It will be a while before we get a good sense of what, if anything, of note transpired when the House Select Committee on Benghazi! deposed Sidney Blumenthal today. But one thing of note did happen just before it began: Trey Gowdy had to toss Darrell Issa right out of the closed session since he’s not a member of the committee, per The Hill‘s Martin Matishak:
Former House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) tried to crash former Hillary Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal’s deposition before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Tuesday.
Issa marched into the closed-door deposition and remained inside for about a minute before he was escorted out by the panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).
The pair briefly exchanged hushed words in a nearby hallway before Issa stormed off, throwing an empty soda can into a nearby trash bin.
Gowdy returned to the private session.
“Sorry about that,” he said as he went back into the interview.
Yeah, when you’re running a circus, it’s hard to keep the clowns out, especially one that also used to be the ringmaster.
The bigger picture on the Blumenthal deposition was offered by Esquire‘s Charlie Pierce, in his inimitable way:
This is the seventh congressional investigation into those events. The previous six all have exonerated Hillary Rodham Clinton and the State Department of any wrongdoing while being properly critical of the security failures that resulted in the death of the four Americans. Ultimately, we’re still talking about what Susan Rice said on a Sunday Show, but talk to enough people on the right, and they will tell you that it was Sidney Blumenthal throwing his voice.
Exactly.
