NEW YORK – Hillary Clinton and her allies can't stand the House Select Committee on Benghazi, charging that it's driven by political motives and a rehashing of previous investigations into the 2012 attack in Libya that left four Americans dead. Some even call it the Select Committee to Destroy Hillary Clinton.
Despite all the risks that come with hours of nationally televised questioning before a Republican-led congressional panel, the Democratic front-runner and her team are looking forward to Thursday's hearing as a key turning point that will help solidify the momentum she's built since last week's debate.
To avoid further charges of political showboating after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's comments on the committee, GOP members are expected to focus their early questioning on the attacks and to reference her e-mails as evidence, not as a separate line of inquiry and investigation.
Aware that his committee's legitimacy is being challenged, even by some members of his own party, Chairman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina was insistent Sunday that his fellow Republicans stop making comments that risk derailing his work. "I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends, 'Shut up talking about things that you don't know anything about.' And unless you're on the committee you have no idea what we've done, why we've done it and what new facts we have found," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
While some Republicans may be hoping the Democratic presidential front-runner will slip up during her hours of testimony, a Clinton aide pointed to her long day of Benghazi testimony before Senate and House committees in January 2013 as evidence of her endurance, noting that she'd suffered a concussion and a blood clot the month earlier and still "killed it."
But during that appearance, Clinton also gave her political opponents ammunition, saying, "Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they'd they go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?"
Clinton's focus before last Tuesday was on preparing for the debate and it's only since then that she's been able to prioritize preparations for the hearing, aides said.
