Subject: FW: GOWDY FINALLY CONCEDES MILITARY COULD NOT HAVE SAVED LIVES IN BENGHAZI
From: "Walker, Eric" <[email-masked]>
To: Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2016 08:35:37 -0700

From: Dem Leader Press Office [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 2:04 PM
Subject: FYI: GOWDY FINALLY CONCEDES MILITARY COULD NOT HAVE SAVED LIVES IN BENGHAZI

For Immediate Release:
May 17, 2016

Contact:
Jennifer Werner/Paul Bell
202-225-7100

Gowdy Finally Concedes Military Could Not Have Saved Lives in Benghazi

Admission Comes After Statements from Republican Chief Counsel Released to Public

WASHINGTON-After years of repeated Republican conspiracy theories that Secretary Hillary Clinton or others ordered the U.S. military to stand down in Benghazi or otherwise prevented a military response that could have saved American lives, Rep. Trey Gowdy, the Chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, finally conceded in an interview on FOX News that the military could not have gotten to Benghazi in time to save the lives of the four Americans killed that night<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GsXrZSyIj0>:

"Whether or not they could have gotten there in time, I don't think there is any issue with respect to that-they couldn't."

His admission comes after Democrats released statements<http://democrats-benghazi.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-gowdy-s-republican-chief-counsel-on-military-response-nothing-could> from his Chief Counsel earlier this week from closed-door interviews conducted by the Select Committee with Defense Secretary Panetta and his Chief of Staff, Jeremy Bash.

In response, Benghazi Select Committee Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings, House Armed Services Ranking Member Adam Smith, and House Intelligence Ranking Member Adam Schiff issued the following statements:

"Chairman Gowdy has finally admitted what we have all known for years:  the central Republican allegation that the military was told to withhold assets that could have saved lives in Benghazi for political reasons is wrong," said Ranking Member Cummings.  "Based on the Chairman's admission today, I call on the Select Committee to stop harassing the Pentagon with baseless demands, release the transcripts of our witness interviews, and stop wasting millions of taxpayer dollars dragging out the investigation closer and closer to the election."

"Now even Chairman Gowdy is agreeing with his Chief Counsel's statements, which badly undermine the political case the Benghazi Committee has been trying to make against Secretary Clinton," said Ranking Member Smith. "When are we going to stop interfering with the Defense Department's operations and spending taxpayer money for this charade?"

"For months, Republicans on the Benghazi Select Committee have suggested that shocking, new details will upend our knowledge of the tragic attack in Benghazi - from gun running, to stand-down orders, to top level interference with the rescue attempt," said Ranking Member Schiff. "Now, Chairman Gowdy himself has been forced to admit that one of the most pernicious of those theories - that additional military assistance could have gotten there in time to prevent the deaths of those four Americans - has no basis in fact.  The Majority, which will not share its draft report with the Minority, must see that its work has already been discredited by its partisan, inconsistent and often incoherent work-product. It should finally bring the committee's work to a close, and end the political charade once and for all."

Background:

Gowdy's admission is consistent with the conclusions<http://democrats-benghazi.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-gowdy-s-republican-chief-counsel-on-military-response-nothing-could> of his own former Chief Counsel, a retired three-star general, as well as those of the House Armed Services Committee Chairman Republican Buck McKeon, who stated<http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/10/gop-chairman-satisfied-with-military-response-to-benghazi-attack.html> more than two years ago:

"I think I've pretty well been satisfied that given where the troops were, how quickly the thing all happened and how quickly it dissipated, we probably couldn't have done more than we did."

The conclusion also corroborates the views of Admiral Michael Mullen, Vice Chairman of the independent Accountability Review Board and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he stated<http://askedandanswered-democrats.benghazi.house.gov/assets/answers/18.pdf#page=59>:

"There's no one I've ever met in the military that wouldn't want to get help there instantly. The physics of it, the reality of it, it just wasn't going to happen for 12 to 20 hours. And I validated that in my review when I went to the Pentagon to look at every single asset that was postured in theater, including those jets in Aviano."

Today's admission by the Chairman<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GsXrZSyIj0> rebuts years of allegations by Republicans and others that the military could have gotten to Benghazi in time to save lives, but that they were improperly prevented by Secretary Clinton or others for political reasons.

On February 17, 2014, Rep. Darrell Issa stated<http://patch.com/new-hampshire/concord-nh/issa-i-will-get-to-the-top-of-benghazi> during a political campaign event:

"We need to have an answer of when the secretary of defense had assets that he could have begun spinning up.  Why there was not one order given to turn on one Department of Defense asset?  I have my suspicions, which is Secretary Clinton told Leon [Panetta] to stand down, and we all heard about the stand-down order for two military personnel.  That order is undeniable.  They were told not to get on - get off the airplane and kind of stand by - and they're going to characterize it wasn't stand-down.  But when we're done with Benghazi, the real question is, was there a stand-down order to Leon Panetta or did he just not do his job?  Was there a stand-down order from the president who said he told them to use their resources and they didn't use them?  Those questions have to be answered."

On September 5, 2014, Rep. Louie Gohmert stated<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFF5A2-rrEY>:

"And they let those people die at Benghazi.  They could've gotten planes there sooner.  They could have gotten people there sooner."

On May 8, 2013, Rep. Adam Kinzinger stated<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgmVAgx1cVU>:

"If you look at Italy, one thousand - I think - forty-six miles away is Aviano Air Base from Benghazi.  All you had to do was send F-16s from Aviano to Benghazi and they can do something called a show of force, it's basically a low fly over, and it's done all the time in Iraq and Afghanistan to stop attacks from happening. We could have done that and for some reason we didn't."

On May 10, 2013, Senator Marco Rubio stated<http://www.hughhewitt.com/florida-senator-marco-rubio-on-the-benghazi-hearings-and-the-first-day-of-markup-of-teh-immigratino-bill/>:

"In essence, there are now witnesses saying that they were ready to go in and help at least prevent the second wave of attacks, but they were told to stand down.  So either they didn't have the people available, which is a dereliction of duty, or, and an irresponsible thing to do, or they did have the people, but they decided not to send them."

Democrats renew their call to release all the witness interview transcripts and disband this wasteful committee that has already cost taxpayers nearly $7 million dollars and counting.

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