Chaffetz said the country was 'misled' all throughout the aftermath.
Chaffetz: Clinton 'gall' on Benghazi
By KEVIN CIRILLI
Updated 05/07/2013 06:13 AM EDT
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put politics above security during the Sept. 11 attack last year on the U.S. post in Benghazi, Libya — this as lawmakers gear up for another hearing on Wednesday.
"I think it was political rather than security. But what boggles my mind is 4½ months after the fact, Secretary Clinton still had the gall to come here and perpetuate things that we know is common knowledge are simply not true," said Chaffetz, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Fox News.
Wednesday's hearing comes as new details into the investigation have emerged in the incident, in which Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed.
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Fox News reported Monday that Mark I. Thompson, the deputy coordinator for operations in the State Department's counterterrorism bureau, will testify at the hearing that Clinton cut out the counterterrorism bureau from communication on the attack.
Meanwhile, CBS News reported Sunday that Greg Hicks, the second-highest-ranking American official in Libya, told investigators that he always thought it was a terrorist attack.
"I think everybody in the mission thought it was a terrorist attack from the beginning," Hicks told investigators, under House Oversight and Government Reform Committee authority, as first reported by CBS News. "For there to have been a demonstration on Chris Stevens' front door and him not to have reported it is unbelievable."
Hicks's comments differ from statements made in the immediate aftermath of the attack, including those on Sunday talk shows by Ambassador Susan Rice, who attempted to portray it as an impromptu response to an anti-Islamic Internet video.
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Chaffetz said on Fox News that the country was "misled" all throughout the aftermath.
"We were certainly misled at every step of the way," Chaffetz said on Fox News. "…The media by and large has really dropped the ball on this. They have not asked tough questions."
As for Wednesday's hearing, Chaffetz said, "I think what you're going to find over the course of time, that there are a lot of holes in what they reported because [President Barack Obama's administration] said the communication worked perfectly… I think we're going to hear from people who were on the ground there in Libya who will testify as to their perspective on what really happened."
Later Monday, CBS News reported Hicks told investigators a special operations team in Tripoli was blocked from heading to Benghazi by Special Operations Command in South Africa.
"They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it," Hicks said.
Obama administration officials have said there wasn't enough time for military forces to reach Benghazi and stop the attack or assist the diplomats.
But Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a public statement that it's the House Republicans who are politicking with Benghazi — not Clinton and the Obama administration.
"Unfortunately, House Republicans have taken the opposite approach. They issued a partisan report with reckless and false accusations against the former Secretary of State, they have completely concealed Mr. Thompson from Democratic committee members, and they have failed to make even basic inquiries to the intelligence community, the Defense Department, or the State Department to vet specific allegations," said Cummings, ranking member of the the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Cummings continued: "Instead, they have leaked snippets of interview transcripts to national media outlets in a selective and distorted manner to drum up publicity for their hearing. This is investigation by press release and does a disservice to our common goal of ensuring that our diplomatic corps serving overseas has the best protection possible to do its critical work."
It's not the first time Cummings has accused House GOPers of distorting the truth of Benghazi. Last week, he made similar comments following a report on the attacks issued by House GOPers on the committee, which claims Clinton signed-off on security reductions at the Benghazi post. Cummings refuted that report, saying that Clinton did not personally sign it.
Jason Chaffetz