Supporters of Hillary Clinton will tell you that the Benghazi Hearings went in her favor. They will tell you that the hearings were a waste of time and that nothing new came of them. This is the usual Clinton way of dealing with their many sorties into illegality. Delay, obfuscate then reply that the question has been asked and answered. But it hadn’t, until now.
The Benghazi hearings, capably led by Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, were refreshing in that they were able to provide the American people the facts about the tragic and unforgivable failure of the Clinton State Department to help our Ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans who died as well as the other Americans who valiantly fought for their lives.
Were it not for the hearings, we would not know that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in contravention of US Government rules, set up a server in her home in New York to shield her communications from lawful public scrutiny. All communications by government officials about their job is public information open to Freedom of Information requests by the public. That is true from your City Councilman to the President. Clinton has now admitted that she deleted some 30,000 emails she claims were personal but should she be allowed to make that decision? The FBI is investigating that breach of the law now. And most important, her private server did not have the high level of security the State Department servers do. How much sensitive or Top Secret information is now in the hands of the Chinese or Russians because of her failure to safeguard our information?
Were it not for the hearings we would not know that the Ambassador sent, literally, hundreds of requests for added security for days up to and including the day he was murdered. I don’t know which is worse, that Clinton knew about the requests and ignored them or she surrounded herself with such incompetence that they failed to inform her.
Were it not for the hearings we would not know that, with our facility and its people under siege fighting for their lives, Clinton didn’t rush to the White House Situation Room to direct efforts to save them. She didn’t stay at her desk at the State Department to monitor the event. She went home. And worse, we learned that the President jetted off to Las Vegas for a Democratic fundraiser. All this while Americans fought for and, in four cases lost, their lives.
Were it not for the hearings we would not know that shortly after issuing a press release blaming a video for a “spontaneous protest” she emailed her daughter the truth. The next day, while the Obama Administration continued to blame the video she emailed the Prime Minister of Egypt with these words, “We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack. Not a protest.”
Even more disgusting, days later, as the bodies of these American heroes arrived in the US, she and the President told the assembled family members the ultimate lie, that the video was to blame. Of course, he had an election coming up and truth was less important to them than winning.
It is rich that the Democrats on the committee railed against the $5 Million cost of the committee as if spending your money bothered them. The cost of finding the truth about what happened at Benghazi was less than the transportation cost of even one of President Obama’s Hawaiian vacations.
Were it not for these hearings, we would not know the truth.
Gary Gillen owns and operates Gillen Pest Control in Richmond. He is the only person in history to have served on both the Richmond City Commission and the Rosenberg City Council. He was the Chairman of the Republican Party of Fort Bend County 2006-2007. He can be reached at Gary@GaryGillen.com
