Benghazi Committee Opening Statements (C-SPAN)

the c-span networks bring you long-form public affairs programming from the nation's capital and are a public service of your television provider c-span created by cable Chris Stevens Sean Smith Glen Doherty and Tyrone woods served this country with courage and will honor and they were killed under circumstances most of us could never imagine terrorists pour through the front gate of an American facility attacking people and property with machine guns mortars and fire it is important that we remember how these four men died it is equally important that we remember how these four men lived and why they were more than four images on a television screen there were husbands and fathers and sons and brothers and family and friends there were Americans who believed in service and sacrifice many people speak wistfully of a better world but do little about it these four went out and actually tried to make it better and it cost them their lives so we know what they gave us what do we owe them justice for those who killed them we owe their families our everlasting gratitude respect we owe them and each other the truth the truth about why we were in Libya the truth about what we were doing in Libya the truth about the escalating violence in Libya before we were attacked and these four men were killed the truth about request for additional security the truth about request for additional personnel the truth about requests for additional equipment the truth about where and why our military was positioned as it was on the anniversary of 9/11 the truth about what was happening and being discussed in Washington while our people were under attack the truth about what led to the attacks and the truth about what our government told the American people after the attacks why were there so many requests for more security personnel and equipment and why were those requests denied in Washington why did the State Department compound and facility not even come close to meeting proper security specifications what policies were we pursuing in Libya that required a physical presence in spite of the escalating violence who in Washington was aware of the escalating violence what precautions if any were taken on the anniversary of 9/11 what happened in Washington after the first attack and what was our response to that attack what did the military do or not do what did our leaders in Washington do or not do and when why was the American public given such divergent accounts of what caused these attacks and why is it so hard to get information from the very government these four men represented served and sacrificed for even after an accountability Review Board and a half dozen congressional investigations these and other questions still lingered and these questions lingered because previous investigations were not thorough these questions lingered because those previous investigations were narrow in scope and either incapable or unwilling to access the facts and evidence necessary to answer all relevant questions so the House of Representatives including some Democrats I hasten add ask this committee to write the final definitive accounting of what happened in Benghazi this committee is the first committee to review more than 50,000 pages of documents because we insisted that they be produced this committee is the first committee to demand access to more eyewitnesses because serious investigations talk to as many eyewitnesses as possible this committee is the first committee to thoroughly and individually interview scores of other witnesses many of them for the first time this committee is the first committee to review thousands of pages of documents from top State Department personnel this committee is the first committee to demand access to relevant documents from the CIA the FBI the Department of Defense even the White House this committee is the first committee to demand access to the emails to and from ambassador Chris Stevens how could an investigation possibly be considered serious without reviewing the emails of the person most knowledgeable about Libya this committee is the first committee the only committee to uncover the fact that Secretary Clinton exclusively used personal email on her own personal server for official business and kept the public record including emails about Benghazi in Libya in her own custody and control for almost two years after she left office you will hear a lot today about the accountability Review Board Secretary Clinton has mentioned at more than 70 times in her previous testimony before Congress but when you hear about the ARB you should also know the State Department leadership hand-picked the members of the ARB the ARB never interviewed Secretary Clinton the ARB never reviewed her emails and Secretary Clinton's top adviser was allowed to review and suggest changes to the ARB before the public ever saw it there's no transcript of ARB interviews so it's impossible to know whether all relevant questions were asked and answered and because there's no transcript it is also impossible to cite the ARB interviews with any particularity at all that is not independent that is not accountability that is not a serious investigation you will hear there were previous congressional investigations into Benghazi and that is true and it should make you wonder why those investigations fail to interview so many witnesses and access so many documents if those previous congressional investigations were really serious and thorough how did they miss ambassador Stevens emails if those previous investigations were serious and thorough how did they miss secretary Clinton's emails if those congressional investigations really were serious and thorough why did they fail to interview dozens of key State Department witnesses including agents on the ground who experienced the attacks firsthand just last month three years after Benghazi top aides finally returned documents to the State Department a month ago this committee received 1,500 new pages of secretary Clinton's emails related to Libya and Benghazi three years after the attacks and a little over two weeks ago this committee received nearly 1400 pages of ambassador Stevens emails three years after the attacks it is impossible to