Joseph McCarthy infamously used the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Senate’s Permanent Select Committee on Investigations, both of which functioned like select committees, to target suspected communists in civilian government, Hollywood, and – leading to his eventual undoing – the Army. Her testimony is just a warm-up act, though-next Thursday, Clinton herself will testify before the panel in a public hearing.
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Gowdy was in South Carolina on Friday and did not attend the session in which committee staff and attorneys questioned Abedin. She was a top State Department aide when Clinton served as secretary of state.
The panel interviewed Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan last month.
Hanna, of Oneida County, reaffirmed his support for the committee Thursday, and said his remarks were “aimed broadly at partisanship and politics in Washington”. Gowdy said the comments by Rep. Richard Hanna were “unfortunate” and misinformed.
“Time and time again, Trey has proven that he is the best person to ensure the American people know the truth about what happened in Benghazi”, Boehner, R-Ohio, told The Associated Press in a statement. When Clinton announced her presidential campaign, the investigations began to center on her (and are now more focused on her use of a private email server).
“Who was one step away from becoming speaker, to tell you that this is all about a taxpayer-funded political effort to derail the campaign of Hillary Clinton, ladies and gentlemen, that is a problem”, Cummings said.
Clinton aides noted Abedin has been “entirely cooperative”, but they too were questioning the rationale for grilling her. He said she had no “policy responsibilities” or “operational possibilities”, and that she wasn’t with Clinton on the night of the attacks.
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?”
Only three lawmakers attended the briefing: Pompeo, Westmoreland and top Democrat Elijah Cummings (Md.).
Addressing questions about the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton repeatedly stressed that the differences between her and her Democratic rivals are “nothing like the differences that we all have with the Republicans”.
The Obama administration and Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, has been criticized for lax security at the compound and for a slow response to the attack, as well as statements afterwards inaccurately attributing the attack to a spontaneous riot in response to an anti-Islam YouTube video mocked Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
That consultancy was founded by a Bill Clinton adviser, Doug Band, and a former diplomat in Clinton’s State Department, Declan Kelly.
Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said that it is “unclear why the committee is focused on her, given her lack of knowledge about the events surrounding Benghazi”, reported Bloomberg’s Jennifer Epstein.
He also insisted the committee will not bow to Democratic demands to end the investigation that has already gone on longer than the 1970s Watergate probe. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee”.
Gowdy goes over with his staff the “questions to be asked, and he trusts his colleagues and staff to then ask substantive, investigatory questions”, Ware said.
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Her messages, a few of which have come out in separate Freedom of Information actions from Clinton’s, did show she sometimes corresponded with Clinton Foundation officials on her State Department account.
