Remember Benghazi?
I can't recall the last time the Select Benghazi Committee was actually focused on the attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya, but Speaker of the House John Boehner insists the attack on our embassy has always been the focus.
Boehner has issued a statement that reveals far more than his feigned ignorance.
Four Americans lost their lives in this terrorist attack because they were left without adequate security in one of the most dangerous places in the world. Their loved ones still don’t know the full truth about what happened, and they deserve real answers. All Americans do.
“This investigation has never been about former Secretary of State Clinton and never will be. Indeed, the Select Committee’s very existence is only the result of the Obama administration’s obstruction of routine congressional investigations and its failure to properly comply with subpoenas and document requests.
I can't imagine anyone, regardless of party affiliation, would believe the lie that this "investigation" has "never been about former Secretary of State Clinton." It has always been about her.
The slightly less obvious lie is the idea that families of the victims don't "know the full truth about what happened."
They do know the truth and they've known it for a long time. Several Republican-controlled committees, including the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee, issued their own conclusive reports during the previous session of Congress.
The case was more or less closed at the end of the previous session of Congress, but House Republican leadership, facing an insurgent Freedom Caucus that wasn't happy with the results of the previous investigations, placated the fire-breathing members of the House by creating the Select Committee on Benghazi.
Therein lies the proof that this has always been about Hillary Clinton and an alleged conspiracy of some description.
To say the families of the victims "don’t know the full truth about what happened" implies that The Truth is hidden somewhere deep within Hillary Clinton's email account. The former secretary of state's email account is the only new material the Select Benghazi Committee has covered. Literally everything else is a retread that was already covered by previous, conclusive investigations.
For John Boehner to say the families don't know the truth is to say Hillary Clinton has hidden the truth from them. For Boehner to say that to the families is to say Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration engaged in a conspiracy to cover up -- something? -- and hide it from them.
The House Intelligence the Armed Services Committees both concluded there was no conspiracy, no cover-up, and no "stand down" order.
The Select Benghazi Committee is a taxpayer-funded exercise in opposition research whose real goal is to paint Hillary Clinton as a conspiratorial liar without ever producing a single shred of evidence to prove it. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy confirmed everything I've just said when he was asked to name a House Republican accomplishment and responded by directly associated the Benghazi Committee with Hillary Clinton's drooping poll numbers.
Aside from fabricating a smoking gun out of whole cloth, it's not clear what would satisfy the countless conspiracy theorists of the House Republican caucus. They still haven't found the impeachment they've been looking for.