House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is in a heap of trouble with both Republicans and Democrats just eight days before he hopes to get elected as the new speaker of the House, because of what he said on the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
On Fox News Tuesday night, McCarthy said the Benghazi committee helped bring down Clinton’s poll numbers.
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” McCarthy said. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.”
Those comments outraged Republicans like Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who on Wednesday night said the Benghazi committee is about investigating the death of four Americans in Libya, and isn’t aimed at tearing down Clinton at all. Chaffetz said McCarthy needs to apologize.
“That was not the reason we started. We started because there were four dead Americans and we didn’t have answers,” Chaffetz said on CNN.
A spokesman for McCarthy said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that the focus of the committee is still on the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.
“The Select Committee on Benghazi has always been focused on getting the facts about the attacks on our diplomatic facilities in Libya that led to the death of four Americans,” spokesman Matt Sparks said. “This was the right thing to do and the Committee has worked judiciously and honestly.”
He also said one result of the committee’s effort are questions that Clinton has so far been unable to answer.
“As a result of that work, there are now numerous investigations being conducted — including the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” he added. “These inquiries have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the consequences of what the former Secretary has done and her confusing, conflicting, and demonstrably false responses.”
But Democrats are also pouncing, and say McCarthy’s remarks show that the real purpose of the Benghazi committee is to bring down Clinton, something they have charged for months.
“The Republican speaker-in-waiting admitted to something that we have all known all along, and that is that the real motive of the Select Committee on Benghazi was simply to politically attack, drive down the poll numbers, for Hillary Clinton,” Dan Kildee, D-Mich., said on the House floor Thursday.
“Give me a break, this has gone too far,” he said.
“We always knew that Kevin McCarthy and the Republican caucus had gotten together to set up this Benghazi task force in order to do a political stunt, but I never thought they would admit it,” said Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. “This is a scandal, people.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor Thursday that it’s “appalling” that Republicans would use the committee for political reasons. He also noted that Senate Democrats have again asked House Republicans to abandon the committee completely, in a Wednesday letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
“It is unconscionable that the US House of Representatives is continuing to use millions of dollars in taxpayer funds for political purposes, and we urge you to immediately disband the Select Committee on Benghazi,” that letter said.
On Wednesday, the top Democrat on the Benghazi committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said McCarthy admitted that the committee’s purpose is entirely political.
“It is shameful that Republicans have used this tragedy and the deaths of our fellow Americans for political gain,” he said. “Republicans have blatantly abused their authority in Congress by spending more than $4.5 million in taxpayer funds to pay for a political campaign against Hillary Clinton.”
McCarthy himself had not issued any public comment or apology as of Thursday morning, but Democrats were expected to continue hammering away throughout the day. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was due to speak with reporters mid-morning.
