Hillary Clinton calls Kevin McCarthy's Benghazi comments 'deeply distressing'

Hillary Clinton.
(Image credit: Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that comments House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made on Fox News about the GOP investigation into the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, were "deeply distressing" and demonstrated "unequivocally that this was always meant to be a partisan political exercise."

Republicans have long said the committee was never about damaging Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attack, but McCarthy's remarks hinted otherwise. "Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?" he said. "But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable. But no one would have known that any of that had happened had we not fought to make that happen." McCarthy is the favorite to become the next House speaker, and Clinton told MSNBC his statement "does a grave disservice and dishonors not just the memory of the four that we lost, but of everybody who has served our country."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.