The House Select Committee on Benghazi is mired in scandal and turmoil now, which is only getting worse as more information on how they’ve really conducted themselves, and what their true focus is, comes out. Recently, they accepted a donation tied to PACs that ran a nasty anti-Hillary ad. Now, committee chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is returning the donations, which total $6,000, and were received all on the same day.
The Washington Post reminded us that, when this committee was first formed, Gowdy called for keeping its investigation above politics. That’s never happened, given how he’s actually run the committee. When the Post began asking Gowdy about his connection to a PAC known as “Stop Hillary,” Gowdy must have gotten uncomfortable.
The ad isn’t just any anti-Hillary ad, which is why it looks so suspicious that the groups behind it would donate to the committee. It specifically discusses Benghazi, saying things like this, according to Talking Points Memo:
Dear Hillary Clinton, I’d like to ask you why you ignored calls for help in Benghazi and then four Americans were murdered. . . . But Mrs. Clinton, I can’t.
This is the same ad that had people up in arms after CNN ran it during the Democratic debate. Watch it below, and see why it’s such a conflict of interest for Gowdy to receive donations from these PACs. That connection reinforces the idea that the committee’s entire purpose was to take down Hillary Clinton, rather than get the truth about Benghazi out to the American people.
The committee’s spokesman, Jim Ware, said this in response to the Post‘s inquiry:
The memories of our lost fellow citizens should not be used for fundraising, nor should their families’ suffering be exploited. If you hear Trey Gowdy, Benghazi and donate in the same message, Mr. Gowdy would personally encourage you to ignore the request.
However, according to the Post’s article, Dan Backer, who’s the treasurer at Stop Hillary, has no qualms whatsoever about politicizing Benghazi and the families’ pain for political purposes. He claims it has nothing to do with Gowdy, but when this same PAC donates money to the committee, that becomes difficult to believe.
In fact, it becomes another domino in the rapidly-falling line of dominoes that the Benghazi committee has become in recent weeks.
Gowdy is in damage-control mode now, working feverishly to save his committee, because this will be terrible for his reputation and career if the committee goes down in flames, as it ought. He’s upset that his name is getting dragged through the mud, to which we say, “B-O-O H-O-O,” because, even if his motives have been pure, he’s still leading a committee that’s on a witch-hunt, and if he doesn’t know that, then he needs to open his eyes.
Image via screen capture
