Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi issued a report on Monday in which they said that Hillary Clinton was cleared of any responsibility for the deadly terrorist attack.
The report was quickly condemned by Republicans as a “partisan” whitewash.
“We have been hampered in our work by the ongoing Republican obsession with conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality,” says the 344-page report on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in the Libyan city, during which Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
“Rather than reject these conspiracy theories in the absence of evidence — or in the face of hard facts — Select Committee Republicans embraced them and turned them into a political crusade.”
The five Democrats on the panel admitted security at the compound was “woefully inadequate,” but concluded that Clinton was not to blame because she did not personally reject Stevens’ repeated calls for more security in the volatile region.
Republicans, who make up the majority on the panel, were quick to condemn the effort to preempt the committee’s final report.
“Benghazi Committee Democrats’ obsession with the former secretary of state is on full display. For over two years, they refused to participate in the majority’s serious, fact-centered investigation,” said Matt Wolking, a spokesman for the committee, in a scathing rebuke.
“The dishonest Democrats on this committee falsely claimed everything had been ‘asked and answered.’ They said the committee had found ‘absolutely nothing new.’ If that’s changed, they should come clean and admit it. If not, everyone can ignore their rehashed, partisan talking points defending their endorsed candidate for president.”
The GOP noted that the word “Clinton” appeared 334 times in the report while “Stevens” appeared just 85 times. And “Trump” appeared 23 times.