In a letter, former Sec. Clinton’s attorney David Kendall took all the air out the Republican hopes to drag the Benghazi Committee into the 2016 election, and destroyed their latest conspiracy before it got going.
Kendall wrote to Benghazi Select Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-OK) that Clinton wants to testify before the committee without delay:
In November, I informed your staff of Secretary Clinton’s willingness to testify before the Select Committee on Benghazi. In the succeeding months, she has reiterated her willingness, and I do so again on her behalf. There is no reason to delay her appearance, or have her testify in a private interview.
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While Secretary Clinton has testified before committees in both the House and the Senate about the tragic events in Benghazi, she has made clear that she will voluntarily testify publicly again before the Select Committee and, at that time, is happy to continue to answer any questions the Select Committee may have about her email use.
Earlier in the day, Speaker of the House John Boehner claimed that the Benghazi investigation was going to stretch into 2016 because Hillary Clinton and President Obama are refusing to turn over “the facts.”
The truth is that House Republicans are trying to delay Clinton’s testimony in order to use it as an issue during the 2016 presidential election.
The ranking Democratic member of the Benghazi Select Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) put his finger on the real reason why Republicans want former Sec. Clinton to testify behind closed doors, “Secretary Clinton agreed to testify months ago—in public and under oath—so the Select Committee’s claim that it has no choice but to subject her to a private staff interview is inaccurate. Rather than drag out this political charade into 2016 and selectively leak portions of a closed-door interview, the Committee should schedule the public hearing, make her records public, and re-focus its efforts on the attacks in Benghazi.”
Clinton wants to testify in public because she has nothing to hide. By calling Boehner and Gowdy’s bluff, she is painting Republicans into a corner. The House Republicans are trying to imply that she is guilty of wrongdoing by creating the false perception that Clinton is unwilling to testify. Sec. Clinton and her team are masterfully exposing the partisan motivations behind the latest Benghazi investigation.
Hillary Clinton laid to waste the latest Republican attack on her before it ever got started. The message to Republicans is that Hillary Clinton isn’t going to engage in their games, and if they want to dabble in conspiracies, the former Sec. of State is ready to make them pay.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
