Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to testify in front of the House Select Committee On Benghazi chaired by Rep. Trey Gowdy on October 22nd, but will recent comments made by House Majority Leader (and potential replacement to Speaker Boehner) Kevin McCarthy give Clinton an opportunity to bail and skip the Benghazi hearings?
According to CNN:
“The California Republican, who is the leading contender to become the next speaker of the House, said Tuesday night that the GOP-led Congress had succeeded by bringing down Clinton’s poll numbers because of the long-runninig investigation into the 2012 terror attack that killed four Americans.
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” McCarthy said on Fox News. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought.”
The article notes even fellow Republicans blasted McCarthy for the quip.
“I might have said it differently,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, told CNN. “Any ancillary political activity that comes out of it is, in fact, not the goal of the committee and is not what the committee is seeking to do.”
Added Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, “I totally disagree with those comments.” Asked if they could jeopardize his bid for speaker, the conservative Amash said: “I think it should be a concern.”
Democrats like Nancy Pelosi say that Democrats should abandon the committee altogether.
According to The Hill:
“Pelosi said McCarthy’s comments show the panel is political, “unethical” and should be dismantled.
“It’s just a stunning admission on the part of the Republican leader that the Benghazi Committee was created with a political purpose in mind. In fact, it’s really an ethical question,” Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol. “It makes the whole operation practically an unethical operation.”
Pelosi said Democrats will continue to participate in the panel for now, but she suggested that could end if they deem the panel unserious.
“It’s obvious that it should be disbanded based on the leader’s own words. But since we recognize Republicans do not intend to do that I would encourage my members to continue to participate, and then we will see how much longer they want this to go on,” Pelosi said. “How long we will participate depends on how serious they are, and we haven’t seen any signs of seriousness.”
>>>Even if Dems don’t abandon it, Hillary could. The Benghazi issue has been a pain in Clinton’s side, and if she can use McCarthy’s comments to back out of testifying, don’t think she won’t. Hillary could well calculate that the backlash for not testifying pales in comparison to drama she may encounter at the hearing. And that drama could translate into quotes and videos that haunt Hillary all the way to November 2016 if she can win the primary.
And if Clinton does rescind her acceptance, what does it mean for McCarthy? One would think it doesn’t bode well to lose a great opportunity to push someone who is possibly the next President on an issue of vital importance-not the way McCarthy would like to start his reign as House Speaker….
Do you think Hillary will testify? If so, what difference does it make? ;) :)
