Rep. Kev­in Mc­Carthy is running for House speaker.

Rep. Kev­in Mc­Carthy is running for House speaker. Molly Riley/AP file photo

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McCarthy Credits Benghazi Committee with Hurting Clinton’s Poll Numbers

The House majority leader, running for speaker, said the GOP-led committee has helped erode the Democratic front-runner’s “unbeatable” aura.

Ben Geman,
National Journal

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Ben Geman
Ben Geman
 National Journal

House Ma­jor­ity Lead­er Kev­in Mc­Carthy said the House Benghazi Com­mit­tee’s work has polit­ic­ally wounded Hil­lary Clin­ton in the 2016 pres­id­en­tial cam­paign.

The com­ment by Mc­Carthy, who is run­ning for House speak­er, is cer­tain to fuel Demo­crat­ic al­leg­a­tions that the GOP-led pan­el is a polit­ic­al weapon that Re­pub­lic­ans are us­ing to harm Clin­ton’s White House pro­spects.

“Every­body thought Hil­lary Clin­ton was un­beat­able right? But we put to­geth­er a Benghazi spe­cial com­mit­tee. A se­lect com­mit­tee. What are her num­bers today?” Mc­Carthy said on Fox News late Tues­day night.

“Her num­bers are drop­ping. Why? Be­cause she is un­trustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that hap­pen,” ad­ded Mc­Carthy in an in­ter­view with Fox host Sean Han­nity.

The com­ments ap­pear to be a ref­er­ence to the Benghazi Com­mit­tee’s role in the rev­el­a­tion of Clin­ton’s private email setup, which was dis­covered as a res­ult of the pan­el’s re­quests to the State De­part­ment for Clin­ton’s cor­res­pond­ence.

The Clin­ton cam­paign did not im­me­di­ately re­spond to a re­quest for com­ment. But on Twit­ter Tues­day night, Clin­ton spokes­man Bri­an Fal­lon re­acted to Mc­Carthy’s com­ment by say­ing: “Speak­er-in-wait­ing con­fesses what the true goal of tax­pay­er-fun­ded Benghazi Com­mit­tee is.”

Mc­Carthy made the com­ments in an in­ter­view about the re­cord of the cur­rent House GOP lead­er­ship and Mc­Carthy’s plans go­ing for­ward.

“What you are go­ing to see is a con­ser­vat­ive speak­er, that takes a con­ser­vat­ive Con­gress, that puts a strategy [in place] to fight and win,” Mc­Carthy said.

Else­where in the in­ter­view, when pressed to give a grade to out­go­ing Speak­er John Boehner, Mc­Carthy gave him a B-.

NEXT STORY: Republican Leaders Preparing to Make Deal on Raising Spending Caps

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