The head of a new House committee created to investigate the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, chastised critics who have questioned the panel’s relevance, saying he won’t apologize for being redundant in order to ensure all questions are answered.
“The mark of a professional — indeed, the mark of character — is to do a good job with a task even if you don’t think the task should have been assigned in the first place,” said committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., during opening statements of the panel’s first public hearing Wednesday. “Given the gravity of the issues at hand, I would rather run the risk of answering a question twice than run the risk of not answering it once.”
“I am willing to reconsider previously held beliefs, in light of new facts and evidence, and I would encourage my colleagues and others to do the same.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the panel’s senior Democrat, and others in his party have complained the committee is nothing more than Republican grandstanding since five other House committees — most notably the Oversight and Government Reform Committee led by Rep. Darrell Issa of California — have already investigated the attacks.
But Cummings generally downplayed those criticisms during during Wednesday’s hearing, vowing to work to make the panel effective.
“I know every member of this panel is dedicated to ensuring that our work honors the memories of the four Americans who were killed in Benghazi. Their names must etched in our memory banks,” he said.
“We are about the business of trying to save lives. That’s a very serious mission. I sincerely hope the select committee will stay on a course of constructive reform and keep this goal as our North Star.”
Four American were killed during the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks at a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. The Republican-run House voted in May to create a select committee to investigate what led up to the attacks and the Obama administration’s response.
The hearing looked at the implementation of security recommendations made by the State Department’s Accountability Review Board that was set up to investigate the surroundings that led to the attacks.
The review board issued 29 recommendations in late 2012 after concluding that “systemic” State Department failures led to inadequate security at the diplomatic outpost.
Gowdy suggested the State Department hasn’t taken the recommendations seriously.
“We do not suffer from a lack of recommendations. We do suffer from a lack of implementing and enacting those recommendations, and that has to end,” the chairman said.
The 12-member panel, which includes seven Republicans and five Democrats.
