Originally posted by Forever_frost
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Benghazi testimonials
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Maloney is saying "I find it disturbing that when our guys were under attack, the president and Mrs. Clinton were attacked."
Dems aren't asking questions, they're attacking the witnesses and trying to talk up Obama and Clinton. Only question she asked "Do you agree that hillary's name was typed in the reduction of security in Libya instead of personally signed."
That's itI wear a Fez. Fez-es are cool
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1:40 p.m. EDT: Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) renews an old and discredited line of attack, blaming Republican-supported budget cuts for the lack of security in Benghazi. As Breitbart News' AWR Hawkins pointed out in January, testimony in October 2012 by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Charlene Lamb confirmed that budget considerations were not an issue.
Issa asks Clay whether he was there that day. Clay does not remember.
Cummings counters that the Accountability Review Board report said that resources were an issue. But as Breitbart News' John Sexton pointed out yesterday, "the official State Dept. report on Benghazi did not claim that insufficient resources were directly responsible for the security cuts made in Benghazi, though it did recommend raising the overall budget by 2015.
1:35 p.m. EDT: Rep. Jim Jordan leads a line of questioning to Hicks in which he elicits testimony that the State Department tried to dissuade him from speaking to members of the Oversight Committee, and attempted to place a lawyer in between him and committee members, including attending classified meetings. Hicks confirms that this had never happened before in his career, and that a lawyer who assisted Secretary Clinton directly was upset about the investigation.
1:29 p.m. EDT: Tierney continues by attempting to trip up Nordstrom regarding the change to the administration's talking points. Nordstrom reiterates that there was no report from the U.S. mission in Libya about a protest.
1:26 p.m. EDT: Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) continues the Democrats' attack on Issa, objecting to the charge that the American public was deliberately misled. The Democrats' resource on this is the Washington Post, which gave one of Issa's statements "four Pinnochios" but only gave the administration's original story about the protest "two Pinnochios." The same Washington Post that is mocking people watching the hearings (see update from 1:15 p.m., below).
1:16 p.m. EDT: D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton asks Thompson whether a quote about the counter-terrorism bureau of the State Department being circumvented is accurate. He replies that it is not, and objects to her implication that he would have said or done something out of political motives. She cuts him off.
In a subsequent answer, Thompson tries to explain that a portion of the bureau that would have been most effective was not involved--and Holmes Norton cuts him off again. Thompson is visibly irritated.
1:15 p.m. EDT: Presented without comment.
1:13 p.m. EDT: Rep. Chaffetz presents evidence that help might have been able to arrive in time. He concludes by making the point that the question is irrelevant anyway, because "We had no idea how long, or when this was going to end."
1:07 p.m. EDT: Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) drills down on the question of whether military personnel were authorized to travel after the attack to help rescue and escort diplomatic personnel from Benghazi. Hicks says that military personnel did not have authorization and did not travel, leaving the duty to diplomatic personnel. He recalls a comment made at the time: "First time in my career that a diplomat has more balls than our military."
1:02 p.m. EDT: Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), given an opportunity to question the witnesses, launches a tirade against Republicans who "attacked" President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, including the committee chair, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). She hones in on a controversy about a cable that Issa alleged Clinton signed, arguing that Clinton's name had merely appeared on the bottom of the cable. Issa declines to respond.
1:00 p.m. EDT: Over at Big Journalism, John Nolte notes that several mainstream media journalists are mocking Hicks, trying to rebut the whistleblowers in real time, and generally behaving miserably. Some are attacking Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who serves on the Intelligence Committee, for attending the hearings.
12:55 p.m. EDT: Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) asks Hicks whether Amb. Stevens, or the Prime Minister of Libya, mentioned anything about a protest or demonstration outside the Benghazi consulate. "No, sir."
Asked about UN Ambassador Susan Rice's assertions about a protest on the Sunday talk shows: "I was stunned," Hicks says. "My jaw dropped."
12:50 p.m. EDT: As predicted, Democrats are pushing back against the idea that there could have been any military response that would have arrived in time. Cummings challenges Hicks on whether fighter jets could have arrived:
As Breitbart News' Joel Pollak pointed out yesterday, the question is actually irrelevant. First, because there was no way to know at the time how long or how extensive the attacks would be; and second, because we now know more about just how unprepared the administration was to provide any security of any kind in case of emergency.
12:45 p.m. - Ranking Member Cummings tries to push back against Hicks's testimony, saying he needs to provide "balance" in order to "protect" Hicks's colleagues. Terrible optics.I wear a Fez. Fez-es are cool
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