[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16209]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       BENGHAZI SELECT COMMITTEE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, former First Lady, U.S. Senator of the State 
of New York, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will testify before 
the so-called Benghazi Select Committee tomorrow. In recent weeks, it 
has become absolutely clear that this committee is nothing more than a 
political hit job on Hillary Clinton.
  I remember a program, ``Queen for a Day.'' I guess this is ``Speaker 
for the Day.'' Republican Majority Leader of the House of 
Representatives McCarthy--here is what he said on a TV show, radio 
show, or whatever it was:

       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.

  Well, that is one reason he was Speaker for the day. There were other 
reasons, of course. But he told the truth. He told the truth. 
Congressman McCarthy isn't the only Republican to speak the truth about 
this so-called committee. Last week Republican Congressman Richard 
Hanna of New York said:

       Sometimes the biggest sin you can commit in D.C. is to tell 
     the truth. This may not be politically correct, but I think 
     that there was a big part of this investigation that was 
     designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary 
     Clinton. After what Kevin McCarthy said, it's difficult to 
     accept at least a part of it was not true. I think that's the 
     way Washington works. But you'd like to expect more from a 
     committee that's spent millions of dollars and tons of time.

  That is an understatement--about $5 million just for this one select 
committee. There have been other hearings that have cost huge amounts 
of taxpayer dollars. They are going again tomorrow, and they said be 
ready for 8 hours--8 hours of interrogation. And that is what it is, an 
interrogation.
  These two quotes are from two House Republicans. Hanna from New York 
is not a Democrat; he is a Republican.
  The message is clear: The Benghazi Committee is a political 
calculation meant to influence Presidential elections. And there is 
more. Now we have found out that one of the Republican staffers on the 
committee claims that he--the staffer--was unfairly fired because he 
refused to unfairly target Secretary Clinton. But what else could be 
expected from a committee whose sole purpose is to drag a Presidential 
hopeful through the mud?
  It is no secret that for the last 2 years, numerous Republican-
directed organizations with huge amounts of money have been targeting 
Hillary Clinton--for more than 2 years--because they knew she would 
likely run for President and they wanted to soften her up, just as 
McCarthy said.
  Look at the committee's record. In 17 months, committee Republicans 
have held a whopping three hearings--in 17 months. Tomorrow's hearing 
will be the first public hearing since January. It is October. October 
is winding down. Instead, Republican Chairman Trey Gowdy and his 
committee have focused millions of dollars and thousands of staff hours 
on Hillary Clinton--and Hillary Clinton only. The committee has 
interviewed or deposed eight Clinton campaign staffers. Yet Chairman 
Gowdy has held only one hearing with an expert from the intelligence 
community and not a single hearing with anyone from the Department of 
Defense, which is clearly a key entity responding to attacks on our 
diplomatic post. And what have they learned in all that time? Nothing. 
A recent report by the Democrats on the Benghazi Select Committee 
confirms that none of the witnesses they interviewed supported any of 
the wild conspiracy theories regarding those attacks.
  Contrast the Benghazi Committee with the work of the legally required 
investigation of these attacks, the Accountability Review Board. This 
independent review was overseen by respected leaders, Ambassador Thomas 
Pickering, who is one of the great diplomats of our time, and ADM 
Michael Mullen. They completed their work in less than 3 months, not 17 
months. The review board immediately put out a hard-hitting report with 
a series of recommendations to make sure an attack like this doesn't 
happen someplace else around the world. And what was Secretary 
Clinton's reaction to that report? She took responsibility immediately 
and began to implement the recommendations from the Accountability 
Review Board.
  In summary, Republicans spent at least $5 million to attack Secretary 
Clinton. On this one committee, this one select committee, they have 
spent $4.7 or $4.8 million. Republicans have done little to investigate 
the Benghazi attacks. And what little work House Republicans actually 
did only reconfirmed the basic findings of all three of these previous 
investigations.
  House Republicans sadly have used the tragic deaths of four innocent 
Americans and turned it into an appalling political farce. The very 
notion that an official House committee was used as a political tool is 
inexcusable. I would suggest that the chairman of that committee should 
be ashamed of himself. It is even more disgraceful when nearly 5 
million taxpayer dollars were spent on this political hit job.
  Senate Democrats will continue to fight to get this sham of a 
committee disbanded. Weeks ago, we sent a letter to Speaker Boehner 
urging him to bring this disgraceful committee to an end, but, no, they 
are plodding forward. Today, Senate Democrats sent a letter to the 
Republican National Committee requesting that it reimburse the American 
people for the Benghazi Committee's expenses. Why did we do that? It is 
only fair since the so-called committee is clearly a Republican 
political organization.

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