[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15762-15763]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL AND BENGHAZI SELECT COMMITTEE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the bill before the Senate this afternoon, 
in spite of all the statements of my friend the Republican leader, is 
another piece of political theater. Everyone knows the President is 
going to veto this. Everyone knows this. The House, if they are called 
upon first to sustain the veto, will do it. If we are called upon first 
to sustain the veto, we will do it.
  Republicans are trying to paint Democrats as being soft on defense. 
Based on what we have heard from my friend today, I don't know where he 
doesn't want American troops--China, Iran, Russia, all over the Middle 
East. It is stunning to listen to what he has said. We have spent a lot 
of money training foreign troops. I was in Iraq. Who was training the 
troops then? General Petraeus. I don't know what my friend wants, but I 
do tell everyone the gimmick we have in this bill today; that is, 
having this funny money funding and that is what it is--I can't imagine 
my Republican friends who have in the past been so supportive of not 
doing things that deal with funny

[[Page 15763]]

money, that their--Senator McCain, the chairman of the committee, has 
acknowledged that sequestration will destroy the military--that is my 
word--but will badly damage the military. He has said that many times.
  So we have a lot of problems here, but the gimmick my friend is so 
touting today does nothing to support the security we need at home: The 
FBI, homeland security, border protection. I say to my friend, the 
Presiding Officer, today: You voted the way I thought Republicans 
should vote when this matter came before the body yesterday.
  It has been a week since it happened, but the American people are 
still reeling from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's admission 
that the so-called Benghazi Select Committee is nothing more than a 
political hit job on Hillary Clinton. That is what he said. Speaking 
about this committee, he told FOX News:

       Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? 
     But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select 
     committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are 
     dropping.

  It doesn't take much to figure out the point he was making; that this 
was nothing more than a hit job on Hillary Clinton. According to Mr. 
McCarthy, the so-called Benghazi Select Committee was orchestrated with 
one goal in mind--to weaken Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign. Of 
course that is shameful. House Republicans have used the tragic deaths 
of four Americans as political fodder to win an election. Don't the 
victims deserve better? Don't their families deserve not to have their 
deceased loved ones pulled into a political inquisition?
  Even more shocking, this political farce continues now. House 
Republicans are showing no signs of bringing this charade to an end. 
Consider the facts. These are a number of the select committees that 
have been going on that we have had in the Congress in recent years: 
Hurricane Katrina, Pearl Harbor, Warren Commission, Iran-Contra, 
Watergate, and the Benghazi Committee. This big red line sitting here 
shows this committee has spent far more time than any committee except 
Watergate. Look at that. It is hard to believe. For 16 months now we 
have used the tragic deaths in a way that is not what we should be 
doing. They have spent almost $5 million of taxpayer money on this so-
called select committee, and the number continues to climb as I speak. 
Not only do they have a select committee, they have had six other 
committees that have held hearings on this. What a waste of taxpayer 
dollars. The select committee has investigated Hillary Clinton for 17 
months, 517 days--longer than the investigations that I mentioned: 
Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, and even, timewise, 
Watergate--close but still more time than on Watergate, and it is still 
going on. What have they accomplished? What have they achieved after 
all that time and money has been spent? What have they accomplished for 
the American people? Nothing. And they have held three hearings in 17 
months. Not one American is safer today because of the select 
committee, not one terrorist attack has been thwarted because of the 
committee's work, and Republicans are fine with that. They hail the 
Benghazi committee as a success because it was never the panel's 
intention to get to the truth. This committee's only real objective was 
to hurt Hillary Clinton--exactly as Congressman McCarthy said. The 
evidence makes that clear. In 17 months, the committee has interviewed 
or deposed eight Clinton campaign staffers. They are obsessed with 
Hillary Clinton and her campaign status. Yet, stunningly, Chairman 
Gowdy and Republicans have little interest in questioning intelligence 
and defense experts. They have held only one hearing with an expert 
from the intelligence community. They have never held a single hearing 
with anyone from the Department of Defense. The Republican chairman and 
his colleagues have abandoned their plans to interview Defense 
officials and instead have gone after Secretary Clinton and her staff. 
The evidence is clear. The Benghazi Select Committee is a sham. 
Democrats have known this for 2 years, but now we have the man who is 
going to be--I understand after tomorrow at noon--running the House of 
Representatives come November 1. He has acknowledged it is a witch 
hunt. That is why the Democratic leadership of the Senate wrote to 
Speaker Boehner asking him to disband the select committee. That is why 
I will not stop reminding Republicans of Congressman McCarthy's 
admission.
  If it were up to me, the House Democrats on that panel would nail 
this quote on the committee room doors as a reminder to everyone that 
Republicans have manipulated a true American tragedy and turned it into 
a political circus:

       Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? 
     But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select 
     committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are 
     dropping.

  He is so proud of himself. Until House Republicans do the right thing 
and disband this committee, I will continue to tell the American people 
about the disgrace that is the House Republicans' Benghazi committee.
  Mr. President, would the Chair announce what we are going to be doing 
today.

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