A clip of NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell confronting a Republican congressman was used to defend Hillary Clinton during the former secretary of State’s Benghazi testimony on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
The clip, taken from Sunday’s edition of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” shows GOP Rep. Mike Pompeo, who sits on the Benghazi select committee, accusing Clinton of receiving “most of her intelligence” at the State Department from her longtime friend Sidney Blumenthal, rather than government officials.
“That is factually untrue,” Mitchell said at the time. “Relied on Mr. Blumenthal for most of her intelligence?”
“Take a look at the email transcripts,” said Pompeo.
Mitchell shot back, “I cover the State Department. That is just factually not correct.”
The video was shown by Democratic Rep. Linda Sanchez, who said it “defies all logic” and that Mitchell “correctly called him out on something that was a falsehood.”
Clinton repeated Mitchell, “Well, it was factually untrue.”
Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner media desk on whether she took exception with being used to defend Clinton.
During the hearing on Thursday, Pompeo questioned Clinton on why her emails leading up to the 2012 terrorist attack on an American consulate in Benghazi show more direct correspondence from Blumenthal on the matter than with government officials or Libya Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the attack.
Clinton said at one point during the hearing that much of her official business was not conducted over email but in secure phone calls, private meetings and through classified paper documents. She also said that she did not believe Stevens had her email address, though she has consistently described him as a “friend” in the past.
