Clinton slams McCarthy’s ‘distressing’ Benghazi remarks

by Jesse Byrnes - 09/30/15 4:50 PM ET

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday slammed House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) remarks this week about the committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

“I knew the ambassador that we lost in Benghazi,” Clinton shot back in an excerpt of an interview airing on MSNBC, referring to the late U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

{mosads}”Along with him, we lost three other brave Americans who were representing us in a very dangerous part of the world,” she said of the attack.

“When I hear a statement like that, which demonstrates unequivocally that this was always meant to be a partisan, political exercise, I feel like it does a grave disservice and dishonors not just the memory of the four that we lost but of everybody who has served our country.”

Her remarks came after McCarthy, the favorite to replace to outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), seemingly credited the Benghazi panel for the former secretary of State’s dropping poll numbers in her White House bid.

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee,” McCarthy said Tuesday on Fox News’s “Hannity.”

“What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable,” he added.

A spokesman for McCarthy maintained in a lengthy statement Wednesday that the Benghazi panel “has always been focused on getting the facts” about the deadly attacks and its “inquiries have nothing to do with politics” but instead with Clinton’s response.

“I have to tell you, I find them deeply distressing,” Clinton said of the comments.

Though Republicans have held that the current investigation is nonpartisan and focused on fact-finding, McCarthy’s remarks reignited intense calls among Democrats on Capitol Hill to shutter the committee, noting that the tax-payer funded panel has been running for 16 months.

Clinton, who is slated to appear before the panel Oct. 22, suggested her agreement with those calls Wednesday, noting on MSNBC that there have been eight congressional investigations and an independent probe into the Benghazi attacks.

“We have learned all we can learn about what we need to do to protect our diplomats and our other civilians and we need to be enforcing and implementing those changes,” she said.

A spokesman for Clinton’s campaign immediately highlighted McCarthy’s remark on Twitter on Tuesday night and her campaign released a video Wednesday blasting the “partisan attack.”

Tags Benghazi Chris Stevens Hillary Clinton Kevin McCarthy