New Hillary Clinton ad targets Benghazi committee
DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Hillary Clinton's campaign is set to roll out its first national television ad on CNN and MNSBC on Tuesday, highlighting House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's recent comments about the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
"Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?" McCarthy says in the clip of an interview on Fox News last week that is at the center of the ad. "But we put together a Benghazi special committee. What are her numbers today?"
The 30-second spot is the latest in a series of offensive moves by the Clinton campaign, which was quick to seize on McCarthy's comments as proof that the committee's purpose is purely political.
This is the Clinton campaign ad:
"The Republicans finally admit it," the ad's voiceover says. "The Republicans have spent millions attacking Hillary because she's fighting for everything they oppose, from affordable health care, to equal pay, she'll never stop fighting for you and the Republicans know it."
It's a modest buy - a Clinton official said the campaign spent five figures on running the ad. The Clinton campaign, the only one running TV ads on the Democratic side so far, has spent $13.8 million on airtime in New Hampshire and Iowa.
Emily Schillinger, spokeswoman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the ad "a classic Clinton attempt to distract from her record of putting classified information at risk and jeopardizing our national security, all of which the FBI is investigating."
McCarthy sought to clarify his comments about the committee in an interview last Thursday on Fox News.
"I did not intend to imply in any way that that work was political. Of course it is not, look at the way they have carried themselves out," he told Bret Baier. "The point I was trying to make - and I want to be very clear about this - I wasn't saying the committee was political. That committee is solely to get the truth out."
Clinton will publicly testify in front of the committee on October 22. Asked in an interview Monday if the committee should be disbanded, Clinton demurred but said that the committee actions are "not appropriate."
"If they are going to have it still running, I'll be there, and I'm looking forward to answering questions about real things when I'm there," she told Savannah Guthrie, "and I'm looking forward to having a chance to explain everything we've done, everything that I asked to happen."
CBS News' Walt Cronkite contributed to this report