Politics

Gowdy: First Benghazi Hearing Was ‘Serious,’ ‘Fact-Specific’

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
Font Size:

Benghazi select committee chairman Trey Gowdy said Wednesday that he thinks his panel struck the right tone during its first public hearing on the 2012 attacks.

Speaking to reporters at the conclusion of the Capitol Hill hearing, the South Carolina Republican said it was “exactly what I thought it would be: constructive, people asking really good questions on both sides, serious, fact-specific, fact-centric. And precisely what I pledged to my fellow citizens when the speaker asked me to do this.”

The hearing, which included testimony from Greg Starr, the assistant secretary for diplomatic security at the State Department, was hardly the partisan circus meant to smear former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Democrats predicted it would be.

Not until an hour and a half into the hearings did Clinton’s name even come up, for example.

Republicans, after the hearing, though, were sending around testimony from one witness, a former Department of Homeland Security official, who said the department tried to “skirt” security requirements in Libya.

Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member who denounced the formation of the committee when the House approved it earlier this year, even struck a positive note after the hearing.

“Overall, I was pleased with the hearing today,” the Democrat told reporters.

Wednesday’s hearing, the first to air publicly, focused on the recommendations made by the State Department’s Accountability Review Board, or the ARB, in the wake of the attacks.

“We will definitely hold the State Department’s feet to the fire. It is not enough to say what you’re going to do,” Cummings said.

Earlier this year, lawmakers in the House passed a bill to establish the new committee to investigate the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead, including Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Gowdy said he wants Starr, the State Department official, to come back at a later date with evidence of “what progress is being made” in protecting diplomatic facilities overseas.

“Mr. Cummings made a wonderful point,” Gowdy said. “We need to see progress. Not hear it, but see it.”

Gowdy said he and Cummings will meet sometime to determine the timing of the next open hearing.

“We’re going to have more public hearings. I can’t tell you when. I can’t tell you the topic. But they’ll be important,” he said. “Not going to waste your time.”

Asked by a reporter if the attacks in Benghazi could happen again today, Gowdy replied: “Could it happen again? It’s a dangerous world. A very dangerous job. Which is really why you can’t thank the four for their service, and the others that are serving today enough.”

Follow Alex on Twitter