Some of the administration’s friends, such as CNN contributor Hilary Rosen, are pushing the line that today’s hearings on the Benghazi consulate attack and the administration’s response cannot be taken seriously, because Chairman Issa is somehow suppressing the testimony from other key figures in the Benghazi events and investigation. Rosen tweeted, “Rep. Darrell Issa’s Benghazi hearing today has no credibility since he refused to let the Chair of the Independent Commission testify.”
Except that Issa’s staff says that “the two men who headed the review — former ambassador Thomas Pickering and Adm. Mike Mullen, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — declined invitations to testify.”
Jonathan Karl, ABC News chief White House correspondent, says the committee “released letter inviting Pickering to testify dated February 22.”
So the first spin is proven false. But that doesn’t seem to matter to the committee’s Democrats. Ranking minority member Elijah Cummings declared, “Today’s hearing is not the full story” — before a single question was asked, or a single witness offered a single word.
UPDATE: Letters below:
The Mullen letter, also dated Feb. 22.