The Huffington Post allowed an anonymous Democrat staffer to condemn Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., for skipping key interviews held by the Select Committee on Benghazi, even though ranking Democrats involved in the investigation have missed many of the same meetings.
The South Carolina congressman and head of the Benghazi probe has “skipped interviews with top intelligence officials and attack survivors,” the Huffington Post reported Friday. “[I]f you look at the witness interviews he’s attended, and not attended, there is a clear theme: Gowdy is mostly there for the people directly connected to Clinton.”
For certain media figures, including MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, the report is “extremely damning.”
The special committee has been tasked with investigating the events surrounding the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya. As such, the committee is looking hard at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the attack. Gowdy’s team rejects the idea that he’s only participating when people close to Clinton testify, and says the Republican lawmaker has attended several of the interviews.
But a “House Democratic aide familiar with the committee’s process” said he has attended only 10 of the 53 interviews, the Huffington Post reported.
Gowdy reportedly attended interviews featuring Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff when she was secretary of State, Jake Sullivan, Clinton’s former deputy chief of staff, and longtime aide and advisor Sidney Blumenthal.
But he apparently skipped interviews that included, “three of the four diplomatic security agents who survived the terrorist attack … [and] CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell [and] former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Flynn,” the Huffington Post reported.
Gowdy’s selective attendance, “would seem to suggest where his priorities lie,” the anonymous aide told the online news group.
However, though the report suggested he only cares when aides to the former secretary of state testify, it’s worth noting Gowdy skipped Friday’s interview involving Clinton’s longtime aide, personal assistant and confidant Huma Abedin. It’s also worth noting that Democratic lawmakers on the committee are just as guilty of skipping the interviews. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the investigation, has apparently missed almost all of the witness meetings.
The Huffington Post explained the likely reason for why Cummings and Gowdy have reportedly attended so few interviews: They meetings are “staff-led, said the aide, so when members do come, they are typically passive observers.”
But there could be another reason for Cummings’ repeated absences. Democratic lawmakers, including the Maryland congressman, have long criticized the committee as little more than a political witch hunt meant to hurt Clinton’s presidential campaign.
This claim has been boosted by two Republicans, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., saying recently that the committee is indeed political. However, neither McCarthy nor Hanna is in any way involved in the investigation. They have seen none of the committee’s work and they haven’t spoken with any of the witnesses.
Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee on Oct. 22.
