Kevin McCarthy puts political spin on Benghazi Committee, Hillary Clinton
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, is under fire for comments he made that linked the House Select Benghazi Committee to Hillary Clinton's falling poll numbers.
In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Tuesday, McCarthy, who was on "Hannity" to talk about his campaign to succeed outgoing Speaker John Boehner, praised the committee.
"Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?" McCarthy said. "But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable. But no one would've known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen."
Clinton, in an interview Wednesday with MSNBC's Al Sharpton, was asked about McCarthy's comments and said, "I find them deeply distressing...When I hear a statement like that, which demonstrates unequivocally that this was always meant to be a partisan political exercise, I feel like it does a grave disservice and dishonors not just the memory of the four that we lost, but of everybody who has served our country. "
In a statement, Clinton Spokesman Brian Fallon called McCarthy's comments "a damning display of honesty by the possible next Speaker of the House," he wrote. "Kevin McCarthy just confessed that the committee set up to look into the deaths of four brave Americans at Benghazi is a taxpayer-funded sham."
Boehner and Benghazi Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, have said the committee's work is a nonpartisan exercise to obtain more information about the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.
Clinton will testify before the committee on Oct.16, and a top aide, Huma Abedin, will be interviewed by the committee on Oct. 16.