The House Benghazi Select Committee on Wednesday will conduct its first hearing on the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on U.S. facilities in Libya that left four Americans dead.
“There are still facts to learn about Benghazi and information that needs to be explained in greater detail to the American people,” committee chairman and former federal prosecutor Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said earlier this this month. “And this committee will do just that.”
The South Carolina congressman and former prosecutor has achieved notoriety on a national scale for not just his knowledge of the law, but also for his sharp, unflinching and blunt style of questioning.
Here to prove that point, and illustrate exactly why Gowdy was chosen to head the special committee, are nine of the congressman’s most heated and enthusiastic moments from recent hearings and pressers on Benghazi and the IRS targeting scandals:
1. Benghazi: “I don’t give a damn whose careers are ruined!”
2. Benghazi: “I want to know why we were lied to.”
3. Benghazi: Questions that need to be answered.
4. Gowdy to Admiral Mullen: Why didn’t you interview former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?
5. IRS: Gowdy explains the need for special counsel on the targeting scandal.
6. IRS: The scandal, continued.
7. IRS: Gowdy and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen faceoff.
8. IRS: ‘This is not a training issue.’
9. IRS: Gowdy and former IRS Commissioner Shulman faceoff.
Gowdy is joined on the committee by Republican colleagues, including Reps. Susan Brooks of Indiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Peter Roskam of Illinois, Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia.
The committee also includes a handful of reluctant Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, Adam Smith of Washington, Adam Schiff of California, Linda Sanchez of California, and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois.
