Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) busted House Republicans for trying to bury their own Benghazi report by releasing on the Friday night before the Thanksgiving holiday.
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Transcript via CNN:
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, I have great respect for Lindsey.
But it reminds me of a lawyer’s maxim that, if the law is not on your side, emphasize the facts. If the facts aren’t on your side, bang on the table. I think we heard Lindsey banging on the table quite a bit this morning.
This was a two-year exhaustive investigation. It was released by the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee and had the support of all the Republicans and Democrats on the committee. It’s designed to be the definitive word on what happened from the intelligence community’s point of view.
And nothing I think Lindsey said at all contradicts what is in that report. And calling it crap doesn’t change the fact that it was an exhaustive and objective review. So, I think we have had really the final word on many of these conspiracy theories, on the fact there was no stand-down order, there was no political interference, there was no effort to politically spin the talking points.
In fact, as the report points out, there were 21 intelligence assessments at the time that it began as a protest. Those turned out to be wrong, but there was no malice in getting it wrong.
BORGER: So, do you think the…
SCHIFF: And I hope that this will guide the select committee.
BORGER: Well, do you think the — the…
SCHIFF: And, you know, I think the — yes.
BORGER: … the administration is exonerated here?
SCHIFF: I think it is exonerated, certainly not the — in the sense that it shows there was adequate security at the diplomatic facility. There wasn’t. There’s been no contesting that. But in terms of whether there was an effort to cover up or spin
or illegal trafficking of arms by the CIA or any of those conspiracies…
BORGER: Well…
SCHIFF: … they have been completely vindicated.
And I hope — really, the only interesting question here, but it answers itself, is, why is this report being released on the Friday before Thanksgiving? Why is it being released in between major developments on immigration and Iran?
BORGER: So, you think it was kind of a dump? So you think it was a dump, so no one would pay attention to it?
SCHIFF: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Exactly.
BORGER: We are.
SCHIFF: When you spend two years doing the definitive report, you want to trumpet it to the high heavens. You don’t want to bury it on the Friday before Thanksgiving.
BORGER: But let me…
SCHIFF: But I will tell you this. If the — yes. If the select committee comes up with a similar conclusion, it will release its report on Christmas Eve.
House Republicans tried to dump the report on a Friday night before a holiday in the attempt to bury it so that nobody would notice that their own committee did not find any evidence to prove their baseless conspiracy theories.
Rep. Schiff was correct. If the House Select Committee on Benghazi finds no evidence of wrongdoing, that report will be released sometime before hell freezes over. Benghazi has become such an ingrained myth within the Republican Party that Sen. Lindsey Graham when straight Benghazi truther when confronted with reality on CNN.
Benghazi is their great Republican hope for defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016. It doesn’t matter to the GOP if 1,000 investigations find no wrong doing. Republicans will still try to smear Hillary Clinton with their Benghazi tall tales.
Republicans tried to bury their latest Benghazi black eye, but they failed. The American people have never bought into the scandal because their BS detector tells them that there is nothing to see here. Republicans don’t care that they sound crazy every time they mention Benghazi. They are convinced that they can win with a conspiracy theory, so reality be damned, and full steam ahead to a special investigation into Benghazi.
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
