Transcripts For CNNW Wolf 20151022

Old friend who sent you unsolicited emails which you passed on in some instances because you wanted to hear from people outside what you called the bubble. We will ignore for a second whether or not blumenthal is outside the bubble, but i do want to ask you about a couple of those other comments. Because what you left out was he was an old friend who knew absolutely nothing about libya, was critical of obama and others you worked with, loved to send you political and image advice, had business interests in libya which he not only aletteralette alerted you to and solicited your help for. And after you redacted out any identifier so nobody knew where the information was coming from. What does the word unsole lifted mean to you . It means that i did not ask him to send me the information he send me. As i previously stated, some of it i found interesting. Some of it i did not. Some of it i foorpded. Some of it i did not. I did not know anything about any business interest. I thought that just as i said previously, newspaper articles, journalists, had some interesting insights. So we, you know, we took them on board and evaluated them and some were helpful and owns were not. Were going to get to all the points you just made. I want to start with your Public Comment these emails were unsolicited. You wrote to him, another keeper, thanks, please keep them coming. Greetings from kabul and thanks for keeping this stuff coming. Any other info about it question mark. What are you hearing now question mark. Got it. Will follow up tomorrow. Anything else to convey question mark. Now that one is interesting because that was the very email where blumenthal was asking you to intervene on a business deal he was pursuing in libya. What did you mean by what are you hearing now . . I have no idea, congressman. They started out unsolicited. As i said, some were of interest. I passed them on. Some were not. So he continued to provide me information that was made available to him. I dont want to parse words. I dont want to be hyper technical. Its not a huge point but it is an important point. You didnt say they started off unsolicited. You said they were no, i did you said they were unsolicited. They were unsolicited but obviously i did respond to some of them and im sure that encouraged him. Anything else to convey, what are you hearing now, im going to paris tomorrow night, will meet with tnc leaders so this and additional info useful. Still dont have blackberry coverage so ive had to resort to my new ipad. Let me know if youve received this. Well talk about the new ipad in a little bit. Heres another one. This report is in response to your questions. Its an email to him from you be. This report is in response to your questions. Further information in the next day. If youre the one asking him for information, how does that square with the definition of unsolicited . I said it began that way, and i will add both stevens and yetz found some of the information interesting, far more than i could, because they knew some of the characters who were being mentioned. They were the one, the kind of persons with the expertise that i asked to evaluate to see whether there was any useful information. Were going to get to that in a second. Before you give mr. Blumenthal too much credit, you agree he didnt write a single one of those cables or memos he sent you . Im sorry, what . He didnt write a single one of those cables. I didnt know. Would you be surprised to know not a single one was from him . I didnt know where he got the information did you ask . What . Did you ask . Youre sending me very detailed intelligence. What is your source . That seems to me a pretty good question. I did learn later he was talking to or sharing information from former american intelligence officials. By the name of . Who wrote those cables . I dont recall. I dont know, mr. Chairman. You had his information passed on to others. At least on one occasion you asked, can you print without any identifiers. Why would you want his name removed . Because i thought it would be more important to just look at the substance and to make a determination as to whether or not there was anything to it. Dont people have a right to know the source of the information so they can determine credibility . He wasnt, as you just said, the source of the information but you didnt know that, madam secretary, thats what you just said. No, no, mr. Chairman, i said no, maam i said that he didnt have the sorurces to provide that information. I knew he was getting it from somewhere else did you ask where . He knew a lot of journalists. It could have been a variety of people. If youre going to determine credibility, dont you want to know the source . Well, it wasnt credibility so much as trying to follow the threads that were mentioned about individuals. As i already stated, some tch was useful and some of it was not. Well, did the president know that mr. Blumenthal wallace advising you . He wasnt advising me and, you know, mr. Chairman your most prolific emailer we have found on the subjects of libya and benghazi . Thats because i didnt do most of my work on email im not challenging that, mr. Secretary. All im telling you is the documents show he