The chairman of the House probe into the Benghazi attacks dismissed Democrats’ attempts to cast the investigation as a chance to tarnish former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying Democrats would realize that if they read the report.
Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina took direct aim at Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s highest-ranking Democrat, for painting him as a “overzealous prosecutor desperately trying to land a front-page conviction rather than a neutral judge of facts seeking to improve the security of our diplomatic corps.”
“If anyone would recognize an overzealous prosecutor it would be someone from Baltimore,” Mr. Gowdy said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” in an apparent reference to Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s failed push to prosecute officers in the death of Freddie Gray.
“I will tell you that up front. Secondarily, he hasn’t read the report,” Mr. Gowdy said.
Mr. Gowdy said Democrats will be “shocked” if they bother to read the report.
“It is a series of heroic acts by our fellow Americans and what we can do to prevent the next [attack],” Mr. Gowdy said. “Yes, Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state at the time. I can’t get around that fact. But the focus of this report is on exactly what the families asked us to focus on, and shame on the Democrats for figuring that out two years too late.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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