McCollum Calls for Immediate Disbanding of House Select Committee on Benghazi

Washington, DC – After seventeen months of investigation, more than $4.6 million in taxpayer funds expended, and yesterday’s grueling 11 hour interrogation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Congresswomen Betty McCollum (D-MN) is calling for the immediate disbanding of the U.S. House of Representative’s Select Committee on Benghazi.

On September 11, 2012, terrorists in Benghazi, Libya murdered four Americans – Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, Glen Doherty and U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. This terrorist attack needed to be investigated to ensure such a tragedy did not happen again. It was investigated by seven congressional committees as well as the State Department.

It is now clear based on the words of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that the Benghazi Select Committee was created to conduct a partisan investigation. Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) was not lying when he said, “there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton.”

Rep. McCollum issued the following statement:

“The Benghazi Committee should be shutdown today – immediately – with not one more taxpayer dollar expended to finance a government funded, politically motivated attack on Secretary Clinton. Yesterday’s eleven hour grilling of Mrs. Clinton was an abuse of power. It was an ugly, shameful display of a House committee not looking for answers to prevent a future tragedy, but seeking sound bites to attack a candidate for president.”

“The American people witnessed Hillary Clinton responding to her inquisitors with grace, strength, and compassion for the four courageous Americans who lost their lives in Benghazi. She displayed an impressive level of leadership under the most intense questioning. The manner in which Mrs. Clinton’s conducted herself was in stark contrast to the blatantly partisan attacks and bullying by the Republican members of the committee.”

“Now that the Republicans have had their eleven hours to attack the former Secretary of State and Democratic candidate for president, I urge Speaker Boehner, before he resigns, to disband the Benghazi Select Committee, stop wasting taxpayer dollars, and end this blatant abuse of power.”

Congresswoman McCollum is the ranking Democratic member on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee and the Democratic co-chair of the Native American Caucus.

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