was your most prolific emailer on libya and benghazi. My question to you is did the president , the same white house that said you cant handle him, cant hire him, did he know that he was advising you . He was not advising me, and i have no reason to have ever mentioned that or know that the president knew that. I want to draw your attention to an email. It will be exhibit 67. This is informative. Shall we pass on, in parathen calls, unidentified to the white house. If youre going to pass something on to the white house, why would you take off the identifiers . Because it was important to evaluate the information. From a lot of intelligence i have certainly reviewed over the years, you often dont have the source of the intelligence. You look at the intelligence and you try to determine whether or not it is credible. Whether it can be followed up on. Im going to accept the fact you and i come from different backgrounds. I can tell you an unsourced comment could ever be uttered in any courtroom were not talking about courtrooms, mr. Chairman. Were talking about intelligence no, were talking about credibility and the abuilt ilit assess who the source is. Whether or not that source has ever been to libya. Knows anything about libya. Or has business interest in libya. All of which would be important if you were going to determine the credibility, which i think is why you probably took his information off of what you sent to the white house, but heres another possible explanation. That may give us a sense of why maybe the white house didnt want you to hire him in the first place. In one email, he wrote this about the president , secretary of defense, i infer gates problem as losing an internal debate. Tyler. Thats who actually authored the cables you got from blumenthal. Tyler knows him well and says hes a mean vicious little. Im not going to say the word but he did. This is an email from blumenthal to you about the president , secretary of defense. And heres another blumenthal email to you about president S National Security adviser. Frankly toms babbling rhetoric about narratives on the phone briefing by reporters on march 10th has inspired derision among serious Foreign Policy analysts both here and abroad. Heres another one from what you say is your old friend Sidney Blumenthal. A quote from him. I would say obama, and by the way, he left the president part out, i would say obama appears to be intent on seizing defeat from the jaws of victory. He and his political cronies in the white house and chicago are to say the least unenthusiastic about regime change in lynn libya. Obamas lukewarm and selfcontracting statements have produced at least for the moment operational paralysis. I think that may give us a better understanding of why the white house may have told you you cannot hire him. Bloomen all this could not get hired by our government. Didnt pass any background check at all. Had no role with our government. Had never been to libya. Had no expertise in libya. Was critical of the president and others that you worked with. Shared polling data with you on the intervention in libya. Gave you political advice on how to take credit for libya. All the while working for the Clinton Foundation and some pseudo news entities. Madam secretary, he had unfettered access to you. He used that access at least on one occasion to ask you to intervene on behalf of a business venture. Do you recall that . You know, mr. Chairman, if you dont have any friends who say unkind things privately, i congratulate you. But from my perspective, i dont id like to think id correct them. I dont know what this line of questioning does to help us get to the bottom of the deaths of four americans id be happy to tell to understand better id be happy to tell you, madam secretary i want to reiterate what i said to sanchez. These were originally unsolicited. You just said perhaps the main if not the exclusive author was a former intelligence agent for our country who rose to the highest levels of the cia and who was given credit for being one of the very few who pointed out that the intelligence used by the Bush Administration to go to war in iraq was wrong. So i think that, you know, the sharing of information from an old friend that i did not take at face value, that i sent on to those who were experts, is something that, you know, makes sense, but it was certainly not in anyway the primary source of or the predominant understanding that we had of what was going on in libya and what we needed to be doing. Madam secretary, im out of time. Well pick this back up the next round. Ill go ahead and let you know ahead of time why its relevant. Its relevant because our ambassador was asked to read and respond to Sidney Blumenthals drivel. It was sent to him to read and react to. In some instances, on the very same day he was asking for security. So i think it is imminently fair to ask why Sidney Blumenthal had unfettered access to you, madam secretary, with whatever he talked about, and theres not a single solitary email to or from you to or from ambassador stevens. I think that is fair. And well take that gentleman yield . Sure. