It’s only been three months since Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL2) was appointed to serve on the Select Committee to investigate the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. But the heated debate surrounding the attack and its aftermath, which once dominated news cycle after news cycle, has for the most part cooled down. The committee’s mission to uncover the truth about what happened, however, presses on.
Rep. Roby sat down with Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims last week at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham to discuss a variety of issues, including the Benghazi committee’s ongoing work, on an episode of “The Exchange.”
“We met with the families of the four individuals who lost their lives to give them an opportunity to come speak to the full committee — Republicans and Democrats,” Roby said, discussing the committee’s recent work. “We also participated in a full FBI briefing that was classified but really provided (us with) exposure to the full scenario… When I was chairman of (the Subcommittee on Military Oversight and Investigations) and led the investigation on Benghazi, it was very specific to our military assets — what we had, why we couldn’t get to certain places — but there’s a whole scope and breadth of this that is way bigger than that.”
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Roby praised South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy, who is leading the Select committee, and said Republicans and Democrats on the committee have come together and “demonstrated that this is a serious committee that is committed to finding the truth on behalf of the American people and the families of the four American lives that were unnecessarily lost.”
Sims asked Roby to respond to critics who often say the committee is little more than political grandstanding.
“What do you say to those folks who say this is a political maneuver to mess with 2016 presidential politics and doesn’t really have anything to do with what actually took place in Benghazi?” Sims asked.
“Well it very much has to do with what took place in Benghazi,” Roby replied. “There’s everything that happened leading up to the attack, the attack, and then what happened in the aftermath. The twelve of us on the committee are committed to finding the truth and in order for us to stay legitimate in the eyes of the American people, it’s our job not to put on political rhetoric, but to stay focused on a fact-finding mission. So far, you’ve seen these twelve individuals conduct themselves in that way.”
Check out the full interview in the video above. For more episodes of The Exchange, click over to Yellowhammer TV.
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