Former Benghazi investigator says the investigation has shifted towards Hillary Clinton
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” last week, Brad Podliska, a Republican and former investigator with the Select Committee on Benghazi, told host Jake Tapper that the investigation into the events surrounding the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya has turned political.
Podliska is quoted as saying, “I honestly do not believe this investigation was set up to go after Hillary. I believed it shifted that way.”
After several Republicans expressed concerns that questions remain about the events surrounding the September 11, 2012, Benghazi attacks, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) gave the go ahead for the House to vote on the formation of a special committee to investigate the events surrounding the Benghazi attacks.
The vote was along party lines. A total of 232 House members (225 Republican plus 7 Democrats) voted for the formation of the committee, while a total of 186 Democrats voted against the formation of the special committee.
The committee has a total of 12 members, 7 of which who are Republicans and 5 of which who are Democrats.
Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy (SC) is the chairman of the committee, and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) is the ranking member on the committee.
Due to several bi-partisan investigations clearing President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of any intentional wrong doing, questions were raised about whether the committee was formed in order to bring down the president and the former secretary of state.
During an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Gowdy was asked whether the committee had a hidden agenda.
Gowdy responded that “elections have consequences.” Gowdy’s response did not go over well with Democrats who interpreted his statement as meaning that it will be politics as usual.
Hence, the Republicans don’t like President Obama and Hillary Clinton, and the Republicans were using Benghazi as a way to bring down the president and the former secretary of state.
The Democrats suspicions were confirmed after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Fox News’ Hannity that the committee was formed in order to bring down Hillary Clinton.
McCarthy, who was the top choice to become the next Speaker of the House, is quoted as saying, “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right. But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s un trustable.”
Clinton immediately jumped on McCarthy’s comment. She released a campaign ad titled Admit.
In the ad, Clinton pointed to McCarthy’s comment that the Benghazi Committee “was created to destroy Clinton’s candidacy” as proof that the Republicans are out to get her.
The ad’s moderator is quoted as saying, “The Republicans finally admit it…Republicans have spent millions attacking Hillary because she’s fighting against everything that they oppose from Affordable Health Care to equal pay. She’ll never stop fighting for you and the Republicans know it.”
Tapper asked Podliska if McCarthy slipped up and told the truth. Podliska responded, “Yes, I think that it was a slip of the tongue.” Unfortunately for McCarthy, his “slip of the tongue” cost him the speakership.
Podliska was fired and is filing a lawsuit against the committee. In a released statement to CNN, the Select Committee on Benghazi stated that Podliska’s firing was due to his ineffectiveness as an investigator and not to his refusal to take part in what he believes is partisan politics.
Tapper quoted the committee as saying, “The Employee [Podliska] was terminated, in part because he himself manifested improper partiality and animus in his investigative work.”
The former investigator denies the committee’s claims and says that it was partisan politics as well as his staff director’s dislike for his [Podliska] work as an Air Force Reservist.
According to Podliska, his supervisor was not pleased when he told him that he had to take time away from the committee in order to perform his military duties in March and May.
Podliska told Tapper that his supervisor responded to him in an email with the word “wow.” Podliska took the supervisor’s response as a slight against him and his work as an Air Force Reservist.
The Select Committee on Benghazi dismissed Podliska’s accusation as an attempt for him to take attention away from what they believe is his sub-par performance as an investigator.
The committee also said that Podliska’s claim that his supervisor was “anti-military” is an indication that the former investigator has manufactured evidence in order to cover up for his poor performance.
Last week on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Dana Bash asked Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) if they believe the investigation is political.
Labrador responded that the investigation wouldn’t be going on if President Obama and Hillary Clinton hadn’t “lied” about the events that took place on September 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya.
Cole told Bash that politics wasn’t the issue. And as evidence of his point, Cole cited Republicans’ frustration with the committee and some party members’ belief that the committee had become too “judicious and not partisan” enough.
Cole went on to say that he has “a lot of confidence” in the committee chairman Trey Gowdy and that he [Cole] believes the investigation’s result will stand on its own.
Earlier during the interview, Podliska said that he was keeping an open mind and that his view on Hillary Clinton and her role in Behnghazi hadn’t changed.
Podliska told Tapper, “I’m trying to be objective about this. And as I stated, Hillary Clinton has a lot of explaining to do. We however did not need to shift resources to hyper focus on Hillary Clinton. We didn’t need to deemphasize and in some cases drop the investigation on different agencies, different organizations, and different individuals.”
Podliska’s claims have been validated by at least one congressional Republican, Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY).
