Democratic Presidential Candidate and Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is testifying before the Benghazi Select Committee on the 2012 attack by Islamic militants on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya. WBAL NewsRadio 1090 will stream today's hearing.
The Latest:
The latest from the House Benghazi committee's hearing featuring testimony from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (all times local):
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11:30 a.m.
Rep. Susan Brooks is using a collection of emails as a way to suggest that the Obama administration and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lost interest in Libya in the months before to deadly attacks in Benghazi in September 2012.
At a House committee hearing on Benghazi, the Indiana Republican is brandishing two piles of printed emails that she says show messages related to Benghazi and Libya.
Brooks says he pile from 2011 has 795 emails, and the pile from 2012 has 67 emails.
Here's what Brooks is telling Clinton: "I can only conclude by your own records a lack of interest in Libya in 2012."
Clinton denies there was any diminished interest in Libya. She says most of her work wasn't done by email, but in personal meetings and briefings, secure telephone calls, diplomatic cables and other types of communication.
Clinton says she didn't even have a computer on her desk.
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11:10 a.m.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is pleading with the Republican-led House Benghazi committee to put - in her words - "national security ahead of politics and ideology."
The former secretary of state says that after deadly attacks against Americans abroad during the Reagan, Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, leaders from both parties in Congress and the executive branch came together to figure out what went wrong and how to respond.
Clinton says that what's happened after the Sept. 11 attacks, after the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 and after attacks against Americans in Lebanon when Ronald Reagan was president.
She's telling committee members that "Congress has to be our partner as it has been after previous tragedies."
The committee is examining the deadly 2012 attacks on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans were killed.
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10:50 a.m.
The top Democrat on the House Benghazi committee is offering a vigorous defense of Hillary Rodham Clinton and unleashing a scathing critique of the Republican-led panel.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland cites comments by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy - the California Republican who credited the committee with driving down Clinton's presidential poll numbers.
Clinton is the front-runner for her party's nomination in 2016.
Cummings is mocking the committee chairman, GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, for saying it was hard to conduct the inquiry in such a partisan atmosphere.
Cummings wants to know why Gowdy was telling fellow Republicans to "shut up when they are telling the truth" - and not when they made what Cummings calls "baseless claims" against Clinton.
Cummings says it's time to end the "fishing expedition" by the committee against Clinton.
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10:40 a.m.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is telling a House committee there were "no delays in decision-making" immediately after the deadly 2012 attacks on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.
Clinton is the star witness in the GOP-led investigation.
She's also says that in the U.S. response, there were "no denials of support from Washington" or from the U.S. military.
She's calling for transparency in the investigation - which critics say is focused on hampering Clinton's run for the White House in 2016. She's the Democratic front-runner.
Four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, died in the attacks.
The committee chairman - GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina - accuses Clinton and the Obama administration of withholding information, including Clinton's emails, about what happened in Washington following the attacks.
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10:15 a.m.
The chairman of the House committee investigating the deadly attacks on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 is telling former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the investigation is not about her.
That is the message in Rep. Trey Gowdy's opening statement at a public hearing where Clinton - the Democratic front-runner for president in 2016 - is testifying.
The South Carolina Republican says the investigation is focusing on the four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, who died in the attacks.
Gowdy say the committee is looking for the truth about the diplomatic compound's request for more security, equipment and personnel - and what was being discussed in Washington while the Americans were under attack.
After months of buildup, Clinton is taking center stage as the star witness in the Republican-led investigation.
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9:50 a.m.
Hundreds of people are gathering outside the Longworth House Office Building before the highly anticipated public hearing where Hillary Rodham Clinton is to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
News photographers are packing the well of a hearing room normally used by the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. It's the largest hearing room on the House side of the Capitol.
Clinton - the Democratic front-runner for president in 2016 - is the sole witness at the hearing.
It's the fourth hearing since the committee was formed in May 2014.
Stakes High For Clinton, GOP As Benghazi Takes Center Stage
After months of buildup, Hillary Rodham Clinton finally takes center stage as the star witness in the Republican-led investigation into the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for president, testifies from a position of political strength as her potential rival for the nomination, Vice President Joe Biden, announced Wednesday that he will not jump into the presidential race and she rides the momentum of a solid debate performance.
Meanwhile, the Benghazi committee is on the defensive as the panel's GOP chairman scrambles to deflect comments by fellow Republicans that the inquiry is aimed at hurting Clinton's presidential bid.
Even so, Clinton faces a formidable challenge as she tries to explain security lapses at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, the slow military response to the violence and the Obama administration's changing narrative about who was responsible for the attacks that killed four Americans, including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, and why the attacks were launched.
In a high-stakes, day-long appearance that could solidify her hole on the Democratic nomination or raise doubts about her candidacy, Clinton also is certain to face questions about her use of a private email account and server while serving as secretary of state.
The committee also faces a make-or-break moment. The panel's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, and other Republican investigators know their questioning of Clinton could revive the beleaguered panel's credibility or undermine it even further.
A new Associated Press-Gfk poll offers solace to both sides. While the investigation into the attacks is not a burning issue for the public — except among Republicans — Americans are more likely to view the investigation as justified rather than as a political attack on Clinton, the poll finds.
Many Americans don't have an opinion about Clinton's handling of the investigation. Four in 10 say they neither approve nor disapprove of how she has answered questions about the attack, while 20 percent approve and 37 percent disapprove.
Americans also are divided on Clinton's emails. More than half of those polled view her use of a private server as a minor problem or no problem at all, compared with 1 in 3 who think it is a major problem. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans call it a major problem.
Gowdy pledged in a recent interview that the hearing will be "Benghazi-centric," focused on security before and during the attacks. Some questions on Clinton's emails are likely, Gowdy said, but he maintains that his approach may "shock you with fairness."
Clinton has said the use of a private server was a mistake.
The hearing comes amid an escalating partisan feud on the 12-member committee, which has spent more than $4.5 million since its creation in May 2014.
Democrats have complained about "selective and out-of-context leaks" that they said mischaracterized testimony by top Clinton aides and other witnesses. They say the panel has devolved into partisan harassment intended to hurt Clinton's bid for president.
Gowdy and other Republicans say the panel has been and remains focused on those killed in Benghazi and on providing a definitive account of the attacks. There have been seven previous investigations.
"This has never been political for us," said Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., a member of the Benghazi panel. "This has always been about finding out the truth."
While Thursday's hearing has drawn worldwide attention, "the investigation isn't solely about Secretary Clinton. She's just one piece of a much larger investigation," Roby said.
"After 17 months and millions of taxpayer dollars spent, the Select Committee on Benghazi has uncovered nothing that alters our core understanding of the facts as revealed by the other (seven) investigations," said Schiff, who has called for the committee to be disbanded.
"When you consider the committee's obsessive focus on attacking Secretary Clinton, the reason becomes quite clear: the (GOP) majority has little interest in the events in Benghazi except to the degree they can be used to diminish her standing in the polls," Schiff said.
Source WBAL
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