Democrats said the military could not have done anything differently that night to save the lives of the Americans. Republicans charged that Rice and other figures were misleading the public for political reasons.
Advertisement
But Democrats, who released their own report on Monday to pre-empt the GOP version, say Republicans have been on a political witch hunt against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton without uncovering anything new.
The newspaper notes that Clinton had taken responsibility for the State Department’s role before she was called to testify before the committee.
House Intelligence Committee, bipartisan, November 2014: USA diplomatic facility in Benghazi was insufficiently protected. “I think it’s pretty clear it’s time to move on”, she said during a campaign stop.
And while Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy carefully avoided saying that Clinton lied, Brooks came close.
But there is some material in the report that will feed the narrative of those who believe the USA administration was too slow to react to mounting danger in Libya and too quick to blame unconnected protests about a US-made video. With a final drum roll, the committee has absolved Clinton of all wrongdoing related to Benghazi.
This in turn will further raise the temperature in an already bitter campaign to succeed US President Barack Obama in the White House – a campaign in which Clinton herself is now the Democratic frontrunner.
That Jordan and Pompeo made a decision to release their own report to complement Gowdy’s suggests there was division within the GOP’s ranks over just how far to go in criticizing Clinton and Obama – a key possibility to watch as the impact of the report becomes clear in the coming days.
“Politics were put ahead of the lives of Americans, and while the administration had made excuses and blamed the challenges posed by time and distance, the truth is that they did not try”.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee faulted the Obama administration Tuesday in a report on the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
Fallon says the way in which the committee released the report shows the GOP members of the committee “are clearly seeking to avoid any fact-checking of their discredited conspiracy theories”.
The House Select Committee on Benghazi released its 800-page report Tuesday on the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead, wrapping up its two-year, $7 million investigation. There has been finger-pointing on both sides over security at the US diplomatic outpost in Benghazi and whether the White House initially tried to portray the assault as a protest over an offensive, anti-Muslim video, instead of a calculated terrorist attack.
Trump has regularly blamed Clinton for the death of Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, and three others in attacks in Benghazi by militia groups on September 11, 2012, and said the incident undercuts her argument that she is the stronger candidate on national security.
Gowdy says the Libyan forces that evacuated Americans from the Central Intelligence Agency annex in Benghazi were not affiliated with any of the militias the Central Intelligence Agency or State Department had developed a relationship with during the previous 18 months.
Advertisement
Democrats accuse the Republicans of seeking to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid but Brooks suggested that political motives were what drove the Obama Administration.
