Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Committee on Government and Oversight Reform, said he thinks Rep. Trey Gowdy has done a “wonderful job” leading the investigation into Benghazi.
“Trey Gowdy is first class,” Chaffetz told the Washington Examiner in an interview Thursday. “He runs a professional organization.”
The Utah Republican acknowledged the fact that tensions on the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which Gowdy chairs, have reached a boiling point.
“Sometimes there’s more flailing and demonstrable exercised waving of the arms when Democrats don’t have much material to work with,” Chaffetz said. “It’s just intended, I think, in the Benghazi committee, to be a bit of a distraction from the actual truth and facts. That’s my own personal opinion.”
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His comments came midway through a contentious hearing with Hillary Clinton Thursday, during which Gowdy and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s top Democrat, clashed over how to conduct the panel’s interview.
“There’s nobody better than Trey Gowdy,” Chaffetz said. “I know they’re going to try to tear him apart, criticize this or that.”
The hearing was widely seen as a victory for Clinton, who skated through hours of questions without stumbling.
But the select committee’s work will continue, with Democrats opting Friday to remain on the panel despite their objections.
Chaffetz blamed the lengthy investigation on the State Department’s refusal to provide requested documents, noting his own committee ran into the same problem when they probed the 2012 Benghazi attack in the past.
“Still, to do this day, there is three years that have passed since the attack, they still have not certified that they have given all the documents to the select committee,” he said. “And it’s a problem that we were running into at the oversight committee.”
“We were delayed for months by the so-called Accountability Review Board, but we know what a sham that is,” Chaffetz added, referring to an internal agency review that took place shortly after the attack.
Clinton cited the ARB’s findings extensively during the hearing Thursday. Chaffetz blasted the board for its hastily-completed investigation.
“They didn’t thoroughly look at witnesses, documents, there are a host of other things that they could have and should have done. They didn’t even interview Secretary Clinton herself,” he said. “I think it was sloppily done, accelerated to try to put it behind them, and I think had no independence.”
