The Republican Party Predictably Shoots Itself In The Dick During Hillary’s Benghazi Testimony

As of this article’s publication time, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is still testifying in front of the dog-and-pony show known as the Benghazi Select Committee. For the past few weeks, the committee has taken blow after blow, starting with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy telling Sean Hannity last month that this ‘investigation’ was all about hurting Clinton’s poll numbers as she runs for the White House. Since then, other Republicans and a former staff member have confirmed the partisan nature of the committee, which is conducting the 8th investigation into the 2012 terror attack.

Now, the best thing for Republicans would have been to dissolve the committee, say the investigation was done and cut their losses. However, Chairman Trey Gowdy and the other GOPers in the group just couldn’t help themselves, and they decided to go right on ahead and hold their hearing Thursday, despite the fact that 72% of Americans believe the committee is nothing more than a political ploy be Republicans to harm Clinton. Of course, having Hillary testify meant that they were allowing her to not only prove the meaninglessness of their charade, but also allow her to look presidential and rally Dems in the middle of her campaign.

Just as most predicted, Hillary dominated the Republicans while they each took turns looking like simple-minded fools trying desperately to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. One by one, right-winger after right-winger read from their Fox News-approved script to try to corner Clinton with the same old Benghazi! outrage lines they’ve been spouting for damn near three years now. And, once again, they showed that there is no there there. It is all just a blatantly transparent attempt to try to tie a tragedy around the neck of the likely Democratic nominee for President, even while most people realize that it just isn’t the conspiracy-ridden scandal they so desperately crave it to be.

Let’s review some of the lowlights for the GOP during the first part of the testimony, prior to them breaking for a House floor vote.

First, we have Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) being a total condescending asshole to the former First Lady and Senator, letting the whole world know that the GOP was going to go full d-bag during this whole hearing. While he was talking about Clinton’s role in bringing down Gaddafi in the most smarmy way possible, he paused while Hillary received a note from a staffer, telling her that he’ll wait for her to read the note. Clinton let him know that she “could do more than one thing at a time.”

Below is video of their entire exchange:

We were then treated to Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) using stacks of paper to apparently demonstrate Clinton’s lack of interest in Libya in the months prior to the Benghazi attack. One large stack represented Clinton’s emails regarding Libya in 2011 while a smaller pile showed the emails she sent in 2012. Hillary had to tell Brooks that as Secretary of State, she did more than just send and receive emails, and that her interest or engagement in something can’t just be tied to her inbox.

“Well, Congresswoman, I did not conduct most of the business that I did on behalf of our country on email. I conducted it in meetings. I read massive amounts of memos, a great deal of classified information. I made a lot of secure phone calls. I was in and out of the White House all the time. There were a lot of things that happened that I was aware of and that I was reacting to. If you were to be in my office in the State Department, I didn’t have a computer. I did not do the vast majority of my work on email.”

Below is video of that exchange, courtesy of Talking Points Memo:

House Freedom Caucus ‘Leader’ Jim Jordan (R-OH) was apparently designated as the bulldog who would pepper Clinton with accusations while making sure she couldn’t get a word in edgewise. The following tweet pretty much says everything we need to know about their exchange.

Stay updated with the latest from @HillaryClinton‘s testimony at the #BenghaziCommittee https://t.co/Yz04hma85H https://t.co/um5dW4BSzj

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 22, 2015

Prior to breaking for lunch, Raking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) got into a tiff with Gowdy over the majority repressing sworn testimony from Clinton friend Sidney Blumenthal, despite Gowdy publicly releasing emails from him prior to the hearing. While the two shouted back and forth, Clinton just sat there with a bemused expression on her face, taking a moment to brush off her shoulder like a pimp.

Below is video, courtesy of Think Progress:

Yeah, this thing was stupid, and did the GOP no favors whatsoever. But, then again, they’ve gotten pretty used to shooting themselves in the dick over the past months.