Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Tuesday that Hillary Clinton misled the American people for political reasons in her initial response to the attack, as a special House panel prepares to release its investigation Tuesday into the events that led to the death of four Americans.
Mr. Jordan, a member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi who grilled Mrs. Clinton during testimony last year, said the Obama administration initially blamed the attack on a video-inspired protest when they knew early on that it was a terrorist attack.
“Libya was supposed to be their shining foreign policy story,” Mr. Jordan said on CNN’s “New Day.” “They were so invested in this and so committed to this that they didn’t look at the facts.”
Mr. Jordan said the White House and Mrs. Clinton underestimated the warning signs that emerged in the wake of the death of Col. Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 and before the attack on the diplomatic post that led to the death of J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, and three others, on Sept. 11, 2012.
“The evidence shows, and shows rather strongly, that they mislead the American people and said ’we can’t tell the truth,’” Mr. Jordan said. “’We can’t talk about how the security situation was. We can’t talk about the fact that this was a terrorist attack. We have to mislead the American people because we are just eight weeks before an election, this was supposed to be our legacy.’”
Mr. Jordan insisted that the Obama administration publicly blamed the attack on an anti-Muslim video despite reaching different conclusions publicly.
SEE ALSO: Benghazi GOP lawmakers say Hillary Clinton created conditions for attack
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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