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, youve made several inaccurate statements over the past months as youve tried to defend against multiple republican admissions that the select committee has been wasting millions of tax dollars to damage secretary clintons bid for president. On sunday, you made another inaccurate statement during your appearance on face the nation and its being taken up here. Heres who you said, i quote. There are other folks who may have equities in her emails. And there may be other entities who are evaluating her emails. But my interest, my interest in them is solely making sure that i get everything im entitled to. So i can do my job. The rest of it, classification, Clinton Foundation, you name it, i have zero interest in it. Which is why you havent seen me send a subpoena related to it or interview a Single Person other than brian faviano because i need to know the record is complete. Im going back to truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Im waiting let me finish ive been very patient just wait im waiting on the inaccurate statement. Im getting there well, we have to take a break. Well, its not going to take long. You took up four minutes ive let everybody go over, including you. Thank you very much. You issued a subpoena to blumenthal on may 19, 2015, compelling him to appear for a deposition on june 16th, 2015. You issued that subpoena unilaterally without giving the select Committee Members the opportunity to debate or vote on it. You sent two armed marshals to serve the subpoena on mr. Blumenthals wife at their home without ever sent him a request to participate voluntarily, which he would have done. Then mr. Chairman you personally attended mr. Blumenthals deposition. You personally asked him about the Clinton Foundation. And you personally directed your staff to ask questions about clinton, the Clinton Foundation, which they did more than 50 times. Now, these facts directly contradict the statements you made on National Television no, sir, with all due respect, they do not. We just heard email after email after email about libya and benghazi that Sidney Blumenthal sent to the secretary of state. I dont care if he sent it by mors code, carrier pigeon, smoke signals. The fact he happened to send it by email is irrelevant. What is relevant is he was sending information to the secretary of state. That is whats relevant. With respect to the subpoena, if hed bothered to answer the telephone calls of our committee, he wouldnt have needed a subpoena. Will the gentleman yield . Id be happy to but you need to make sure the entire record is correct, mr. Cummings. Thats exactly what i want to do. Go ahead. Let me tell you. I move that we put into the record the entire transcript of Sidney Blumenthal. That way the world can see it. I second that motion. We didnt motion had been seconded. Were not going to take that up at a hearing and they have informed us we have a right to record a vote on that motion. Well, lets go through that. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thats what we want to have. Let the world see it. Why is it you only want blumenthals transcript released . Id like all of them released. The survivors, even their names . You want that released . No, let me tell you something the only one youve asked for is blumenthal. Sheryl mills. Thats not true. Thats 2 out of 54. Ask for a recorded vote on the blumenthal you said from the beginning we want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Why dont we just put the entire transcript out there and let the world see it . What do you have to hide . His are the only emails you have released. In fairness to blumenthal and the American People in the interest of a complete record if youre going to release his emails, release his transcript where he had a chance to give the context of those emailings. You keep referring to blumenthal emails. I would hasten ton remind both of you the only reason we have blumenthal emails is because he emailled the secretary of state. Theyre not blumenthals emails. And she wanted all of her emails released. Shes been saying since march. I want the entire world to see my emails. Well, blumenthals emails are parent of that. Heres what ill do. Ill be happy to talk to the parliamentarian. Told me your motion actually would not be in order for a hearing. But at the latest, well take a vote and the first week we are back after this week, well have a business meeting. We can take up mr. Blumenthals transcript. We can take up whatever other transcripts. Also the 20 someodd outstanding deputy discovery requests. In the interest of not having thats your opinion well, if you disagree, then release the transcripts. What allegation . Why conceal the transcripts . Even if the motion were not in order. You have the power to release them. Because im not going to release one transcript of someone who knows nothing about libya by his own admission. While people who risk their lives, you have no interest in their story getting out. You dont want the 18 ds agents. You dont want the cia agents. The only transcripts you want released are miss mills and blumenthals. Well take all of this up in november the only person you were interested in during your entire questioning is blumenthal. If youre so interested in him, release the transcript. You selectively released the emails. Theyre