11 hours. That’s how long the Republicans took to question Hillary Clinton on Benghazi. And what did they walk away with? Let’s let Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, tell us:
“I think some of Jimmy Jordan’s questioning — well, when you say new today, we knew some of that already. We knew about the emails,” Gowdy said in response. “In terms of her testimony? I don’t know that she testified that much differently today than she has the previous time she testified.”
Shorter answer: They got nothing.
But Hillary Clinton got something. In fact, she got a lot. I watched the last three hours of the hearings last night. Talk about keeping your cool and looking Presidential. In the end, Republicans basically gave Hillary 11 hours of free press. Their hope was to bring her down, instead they strengthened her.
This letter from a TPM reader sums up my thoughts:
If a Democrat wins the 2016 election, her or his main job as I see it will be defending the achievements of the Obama adminsitration, which will surely be under even more sustained attack once he leaves office. Any major expansion to that legacy will need to be incremental given a hostile, partisan Congress that, at least in the House, is pretty much “locked in” by gerrymandering until the next redistricting cycle.In that light, I’m increasingly leaning toward Hillary, not so much based on what she believes but on her competence, both as a public official and as a politician who knows how to punch back.
That’s where I’m at. Good lord, the woman has stamina. Bet she wouldn’t whine about a 3 hour debate being too much! And she kept her cool under the GOP idiocy – Me? I was yelling at the TV. So much of the Republican questioning was unacceptable – and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings shamed them beautifully. (Go watch the video. Not kidding, go watch it.) And that was the entire point behind the 11 hours. It was a form of torture. It also was the Republican’s entire strategy: Wear her down and hope she cracks, then use the footage for their guy’s campaign. She didn’t give them that – and, let’s be honest, that was all yesterday was about. Don’t believe me? Reread Trey Gowdy’s statement. They got nothing. Because if they had something they would have been screaming it from the rooftops.
I was always going to support the Dem nominee, but I wasn’t that excited this time around. Her performance definitely pumped me up. The Benghazi issue is over. Hillary put it to bed.