Representative Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.), the chairman of the House committee investigating the Benghazi attack, declined this morning to defend his colleague Representative Kevin McCarthy, who controversially credited the committee for bringing down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers.
SCARBOROUGH: “Thank you for being with us. Obviously, a lot of quotes that were at the Washington Post yesterday caught a lot of us—well, not by surprise. We can understand your disappointment and your bitterness. But the question I was asking the day after because I was upset that Kevin said what he said is: How in the world do you want to unring that bell as we would say when inadmissible evidence get before the jury? How do you unring that bell?”
GOWDY: “Well, Joe, you have to do a really good job on October 22nd and you have to ask folks to look at what you’ve done and not what others have said. Kevin is not on the Benghazi Committee. Kevin, I’m sure, doesn’t know we’ve interviewed 41 witnesses, none of the previous committees have interviewed, including seven eyewitnesses. I would just respectfully ask folks to look at what we’ve done and to look at October 22nd, and you’ll see a fact-centric, professional, fair appearance and that’s all I can do, is ask people to focus on actions and not words.”
SCARBOROUGH: “You and I both like Kevin very much. He’s a great guy. I can’t imagine how angry I would be if I were in your position working nonstop to bring credibility to what I consider to be a very important investigation and then a guy who is considered a friend and an ally, undercuts you this way. What was your reaction? Kevin is a friend which makes this disappointment frankly even more bitter. What was your reaction when you first heard his comments?”
GOWDY: “Well, he is a friend, but my first reaction is Kevin, “you’re wrong.” When Speaker Boehner called me, he never mentioned Secretary Clinton’s name. In fact, we’ve had three public hearings, Joe. I’ve never mentioned her name. If you look at what we’ve done—the 50 some odd witnesses we’ve already interviewed, not a single one has been named Clinton; the 50,000 documents we have accessed that no other committee has accessed, less than 5 percent had anything to do with her. She was the secretary of State at all relevant times, so, of course, you have to talk to her. But we didn’t start with her and we’re not going to end with her. In fact, I’ve been pretty patient when she came before the committee. I still don’t have all her e-mails. Joe, as you know, we got a thousand just last week.”