Hillary Clinton began testifying in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi at around 10 am on Thursday, and as of this writing, it’s still going. If you haven’t been following the hearing, you might wonder what’s happened. Well, as far as a summary goes, this picture is worth a thousand words:
Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi hearing, in one image
Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy, The Reactionary Spirit, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here.
HRC can barely hide her contempt for Jim Jordan. pic.twitter.com/TfYl4jWXnh
— Jamelle Booo-eeee! (@jbouie) October 22, 2015 Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is intently interrogating Clinton — who cannot really hide her contempt for and impatience with the whole thing.
At the time, Jordan was asking about the Obama administration’s initial claim that the attack grew out of an organic protest. The administration had initially claimed as much but, after the fog of war lifted, acknowledged that this was wrong and in fact local militants had deliberately launched the attack. Jordan was asking if in fact the administration had known this claim was wrong all along, and had deliberately lied in those first few days.
This is one of the most litigated issues surrounding the Benghazi attack; Clinton thinks that it’s been put to rest by the eight prior investigations into Benghazi, which have indeed affirmed that the administration was honestly relaying early intelligence that turned out to be erroneous. Her annoyance is written all over face.
The exchange perfectly captures how the whole hearing has gone. Republicans have brought up a number of questions about Benghazi that Clinton and the committee’s Democrats consider long settled. Both sides think the other is acting in bad faith, and everyone’s getting annoyed. And absolutely nothing new about the Benghazi attack is being revealed.
By Zack Beauchamp