UPI quoted Congressman Hanna (R-NY) as saying, “Sometimes the biggest sin you can commit in D.C. is to tell the truth. This may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton.”
Podliska is quoted as saying, “I honestly do not believe this investigation was set up to go after Hillary. I believed it shifted that way.”
After several Republicans expressed concerns that questions remain about the events surrounding the September 11, 2012, Benghazi attacks, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) gave the go ahead for the House to vote on the formation of a special committee to investigate the events surrounding the Benghazi attacks.
The vote was along party lines. A total of 232 House members (225 Republican plus 7 Democrats) voted for the formation of the committee, while a total of 186 Democrats voted against the formation of the special committee.
The committee has a total of 12 members, 7 of which who are Republicans and 5 of which who are Democrats.
Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy (SC) is the chairman of the committee, and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) is the ranking member on the committee.
Due to several bi-partisan investigations clearing President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of any intentional wrong doing, questions were raised about whether the committee was formed in order to bring down the president and the former secretary of state.
During an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Gowdy was asked whether the committee had a hidden agenda.
Gowdy responded that “elections have consequences.” Gowdy’s response did not go over well with Democrats who interpreted his statement as meaning that it will be politics as usual.
Hence, the Republicans don’t like President Obama and Hillary Clinton, and the Republicans were using Benghazi as a way to bring down the president and the former secretary of state.
The Democrats suspicions were confirmed after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Fox News’ Hannity that the committee was formed in order to bring down Hillary Clinton.
McCarthy, who was the top choice to become the next Speaker of the House, is quoted as saying, “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right. But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s un trustable.”
Clinton immediately jumped on McCarthy’s comment. She released a campaign ad titled Admit.
In the ad, Clinton pointed to McCarthy’s comment that the Benghazi Committee “was created to destroy Clinton’s candidacy” as proof that the Republicans are out to get her.
The ad’s moderator is quoted as saying, “The Republicans finally admit it…Republicans have spent millions attacking Hillary because she’s fighting against everything that they oppose from Affordable Health Care to equal pay. She’ll never stop fighting for you and the Republicans know it.”
Tapper asked Podliska if McCarthy slipped up and told the truth. Podliska responded, “Yes, I think that it was a slip of the tongue.” Unfortunately for McCarthy, his “slip of the tongue” cost him the speakership.
Podliska was fired and is filing a lawsuit against the committee. In a released statement to CNN, the Select Committee on Benghazi stated that Podliska’s firing was due to his ineffectiveness as an investigator and not to his refusal to take part in what he believes is partisan politics.
Tapper quoted the committee as saying, “The Employee [Podliska] was terminated, in part because he himself manifested improper partiality and animus in his investigative work.”
The former investigator denies the committee’s claims and says that it was partisan politics as well as his staff director’s dislike for his [Podliska] work as an Air Force Reservist.
According to Podliska, his supervisor was not pleased when he told him that he had to take time away from the committee in order to perform his military duties in March and May.
Podliska told Tapper that his supervisor responded to him in an email with the word “wow.” Podliska took the supervisor’s response as a slight against him and his work as an Air Force Reservist.
The Select Committee on Benghazi dismissed Podliska’s accusation as an attempt for him to take attention away from what they believe is his sub-par performance as an investigator.
The committee also said that Podliska’s claim that his supervisor was “anti-military” is an indication that the former investigator has manufactured evidence in order to cover up for his poor performance.
Last week on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Dana Bash asked Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) if they believe the investigation is political.
Labrador responded that the investigation wouldn’t be going on if President Obama and Hillary Clinton hadn’t “lied” about the events that took place on September 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya.
Cole told Bash that politics wasn’t the issue. And as evidence of his point, Cole cited Republicans’ frustration with the committee and some party members’ belief that the committee had become too “judicious and not partisan” enough.
Cole went on to say that he has “a lot of confidence” in the committee chairman Trey Gowdy and that he [Cole] believes the investigation’s result will stand on its own.
Earlier during the interview, Podliska said that he was keeping an open mind and that his view on Hillary Clinton and her role in Behnghazi hadn’t changed.
Podliska told Tapper, “I’m trying to be objective about this. And as I stated, Hillary Clinton has a lot of explaining to do. We however did not need to shift resources to hyper focus on Hillary Clinton. We didn’t need to deemphasize and in some cases drop the investigation on different agencies, different organizations, and different individuals.”
Podliska’s claims have been validated by at least one congressional Republican, Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY).
UPI quoted Congressman Hanna (R-NY) as saying, “Sometimes the biggest sin you can commit in D.C. is to tell the truth. This may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton.”
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