Schakowsky criticizes additional Benghazi hearings

Bailey Williams, Assistant City Editor

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) said Thursday she thinks House Republicans are using the new select committee on Benghazi as a political ploy.

“There is nothing that they don’t know,” Schakowsky told “NewsOne Now” host Roland Martin on Thursday morning. “That’s why the Democrats are considering … to not yet again participate in a hearing, in a series of hearings, an investigation, a special committee where they can use a subpoena and ask anybody to come in once again and … continue this kind of witch hunt.”

Later Thursday, the House voted 232-186 to establish a select committee to investigate the September 2012 attack on a compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans.

“What they are looking for is some sort of a scandal that simply is not there,” Schakowsky said.

Schakowsky, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee within the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said additional hearings would not reveal any new information. She talked about the numerous people who had already testified, ranging from the station chief in Tripoli, Libya, to people on the ground when the attack occurred.

Recently, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) came out publicly in support of the select committee.

“When is the administration going to tell the American people the truth?” Boehner said Wednesday. “They’ve not told them the truth about Benghazi … If they’re not willing to tell the American people the truth, it must not be very pretty.”

Schakowsky said Boehner’s motivations were simply an attempt to prey on partisan outrage to score political points.

“This is about the politics of trying to appeal to the far right-wing base to find some sort of scandal,” Schakowsky said.

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