Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Statement from John Podesta

Statement from John Podesta in response to Republican efforts to politicize the Benghazi hearings:

"This week was an important week for our country. The Supreme Court stood up for Americans' right to access affordable health coverage, for non-discriminatory housing practices, and for marriage equality for all. And in the wake of a massacre, we watched our President stand with the people of Charleston on Friday, grieve with them, and with all of us, as he challenged us to move forward with purpose.

"That's the conversation I've been having with people, that Hillary Clinton has been having with people, and that Americans are having with each other.

"In stark contrast to that, Trey Gowdy and the Republicans are clinging to their invented scandal, one that's on life-support. Their latest witch-hunt is based on the testimony of a non-government employee and a set of documents he turned over, which Gowdy himself called 'unvetted, uncorroborated, unsubstantiated intelligence,' after hours of interrogation on the matter. That leaves one question that prominently remains: What, if anything at all, does this have to do with Benghazi?

"Hillary Clinton has been saying for months that she's ready and willing to come testify in an open hearing, yet they haven't called her to do so.

"If Representative Gowdy is going to continue his taxpayer-funded campaign, he needs to explain himself. He needs to explain what wasn't satisfactory about 7 previous Congressional investigations, the independent and exhaustive findings of the Accountability Review Board, and the conclusions of his Republican counterparts on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and on the House Armed Services Committee, both of which found no wrongdoing.

"So this week, with so much to talk about, if Representative Gowdy wants to spend his Sunday talking about this, then he needs to explain to the American people what it is he's still looking for, why, and to what end, if he's going to continue to spend their money. After all, he's the one that said his committee was going to 'rise above politics.'

"Otherwise, his intentions seem pretty clear, and after the week we've had on other fronts, you really wonder about the Republicans' priorities, and whether they have anything else to offer than this counterproductive race to the bottom."