Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi are criticizing President Obama for declining to answer questions related to the 2012 attacks, a line of inquiry that the White House has dismissed as an intrusion on the executive branch’s authority.
Republicans have sought to have the president answer questions about his response to the Sept. 11, 2012, assault on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.
GOP frustrations over the administration’s refusal to provide responses from Obama tipped into the open Sunday, with a committee spokesman blasting the administration in comments reported by Politico.
“It’s no surprise President Obama would rather take questions from Derek Jeter than answer questions for the American people about the Benghazi terrorist attacks, which followed what he himself has called his worst mistake — failing to plan for what happened after the State Department pushed U.S. intervention in Libya,” committee spokesman Jamal Ware told the publication, referring to Obama’s interview with the former professional baseball player.
Ware’s comment came in response to a suggestion from a White House counsel that the committee demanded responses from Obama for partisan reasons.
The White House lawyer, Neil Eggleston, also commented that he had advised Obama not to respond because the congressional inquiry would be an infringement of the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.
The committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner Sunday afternoon.
Obama has faced accusations and questions from Republicans about his response to the attacks since they took place nearly four years ago, including in a debate with his then-challenger for the presidency, Mitt Romney. The Benghazi committee, which Democrats have sought to portray as a partisan venture intended to harm Hillary Clinton’s electoral changes, is expected to release a final report on its investigation in the weeks ahead.