conduct a serious fax centric investigation without access to the documents from the former Secretary of State the Ambassador who knew more about Libya than anyone else and testimony from witnesses who survived the attacks Madam Secretary I understand there are people frankly in both parties who have suggested that this investigation is about you let me assure you it is not and let me assure you why it is not this investigation is about four people who were killed representing our country on foreign soil it is about what happened before during and after the attacks that killed them it is about what this country owes to those who risk their lives to serve it and it is about the fundamental obligation of government to tell the truth always to the people that it purports to represent Madam Secretary not a single member of this committee signed up to investigate you or your email we signed up to investigate and therefore honor the lives of four people that we sent into a dangerous country to represent us and to do everything we can to prevent it from happening to others our committee has interviewed half a hundred witnesses not a single one of them has been named Clinton until today you were the Secretary of State for this country at all relevant times so of course the committee is going to want to talk to you you are an important witness you are one important witness among half a hundred important witnesses and I do understand you wanted to come sooner than today so let me be clear why that did not happen you had an unusual email arrangement which meant the State Department could not produce your emails to us you made exclusive use of personal email and a personal server and when you left the State Department you kept the public record to yourself for almost two years and it was you and your attorneys who decided what to return and what to delete those decisions were your decisions not our decisions it was only in March of this year we learned of this email arrangement and since we learned of this email arrangement we have interviewed dozens of witnesses only one of whom was solely related to your email arrangement and that was the shortest interview of all because that witness invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against incrimination making sure the public record is complete is what serious investigations do so it was important and remains important that this committee have access to all of ambassador Stevens emails the emails of other senior leaders and witnesses and it is important to gain access to all of your emails madam secretary your emails are no less or no more important than the emails of anyone else it just took us a little bit longer to get them and it garnered a little more attention in the process I want you to take note during this hearing how many times congressional Democrats call on this administration to make long awaited documents available to us they won't take note how many witnesses congressional Democrats asked us to schedule for interview they won't we would be much closer to finding out what happened in writing the final definitive report if Democrats on this committee had helped us just a little bit pursue the facts but if the Democrats on this committee had their way dozens of witnesses never would have been interviewed your public record would still be private thousands of documents never would have been accessed and we wouldn't have the emails of our own ambassador that may be smart politics but it is a lousy way to run a serious investigation there are certain characteristics that make our country unique in the annals of history we are the greatest experiment in self governance the world has ever known and part of that self governance comes self scrutiny even of the highest officials our country is strong enough to handle the truth and our fellow citizens expect us to pursue the truth wherever the facts take us so this committee is going to do what we pledge to do and what should have been done frankly a long time ago which is interview all relevant witnesses examine all relevant evidence and access all relevant documents and we're going to pursue the truth and a manner worthy of the memory of the four people who lost their lives and worthy of the respect of our fellow citizens and we are going to write that final defendant to the counting of what happened in Benghazi and we would like to do it with your help and help of our Democratic colleagues but make no mistake we are going to do it nonetheless because understanding what happened in Benghazi goes to the heart of who we are as a country and the promises we make to those that we send into harm's way they deserve the truth they deserve the whole truth they deserve nothing but the truth the people we work for deserve the truth the friends and family of the four who lost their lives deserve the truth we're gonna find the truth because there is no statute of limitations on the truth with that I would recognize my friend from Maryland the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth Madame secretary I want to thank you very much for being here today to testify before Congress when it's very important issue this is your third time this week our Chairman mr. Gowdy was interviewed in a lengthy media profile during his interview he complained that he was and I quote he has an impossible job it's what the chairman said possible job he said is it impossible to conduct a serious fact centric investigation in such a quote political environment I have great respect for the Chairman but on this score he is absolutely wrong in fact it has been done by his own Republican colleagues in the house on this very issue Benghazi the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee conducted an extensive bipartisan two-year investigation and issued a detailed report the Senate Intelligence Committee in the Senate Homeland Security Committee also conducted a bi-partisan investigation those bipartisan efforts respected and honored the memories of the four brave Americans who gave their lives in Benghazi ambassador Chris Stevens Sean Smith Tyrone woods and Glen Doherty the problem is that the Republican caucus did not like the answers they got from those investigations so they set up this elect committee with no rules no