the only witness youve done that for. Youre asking why are we only asking for his transcript im going to ask the gentleman of california to please do a better job of characterizing. These are not blumenthals emails. These are clinton hes emails. If you think youve heard about blumenthal so far, wait till the next round. With that, were adjourned. All right. So there you have it. Quite an exchange at the very end between the chairman of the select committee, trey gowdy, the ranking democrat, elijah cummings, and you saw schiff, the Ranking Member of the House Intelligent Committee from california, involved as well. Right on your screen, david kendall, the former secretarys personal attorney, whos there. You see sheryl mills who was the Legal Adviser to the secretary when she served over at the state department. You see some her other top aides there as well. Quite a lively session the first three, almost 3 1 2 hours, and its going to be several more hours before this day is done. You see the secretary there behind those women. Shes getting ready to walk out. Theyre going to take a little lunch break and resume presumably im guessing in about an hour or so. But jake tapper at the very end we saw what was going on over there. It was quite intense between these democrats and republicans. Its interesting, its almost as if the democrats on the House Benghazi Committee were trying to take the opposite advice that Hillary Clinton has been given. Hillary clinton has been told rise above it, stay calm, dont get upset, dont let your feathers get ruffled. The democrats have spent every time theyve had an opportunity to ask questions to basically try to discredit and undermine their own committee and they basically been trying to bait the republicans, especially chairman gowdy, into himself erupting, into trying to get him to lose his cool. And while Hillary Clinton so far has avoided the pitfalls of when she testified that time a few years ago and said at this point what difference does it make, not a quite momegreat moment in testimony career. Gowdy has allowed himself to be taken down this path of whether or not they should release these records and whether or not sydney blumenthal, Hillary Clintons friend, should be the major issue. There have been some interesting points that have been made. We heard some largescale policy critiques of the libya policy. Led by Hillary Clinton. Congresswoman susan brooks trying to make the point Hillary Clinton was much more engaged in daytoday safety in libya in 2011 then she was in 2012. Congressman also making that point. When westmoreland was talking, he managed to get from her that chris stevens, this person, this late ambassador, who was killed tragically september 11th, 2012, she described as a good friend, he did not have her email address. Weve gone down this rabbit hole dealing with her friend blumenthal. I dont know if there are any schoolchildren watching this testimony out there, that its going to give them a lot of confidence in our american legislative branch. Significant for clinton is she does have these democrats on the select committee who are obviously coming to her defense at every opportunity and challenging the republicans, had she appeared only with republicans there, would have been a different game today, would have been a different round of testimony. She wouldnt have had that kind of protection. Theres been some discussion among the democrats whether to boycott this hearing, the continuing hearings. Clearly, from her perspective, its good those democrats are there. Theyre doing her work for her. Theyre the ones calling the committee partisan. Theyre the ones attacking the committee. Attacking chairman gowdy. Gowdy feeling very defensive. Hes talked a number of times. Trying to respond to members of the committee. He at one point said to i think it was congressman smith from washington state, gowdy saying he made a reference to all the things this Committee Found that your committee missed. Trying to make the case his committee is serious and should not be considered partisan. I think ultimately Hillary Clinton benefits greatly from having democrats on the committee because theyre doing everything they can to protect her and attack the very committee they sit upon. Youre absolutely right. Shes keeping her cool. Shes being very confident responding to the questions. Its probably doing some good for her in the process as well. Dana bash is outside the hearing. Dana, you got elijah cummings, the ranking democrat, with you. Were anxious to hear what he thinks of the first 3 1 2 hours. Of course i will, thank you very much for walking over, mr. Cummings. That was quite a bit of fireworks at the end there. Yes, our point is, is that the chairman started off with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We know there have been all kinds of leaks and then with regard to mr. Blumenthal, hes the only person whose emails have been released, and basically what were saying is if youre going to ask questions about these things, just put out the whole transcript. The things these dont just put out the emails when youve had a eight or nine hours with mr. Blumenthal asking him questions about these emails. Just release the whole transcript. What