The Democrats on the House Benghazi Committee on Monday released their own report on the 2012 attacks in Libya, saying they still don’t really know what caused the events, despite the evidence that it was in fact a pre-planned terrorist attack.
“There are some findings this report does not make,” the Democratic report states. “For example, an offensive, anti-Muslim video sparked protests and anti-American violence in Cairo and throughout the region, but it remains unclear to this day precisely what motivated all of the individuals in Benghazi on the night of the attacks.”
The report goes out of its way to defend Hillary Clinton and other Obama administration officials, like Susan Rice, the United States ambassador to the United Nations.
Among the most controversial parts of the Benghazi attacks were the comments made in the aftermath by Rice, who said on several television shows the attacks were “spontaneous” and not a “premeditated attack.” Republicans later used this to argue the Obama administration, during the 2012 campaign, was trying to be misleading about what was clearly a terrorist attack.
Led by Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Democrats on the committee argue Obama administration officials “did not make intentionally misleading statements about the attacks, but instead relied on information they were provided at the time under fast-moving circumstances.”
The Democrats released their own 339-page report in advance of the report expected to be released in the coming days by the Republican majority led by chairman Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican.
The report also spends a considerable amount of space attacking Republicans for creating the committee in the first place.
“Decades in the future, historians will look back on this investigation as a case study in how not to conduct a credible investigation,” the Democratic report states. “They will showcase the proliferation of Republican abuses as a chief example of what happens when politicians are allowed to use unlimited taxpayer dollars — and the formidable power of Congress — to attack their political foes.”
Some of the findings of the report defend Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time. The report says Clinton “never personally denied security requests” and that she was “active and engaged.”