Clinton slams McCarthy’s Benghazi comments

McCarthy’s “candid admission”, he writes, exposes the true aim of the Benghazi committee – “exploiting the death of four Americans for partisan political gain”. But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s comments about the House Select Committee on Benghazi negatively affecting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers have caused a frenzy in Congress. McCarthy said. “Her numbers are dropping. Why?”

House Republicans on Wednesday sharply repudiated Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s comments that suggested the Benghazi oversight committee had succeeded by tarnishing Hillary Clinton, saying it undermined their party’s messaging on a key issue and raised questions about his ability to be the GOP’s top communicator. Boehner said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the House will pass a Senate spending bill, with the help of votes from Democrats, to keep the government operating without defunding Planned Parenthood. But one of them, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., acknowledged that Republicans were unlikely to do that and said Democrats for now would continue their work on the panel. “I’ve heard from a lot of members of the Freedom Caucus who are very concerned about having a leader … that we don’t just go out of the frying pan and into the fire”.

Clinton served as Secretary of State during the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, when Islamist militants killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and 3 other Americans. “I’d advise him to say something” publicly explaining the comments, Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican, told Reuters.

McCarthy of California is the front-runner to replace Boehner, who announced last week that he’ll leave Congress at the end of October.

Eight congressional investigations have cleared the State Department and military of wrongdoing, but House Republicans blame former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

That’s led a few conservatives on Capitol Hill and off to grouse that at a moment when House Republicans should be charting a new course, they’re rushing to put a different set of faces on the same set of problems.

For his part, Boehner did his best not to pile on McCarthy, releasing a statement denying any political motives for the committee’s formation or investigative tenor, deflecting blame to Clinton and President Obama for doing “everything they can to delay, derail and stop” the investigation.

Grant said Price could bridge the divide between far-right Republicans and more moderates, which Boehner struggled to do throughout his time as speaker.

But conservatives are dissatisfied with their choices for the top jobs, leading to a short-lived movement Tuesday to draft the respected chairman of the Benghazi committee, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., to run for majority leader. Asked whether the comments could threaten McCarthy’s chances of becoming speaker, Amash said, “I think it should be a concern”. Judicial Watch, the watchdog group that obtained Benghazi-era emails about White House talking points – Boehner’s stated justification for creating the committee – greeted the speaker’s retirement by saying he’d largely whiffed.