Stevens also said that “it doesn’t look like there’s anything new” in the Benghazi reports released by House Republicans and Democrats earlier this week after two years spent investigating the 2012 attacks, and she expressed frustration with the politicization of the tragedy that killed her brother.
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“I think it’s pretty clear it’s time to move on”, she said.
Gowdy said Tuesday that the report documents that the US was slow to send help to the Americans in Benghazi “because of an obsession with hurting the Libyans’ feelings”.
Almost four years ago, the Libya attacks became immediate political fodder, given their timing in the weeks before President Barack Obama’s re-election, and that has not abated despite seven previous congressional investigations.
Those four deaths included U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, whose deaths are still felt to this day and in this election.
In the days immediately after the shocking assault, which happened on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, some U.S. officials wrongly claimed it had sprung out of a protest against an anti-Muslim YouTube video. Democrats have said the goal of the report is to undermine Clinton’s presidential bid.
Still, Republicans point to Benghazi as a major failure by the administration and by Clinton during her tenure leading the State Department.
In a statement regarding the findings of the report, Republican Representative Mike Pompeo accused the Obama administration of putting politics ahead of the lives of Americans.
Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee accuse the Obama administration of stonewalling important documents and witnesses in a report on the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
Military leaders have testified repeatedly that they didn’t have intelligence information on what was happening or the resources on alert to respond in time to the attacks, which occurred at two separate locations over 13 hours.
State Department officials acknowledge that security at the Benghazi facility was inadequate in 2012, adding that improvements have been made at US facilities around the globe.
“In leaking out select portions from their report in the middle of the night, without even allowing some of the committee’s own members to see it, the Republican members are clearly seeking to avoid any fact-checking of their discredited, conspiracy theories”, Brian Fallon, spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said in the statement. The committee disclosed that she had used a private email server to conduct government business while serving as secretary of state, a practice that has drawn widespread scrutiny, including an FBI investigation.
House Benghazi Committee Democrats: Military could have done nothing differently that would have prevented the attack.
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Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said key questions were raised by the report, such as “Why were we still in Benghazi when nearly every other country had left?”
