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* Clinton ends 11 hours of testimony before the House Benghazi Committee * Cooper: Hillary’s High-Wire Act * Hart: On Benghazi, Hillary still in accuse-the-accuser mode
The first hours of the eternally long Benghazi hearing should actually have been called the Blumenthal hearing. And the longer the day wore on, the more clear it became that Hillary Clinton was the smartest person in the room.
The seven Republicans on the committee suggested repeatedly that Mrs. Clinton ignored requests by Americans in Benghazi for more security. Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas asked her why she did not personally respond to more than 600 requests for security from State Department employees in Benghazi. It was like asking why Mayor Andy Berke or Mayor Jim Coppinger do not respond personally to every 911 call.
Clinton noted that the security requests were made through the proper channels to the State Department’s security professionals. But Pompeo and Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., didn’t ask who, within the State Department’s “security professionals” got those requests and made yes or no responses to them. Wouldn’t that be a logical next question if you were really trying to use a hearing on yesterday’s tragedy to improve tomorrow’s outcome?
Instead, they expressed surprise and sarcasm that none of those requests made it to Clinton’s personal email inbox, but more than 100 emails from Sidney Blumenthal on the subject did. And she forwarded some of Blumenthal’s emails to be checked out by Chris Stevens, the ambassador at Benghazi who later was one of the four killed. Blumenthal is a former journalist, aide to Clinton’s husband and a personal friend.
“The folks that worked for you didn’t have the same courtesy (of having direct access to you through your personal email),” Pompeo said.
Going back to the 911 police dispatch comparison, a hypothetical tip or question from a hypothetical former Times Free Press reporter to one of the mayors about gang activity in Chattanooga might go to the mayor’s personal email. One would hope the mayor would ask public safety captains to check it out. One would not expect, however, that a police captain’s call for back-up at a riot site would go to the mayor. It would and should go to police dispatch – 911.
Clinton said months ago that her decision to use her personal email was a mistake. And belatedly – but finally – she apologized.
The continued pounding of the conservatives on Blumenthal’s emails on Thursday just reinforced the partisan malarky confirmed recently by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R- Calif., when he gleefully acknowledged that the Benghazi committee’s continued probe into her role in Benghazi had helped drive her poll numbers down. The majority on the committee looked looked like the bumbling Republicans that they are.
And Hillary Clinton looked more presidential than ever.