{"id":22163,"date":"2015-10-16T08:02:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T15:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/gowdy-defends-benghazi-panel-after-latest-gop-criticism\/"},"modified":"2015-10-16T08:02:25","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T15:02:25","slug":"gowdy-defends-benghazi-panel-after-latest-gop-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/gowdy-defends-benghazi-panel-after-latest-gop-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Gowdy defends Benghazi panel after latest GOP criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 The chairman of the House committee investigating the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, forcefully defended the panel\u2019s work Thursday, a day after another Republican colleague said the investigation was designed in part \u201cto go after\u201d Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.<\/p>\n

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said comments by Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., were \u201cunfortunate\u201d and misinformed.<\/p>\n

Gowdy said the investigation is being done in a \u201cprivate, fact-centric way.\u201d Commentators and even members of his own caucus sometimes \u201coffer thoughts on matters on which they are not familiar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy team of investigators, drawn from the military, federal agencies and the congressional oversight and ethics committees, has worked hard and in an above-board manner,\u201d Gowdy said in a statement. \u201cIt is unfortunate when claims are made by those who do not know what the committee has done, why it has done it or the results of its work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gowdy\u2019s comments marked the second time in a few weeks that he has defended his committee\u2019s work after complaints by a fellow Republican. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said late last month that the Benghazi panel could take credit for Clinton\u2019s recent drop in public opinion polls. He later retracted the comment.<\/p>\n

Gowdy said last week that McCarthy, who later withdrew from an expected bid for House speaker, \u201cscrewed up\u201d in making the Benghazi comments.<\/p>\n

In an interview Wednesday with New York radio station WIBX\u2019s \u201cKeeler in the Morning\u201d show, Hanna said McCarthy \u201cbasically blew himself up with that comment over the Benghazi committee,\u201d then added: \u201cSometimes the biggest sin you can commit in D.C. is to tell the truth.\u201d <\/p>\n

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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanna said the Benghazi probe has gone on \u201clonger than Watergate.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the host, Bill Keeler, mentioned a former Republican staffer who has accused the panel of a partisan focus on Clinton, Hanna said: \u201cAfter what Kevin McCarthy said, it\u2019s difficult to accept at least a part of it was not. And I think that\u2019s the way Washington works. But you\u2019d like to expect more from a committee that\u2019s spent millions of dollars and tons of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The criticism from Republicans emerged days before Clinton\u2019s scheduled appearance before the Benghazi panel on Oct. 22 and amid fierce partisan fighting about the true nature of the investigation.<\/p>\n

Clinton and other Democrats call it a partisan political exercise designed to \u201cexploit\u201d the deaths of four Americans and hurt her bid for the White House.<\/p>\n

Gowdy and other Republicans say the committee has been and remains focused on those killed in Benghazi and on providing a definitive account of the attacks. There have been at least seven previous investigations.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Matthew Daly: http:\/\/twitter.com\/MatthewDalyWDC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The chairman of the House committee investigating the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, forcefully defended the panel\u2019s work Thursday, a day after another Republican colleague said the investigation was designed in part \u201cto go after\u201d Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said comments by Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., were \u201cunfortunate\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-22163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22163"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}