about the point if you want to release the transcript from blumenthals interview, what about releasing all of the transcripts . Ive said it over and over again. Once you made it sound like democrats dont want to do it. Thats not true. Ive said it many times. I said it this weekend on one of the National Sunday shows. Release all of them. I have seen and take out the appropriate redactions, you know, for security reasons and, you know, whatever the cia, others, may have concerns about. But release them all. Theres nothing to hide. I want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I do believe republicans dont want people to see the blumenthal transcript why is that . Tell us whats in there weve already issued press releases about the types of questions that are asked. About the foundation. About that is the Clinton Foundation. A lot of questions that have absolutely nothing to do with benghazi. All we want to do is put the whole truth out there. Its as simple as that. I want to go back to what you just asked me. I didnt get a chance was trying to get him to let me say this at the end. I have no problem with every single transcript of every interview made public as long as the appropriate redactions are made. I have no problem with that. I want that. Because i think then the public will really see whats going on here. Let me ask you a question about the big picture what mr. Gowdy was saying. Is that this is not from his perspective a prosecution where theres a conclusion already made, this is an investigation. Youre the ranking democrat. Youve been involved in this. Do you buy that . , you know, i wish i i wish i could accept the fact that conclusionings were not already made before we even got started. They were made. And this has been a constant drum beat to disrupt, destroy, the campaign of Hillary Clinton. It took me a long time to get there. Its a painful conclusion to come to. But ive been one i have a history over my 20 years of try to stand up for the integrity of not only the committees but of the congress. And thats why i say that i have no problem seeing all the information out there. Because i think when you look at what ive seen from these interviews, theres very little thats new. I think it just basically cooperates what has already been put in eight or nine reports, investigations. So, you know, well see when did you come to that conclusion . You said it was painful. I cant tell you the exact date but its been very, very every time i see things being done which go against what i believe is appropriate bipartisan investigation should be, its like a chipping away. It took me a while to get there, but im there. So now, what im doing, im doing what i said i was going to do from the very beginning. The question was asked from the very beginning of this committee, why are you on the committee . And i said i said this and ill say it again. It is to defend the truth. Whatever that is. Whatever it is. I am not hear to defend clinton. Im here to defend the truth. Thank you, appreciate it. There you heard pretty passionate from cummings. Certainly been in his fair share of extremely partisan hearings. Why he was put in this situation. The whole discussion about releasing transcripts or not releasing transcripts obviously speaks to the whole question of whether there is or isnt partisan motivation here so well see how that part ends. Certainly underscores, dana, the tension that was clearly evidence during the first 3 1 2 hours and presumably, im guessing, will escalate during the next 3 1 2 hours as this hearing continues after this quick lunch break. Gloria borger, curious, how do you think the secretary, the former secretary of state did . I think she did what she needed to do. I think she did a good job. I think her body language to me, we were talking about it at the table here, told it all, you know, at the beginning she kind of centered herself, ready for the incoming. And when the when the committee devolved into, you know, partisan wrangling between the chairman and the Ranking Member, she just kind of sat there like this. As if, is there anything else you can flip the channel to. She had this sort of bemused look almost. It was perfect. Because she just sat back and the wrangling is actually what workings for her. I would also have to say at the beginning of the hearing, congressman roskam asked a very legitimate question, which is i think this policy in libya was bad. You own the bad libya policy. He tried to kind make that point. She said it was the president s policy. We were just, you know, we were carrying it out. Then you had a congresswoman, brooks, saying you were derelict in your duties. It seemed to me as if they didnt get together on their plan. And then in terms of spending a lot of time on blumenthal, those of us who covered politics for a while know him from bill clintons white house, the whole Monica Lewinsky stuff. The American Public doesnt really care about Sidney Blumenthal i dont think. To spend so much time talking about him seems to be me be a waste of their valuable Committee Time where they should be talking about what happened in benghazi. And i dont think they really got to that much today. It was interesting, jeffrey toobin, youre a former prosecutor. Gowdy, the