WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the congressional panel probing the Benghazi tragedy is telling his GOP colleagues to "shut up" about the committee's work because most of them know very little about what the panel is doing.
Speaking Sunday on CBS' Face The Nation, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy dismissed recent statements by two Republican lawmakers — including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California — implying that at least part of the panel's mission was to embarrass Democrat Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State during the Benghazi attacks and is now running for president.
"I get that there is a presidential campaign going on," Gowdy said on the show. "I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends to shut up talking about things you don't know anything about and unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we've done, why we've done it, and what new facts we have found."
Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee Thursday.
Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said he wants to find out more about what role she may have played in deciding whether to draw down security at the U.S. embassy compound in Benghazi shortly before an attack on the Libyan facility killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
But his work has been complicated by statements from McCarthy, who told Sean Hannity on Fox News Sept. 29 that "we put together a Benghazi special committee (and) what are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping."
Last Wednesday, Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., told a local radio program that "a big part" of the Benghazi panel was designed to go after Clinton.
"After what Kevin McCarthy said, it's difficult to accept at least a part of it was not," Hanna told a Utica radio station. "I think that's the way Washington works," Hanna said. "But you'd like to expect more from a committee that's spent millions of dollars and tons of time.''
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