WASHINGTON, D.C.- This morning, the House Benghazi Committee released an 800-page document detailing a two-year investigation into the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012, that took the lives of four Americans including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
In this morning press conference, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) who is the Chair of the Benghazi Committee condemned both Hillary Clinton and the White House for blaming the attack on a YouTube video, instead of calling it an act of terrorism. Rep. Gowdy went on to say “there were only three assets that made it to Benghazi. Two unarmed drones and the team from Tripoli who sent themselves.”
Rep. Gowdy was also critical of Washington insiders who had information in real time and chose not to send anyone to Benghazi after then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta ordered assets be sent. Panetta resigned six months later.
Source: CSPAN
David M. Herszenhorn from the New York Times reports that the committee’s final document includes new details into what happened during the attack, information setting the scene of the attack, and delivers harsh criticisms to the Department of Defense, the CIA, and the State Department – mainly presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in her role as Secretary of State.
The Republican report was inconclusive in its condemnation of wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton as Rep. Gowdy refused to make the report about presidential politics. However, other members of the committee like Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) gave separate reports in which they were very critical of the former Secretary. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) gave the harshest criticism (see video below) of the Clinton/Obama administration stating that there was a cover-up on behalf of the administration in order to preserve the image of the administration’s diplomatic success in Libya.
Source: CSPAN
Emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server were used as evidence by the committee to further explain that the inflammatory email was not the reason for the attack, but a terrorist attack.
Republican and Democratic members of the Committee seemed divided in their reports. In a press release yesterday, House Republicans slammed the 339-page report by Democrats. In today’s press conference House Republicans reiterated that Democrats made the Committee and Report about politics, not House Republicans.
The press release confirms House Republican Statements as the report by Democrats includes Clinton 334 times, Republicans 200 times and Stevens 85 times. The name Trump, as in the presumptive Republican nominee, was mentioned more times than Doherty, one of the four men who lost their lives in Benghazi.
Voters in Minnesota will be left to decide for themselves in November if the report should affect the Presidential election.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