chairman. Hes a former prosecutor down in south carolina. He says hes not a prosecutor right now. Hes very defensive on this issue. He says hes an investigator. He only wants to come up with the truth. If you listen closely, the way he was making his case, he sounded like a prosecutor. Sure, he does. You know, michael kinsly, my mentor in journalism, you know, he had kinsly law about gaffes. Which when you unintentionally tell the truth. Mccarthys statement that this whole committee is designed to bring down Hillary Clintons poll numbers, that hangs over todays testimony enormously. I dont know that i heard anything from trey gowdy today that really refuteded what mccathy said. I think its remarkable when you think he had ten minutes, only ten minutes, to ask questions of the former secretary of state and he chose out of all the supples regarding the four people who died here to ask mr. Emails from blumenthal, a former colleague of mine at the new yorker, former colleague of pauls in the white house. Someone who is, with all due respect, not a very important person in the United States, that that is someone he chose to ask questions about is utterly baffling to me. Well get more analysis on what has occurred during the first round of this important hearing today. Much more of our special coverage right after this. When i was sidelined with blood clots in my lung,h. It was serious. Fortunately, my doctor had a game plan. Treatment with xarelto®. Hey guys hey, finally, somebody i can look up to. Besides arnie. Xarelto® is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots. Xarelto® is also proven to reduce the risk of stroke in people with afib, not caused by a heart valve problem. For people with afib currently well managed on warfarin, theres limited information on how xarelto® and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. 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You know xarelto® is the 1 prescribed blood thinner in its class. Thats a big win. It is for me. With xarelto® there is no regular blood monitoring and no known dietary restrictions. Treatment with xarelto®. Was the right move for us. Ask your doctor about xarelto®. Where our next arrival is. Red carpet whoa toenail fungus . Fight it with jublia. Jublia is a prescription medicine used to treat toenail fungus. Use jublia as instructed by your doctor. Are you getting this . most common side effects include ingrown toenail, application site redness, itching, swelling, burning or stinging, blisters, and pain. Oh, epic moves, big j fight it getting ready for your closeup . Ask your doctor if jublia is right for you. Visit our website for savings on larger size. I wonder if you would like to comment on what its like to be the subject of an allegation that you deliberately interfered with security that of the could the life of a friend. Congressman, its very personally painful accusation. It has been rejected and disproven by nonpartisan dispassionate investigators. Nevertheless, having it continued to be bandied around is deeply distressing to me. I would imagine i thought more about what happened then all of you put together. Ive lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been racking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done. Hillary clinton getting a bit emotional there responding to congressman schiff regarding the death, the murder, of chris steven, the u. S. Ambassador in libya, in benghazi, and three other americans. We want to welcome back our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer reporting from washington. Were getting analysis on the first 3 1 2 hours of testimony. Hillary clinton provided to members of the select committee, seven republicans, five democrats, republican chairman gowdy. Two of our cnn political commentators are with us. Amanda carpenter, former Communications Director for ted cruz. Paul begala, democratic strategist, very actively involved in a proHillary Clinton super pac right now. Amanda, anxious to get your reaction to what we heard during these first 3 1 2 hours. I think the hearing started off much stronger than it ended. You saw republicans attempting to paint libya so to speak as hillarys war. I thought it was going to be a really good discussion that hillary would be eager to have as well. They started talking about how everyone knew that the ambassador and other americans were in a dangerous and growing more dangerous situation as time went on. And maybe people werent paying attention to those signals. Those issues werent pressed as much. And then it went into this kind of tangent about sidney blumenth blumenthals emails. D. C. Insiders know who he is. What the republicans are trying to do with that is say listen this guy who really didnt know what he was talking about with libya had direct accession to the secretary of state. Meanwhile, she wasnt paying attention to people asking for more security, who are career professionals within the state department. I think they should have gone further to talk about why that was a bad idea, how the policies have failed in libya. Look what happened earlier this year, 21 christians murdered on the beaches there. So we should have a broader discussion about what the libya policy is, what the