deadlines and an unlimited budget and they set them loose Madame secretary because you're running for president clearly it is possible to conduct a serious bipartisan investigation what is impossible is for any reasonable person to continue denying that Republicans are squandering millions of taxpayer dollars on this abusive effort to derail secretary Clinton's presidential campaign in the Chairman's interview he tried to defend against this criticism by attempting to cast himself as a victim and he complained about attacks on the credibility of the Select Committee his argument would be more compelling if Republicans weren't leading the charge as we all know representative Kevin McCarthy Speaker Boehner second-in-command and the Chairman's close friend admitted that they established the Select Committee to drive down secretary Clinton's poll numbers Democrats didn't say that the second-in-command in the house said that a Republican Republican Congressman Richard Hanna said the Select Committee was quote designed designed to go after Secretary Clinton and one of the Chairman's own hand-picked investigators a self-proclaimed conservative Republican charged that he was fired in part for not going along with these plans to quote hyper focus on Hillary Clinton and oppose these shock admissions reflect exactly what we have seen inside the Select Committee for the past year let's just take a look at the facts since January Republicans have canceled every single hearing on our schedule for the entire year except for this one Secretary Clinton they also canceled numerous interviews that they had planned with the Defense Department and the CIA officials instead of doing that they said they were going what they were going to do Republicans zeroed in on Secretary Clinton her speech writers her IT staffers and her campaign officials this is what the Republicans did not the Democrats when Speaker Boehner sample a committee he justify it justified it by arguing that it would quote cross jurisdictional lines I assume he meant we would focus on more than just Secretary of State but Madam Secretary you're sitting there by yourself the Secretary of Defense is not on your left the director of the CIA is not on your right that's because Republicans abandoned their own plans the question those top officials so instead of being cross jurisdictional Republicans just cross them off the list last weekend the chairman told the Republican colleagues to shut up and stop talking about the Select Committee what I want to know is this and this is a key question why tell the Republicans to shut up when they are telling the truth but not when they are attacking Secretary Clinton with reckless accusations that are demonstrably false why not tell him to shut up then Carly Fiorina has said that Secretary Clinton has blood on her hands Mike Huckabee accused her of ignoring the warning calls from dying Americans in Benghazi said senator Ryan Paul said Benghazi was a three a.m. phone call that she never picked up and Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted where the hell were you on the night of the Benghazi attack everyone on this panel knows these accusations are baseless from our own investigation and all those before it yet Republican members of this Select amending remain silent on Monday the Democrats issued a report showing that none of the 54 witnesses the committee interviewed substantiated these wild Republican claims Secretary Clinton did not order the military to stand down and she neither approved nor denied requests for additional security I ask that our report be included in the official record for today's hearing Sherman without objection what is so telling is that we issued virtually the same report a year ago same report when we first joined Select Committee I asked my staff to put together a complete report and database setting forth the questions that had been asked about the attacks and all of the answers that were provided in the eight previous investigations I asked that this report also be included in the record mr. chairman without objection the problem is that rather than accepting these facts Republicans continue to spend new conspiracy theories that are just as our landish and inaccurate for example the chairman recently tried to argue that Sidney Blumenthal with secretary Clinton's primary advisor on Libya and this past Sunday representative Pompeo claimed on national television that Secretary Clinton relied on Sidney Blumenthal for most for most of her intelligence in Libya earlier this week the Washington Post fact checker would it disclaim four Pinocchios it's worse rating here's about him line the Select Committee has spent seventeen months and four point seven million dollars of taxpayer money we've held four hearings and conducted 54 interviews and depositions yes we have received some new emails from Secretary Clinton ambassador Stevens and others and yes we have conducted some new interviews but these documents and interviews do not show any nefarious activity in fact it's just the opposite the new information we have obtained confirms and corroborates the core facts we already knew from eight previous investigations they provide more detail but they do not change the basic conclusions it's time it is time and it's time now for the Republicans to end this taxpayer-funded fishing expedition we need to come together and shift from politics to policy that's what the American people want shifting from politics to policy we need to finally make good on our promises to the families and the families only asks us to do three things one do not make this a political football to find the facts three do everything in your power to make sure that this does not happen again and so we need to start focusing on what we here in Congress can do to improve the safety and security of our diplomatic corps in the future and with that mr. Chairman I yield back

Channel: C-SPAN

Views: 96,811

Rating: 4.6190476 out of 5

Keywords: United States House Select Committee On Benghazi, C-SPAN (TV Network), Trey Gowdy (U.S. Congressperson), Elijah Cummings (U.S. Congressperson), Hillary Rodham Clinton (U.S. Congressperson)

Id: VnUghuAb_CE

Length: 24min 25sec (1465 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 22 2015