication about Libya moved to more in-person communication. She somehow refrains from rolling her eyes or saying "duh."
8:47 AM PT: Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama is the next Republican questioner after Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth goes in depth on what's being done to protect people on the ground. Roby continues with the line of attack that Clinton was less interested in Benghazi in 2012 than in 2011, citing an email between staffers from early 2012 in which one described Clinton asking if State still had a presence in Benghazi.
Clinton says of course she knew State had a presence in Benghazi and that they were assessing how to move forward with it. And then she expands on several things the U.S. was doing in Libya, visits State Department officials made to the country. Translation: Hell, yes, I knew what was going on.
Roby: But this email! Clinton: I can't speak to what other people emailed and I don't remember this exchance. "We had members of the administration and Congress visiting Benghazi. So of course I knew we had a presence in Benghazi." Isn't what Roby's asking, Clinton suggests, what was actually being done? Not so much, apparently. Roby wants to talk about people in Benghazi being on lockdown. Clinton asks who exactly sent this email because she is so confused. Roby gives two names. "They were not on my staff." As in, they were State Department employees among thousands of others, but not on the secretary's staff, not close to Clinton. Benghazi, Clinton explains, was not an embassy or even a consulate and there hadn't been a decision about what it would be, it was not a permanent facility.
Roby really doesn't want to let go of the emails, but is short on time so moves on to security staffing. Clinton points out that Ambassador Stevens went out into Benghazi on September 10, so clearly he felt comfortable. He had two personal security officers and there were three on-site, so he had the five security officers he was supposed to have in that site.
Roby leans forward, eyes in angry slits, looking for the last word. Clinton calmly claims said last word.
9:01 AM PT (Kerry Eleveld): Democratic Rep. Smith notes that he hasn't seen "a single solitary thing" that hasn't been discussed repeatedly already. The question is, he adds, have we found anything different substantively that tells us something about what happened in Benghazi? "No... this committee is focused on you!" he says, pointing out that the CIA and other relevant players aren't in the room (because the GOP cancelled their testimonies). Smith repeatedly notes the $4.7 million already spent on this investigation. Clinton says the balance between diplomacy and threat assessment is a constant balance and the security detail gets it right 99 percent of the time, but "the terrorists only have to get it right once." Smith notes: "If you don't have a budget and you don't have an appropriations bill, how can you figure out how much money you can spend?" Clinton says that the kind of "dysfunction" we have been living with in the U.S. government "hurts us" and "has a lot of consequences." Smith concludes: "Congress has to do its job." That would be the GOP-led Congress.
9:13 AM PT (Barbara Morrill): Republican Lynn Westmoreland (GA) insults security experts in Benghazi. Clinton says they're the best there is and that she won't ignore denigrating them on the record. Westmoreland snorts, says they screwed up.
9:18 AM PT (Barbara Morrill): Republican Mike Pompeo (KS) wants to know why on one was fired after Benghazi. Clinton says she had to follow the law. Then asking about security requests and why they didn't reach her desk while she got emails from Sidney Blumenthal (and implied Blumenthal is a liar). Doesn't seem to believe that the SoS gets a lot of email. Pompeo has a chart showing security requests and new security. Clinton agrees that all requests weren't authorized. As we've known for four years.