strategic objections were. I hope they get that in the second half of the hearing. Some of the republicans, paul were making the charge, congressman pompeo, she was relying on blumenthal for information about libya, she wasnt relying on her bureau of intelligence and research, the cia, all the other bureau of middle Eastern Affairs at the statement department. She rejected that assertion immediately. Not only did she but a very well prepared representative, linda sanchez, democrat on the panel, had a clip from meet the press where the substitute average, andrea mitchell, said no, i cover the place, i know thats not. Most of the emails she had, the Committee Received from her about libya were emails that blumenthal had center her unsolicited or solicited. Right, because when she was doing libya policy with the experts on libya policy it was actually at the state department, not by email. The worm hole of blumenthal is hilarious to me because theres no chance the republicans win that. They had a strategy here i think. Which is paint hillary as either incompetent or corrupt. I dont think im not an unbiased observer. I dont think they laid a glove on her. Shep had a strategy. Rise above it. Dont let them get under your skin. She had a policy goal. Defend american engagement around the world. Even in dangerous places. Welcome that debate about libya policy. The democrats had a strategy it paint the committee as partisan. They start with the wind at their back. 72 of americans agree with the House Republican leader that this is a political leader. Its 92 today. It will be 102 probably by the time we wake up tomorrow morning. Not so far a terrific job by the House Republicans. Our Global Affairs correspondent alise abbott has been listening carefully. Youve been doing some Fact Checking. What are you finding . There are a lot of things about what happened at the time. There are a lot of halftruths from the republicans. Talking about how Hillary Clinton handled things. But not necessarily true. For instance, just in the very beginning, there was talk about how Hillary Clinton handselected the arb, this independent panel. When, in fact, the legislation that sets up an arb calls for the secretary of state to appoint these members. And thats the kind of, you know, hitting Hillary Clinton in those type of things. I mean, on the blumenthal thing, it was true that she received emails from bloomen all this. At the time, a lot of people at the state department, youd talk to them and theyd say, you know, hes got his hand on some things but not on others. Yes, she was passing it around, but i wouldnt necessarily say his advice was readily sketched and readily acted upon. Sometimes it was a thing about being polite, saying is ill pass it around, and other times he had something interesting. I think what the committee was trying to do as weve been saying is go back. Theyre trying to say that Hillary Clinton was the architect of the libya policy. You heard congressman roskam say this was your baby, you were the one who was the architect. Another Fact Checking thing here, it wasnt only necessarily Hillary Clinton. Certainly, she was one of the top leaders of the policy. But she also had then ambassador to the u. N. Susan rice and Samantha Power whos now the u. N. Ambassador but was in the white house at the time, very strongly advocating for military action. So the republicans are trying to paint this as Hillary Clintons policy. And they say she lost interest and ignored some of the warning signs. But clearly laying not only the decision to go into libya at her lap but for also creating the conditions on the ground that led to the exstock marktremism benghazi. What happened in libya is not what the Obama Administration hoped would happen. It turned out to be a real disaster. Yes, gadhafi is gone, but you look whats there on the ground now, mt tethe terrorism, the Al Qaedaaffiliated groups. Certainly not what the then secretary of state had planned on seeing. What the president had planned on seeing. What the nato allies worked for when they got rid of gadhafi. Stand by. Were going to take another quick break. A picture of the hearing room as we go to this break. Take a look. You see the chairman of the committee gowdy, hes almost alone there, sitting at his chair, inside the Longworth House Office building. I assume hes preparing for this next round which is going to begin momentarily. Quite exciting in the first round. Well see what happens in round two when we come back. I dont want to live with the uncertainties of hep c. Or wonder. Whether i should seek treatment. I am ready. Because today theres harvoni. A revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. Harvoni is proven to cure up to 99 of patients. Whove had no prior treatment. Its the one and only cure thats. One pill, once a day for 12 weeks. Certain patients. Can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. With harvoni, theres no interferon and there are no complex regimens. Tell your doctor if you have other liver or kidney problems, or other medical conditions. And about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. 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Youve testified here this morning that youve had none of those reach your desk. Is that correct also . Thats correct. Tough exchange between republican congressman mike pompeo of kansas and Hillary Clinton during this first round of testimony today. Jake tapper, as we watched some of the effort to go after Hillary Clinton on what happened in that horrible day september 11th, 2012, when those four americans were killed by that terrorist incident in libya, are they scoring points against her . Or is she holding her own . Think one of the things i wish the Committee Members would explore a little bit more is this question of why so many of these requests for additional security from chris steven, from others in libya, things ive been reporting on since october 2012, we have had a lot of testimony in the past two years plus about these requests. When i asked secretary clinton about how i never understood why they werent met, she said there are security professional who is are the kinds of people who put their lives on the line and assess what is needed and they did not feel that more security needed to be sent to libya. Im still cure yos as to why that is. Do they need more money or funding . Do they need more personnel . Why are they not getting the security they need. I hope that when this process is over, we have some answers to that because we have been through a number of hearings where this point has been made, and yet i still dont find that a very satisfying answer while the Security Experts felt like they didnt need to send more security. Those experts, however heroic they are, they were wrong. More security was needed. Jim jordan was making a point about the fact that the Obama Administration, not just secretary clinton, but they made a point out of blaming the attack on that antimuslim video. As we know, that was not the reason for it. In one of the things that was interesting that the democrats on the Benghazi Committee have previously released this month had to do with the conversation that secretary clinton had with the e egyptian Prime Minister at the time in which she said, according to notes taken, we know that the attack had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack, not a protest. That was a day later, september 12th. She also said to him based on the information, we believe the group that claimed responsibility was affiliated with al qaeda. Now the next day or later that day, sharia denied having anything to do with the attack. But it definitely shows that there were senior individuals in the Obama Administration including secretary clinton who had serious concerns that this was not as a result of the video. And yet, within that week, the Obama Administration, including secretary clinton, continued to say it was the fault of the video. Why is that . The theory from the republicans is president obama was in the midst o of an intense reelection fight with mitt romney. This is september 2012. And one of his talking points, one of his selling points for his reelection is al qaeda was on the run and the United States was winning this fight against terrorism and that would undermine that. Is that the reason credibility was given to a video even though Hillary Clinton, according to e emails that we have now from the democrats and republicans, knew that there was credible information that it was not the video. A few days later after the attack on september 11th, 2012, susan rice shs the u. S. Ambassador, went on five sunday talk shows and raised the speck tor of that video being the cause of what happened in tripoli. There was a prosecution o of that film maker for tax evasion and a lot of attention on the film, when we know now that was not the reason for this terrorist attack that killed four americans in libya. I dont think were going to have somebody in the Obama Administration say, yes, we were trying to divert attention from our antiterrorism policy was failing, but that is something that we need to have more questions on and more answers from secretary clinton. And in that exchange, the republican congressman from ohio had with her in an exchange saying you knew that night you were e emailing your own family this was a terrorist attack. Why didnt you stick with that in the days that followed the administration . It sounds like theres a lot of contradictory information she was getting, but thats not what she said. Standby. Everyone standby. Much more of our special coverage. In a break right now. They are having lunch. They are getting ready to resume part 2 of this special hearing. The Benghazi Committee hearing, well be right back. [ female announcer ] when youre serious about fighting wrinkles, turn to roc® retinol correxion®. One week, fine lines appear to fade. 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This is not something that needs our help to tell her story, but we do have a responsibility and that is to find these facts. Let me just say this. We are trying to find the facts. She says she knew the two big attacks on the facility in benghazi. There were 20 attacks. So what were trying to find out how many attacks would have been necessary that she knew about would have been necessary for her to give additional security in benghazi. Especially after she admits that she got briefed every day she was in d. C. By the