John Kerry Doesn't Want to Talk About Benghazi
John Kerry is sick of allegations that the administration lied about Benghazi.
Pressed for more information about the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in September 2012, the still-new Secretary of State told Republican lawmakers at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing today that he's happy to provide them any information they need, and that the State Department has already provided them with quite a bit.
His overriding point: Let's move on.
"Let's get this done with, folks," Kerry said at the hearing. "I don't think anybody lied to anybody."
At a hearing about the White House's FY2013 budget request, GOP lawmakers alleged-as they have repeatedly since the administration's initial response to the Benghazi attacks-that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice misled the public about the attack, and that former secretary Hillary Clinton failed to adequately explain the attacks and the administration's response.
Kerry repeatedly offered to follow up with individual Republican lawmakers if they need any more information.
"Mr. Chairman, I do not want to spend the next year coming up here talking about Benghazi," Kerry said at one point, after Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., (who does not chair the committee) asked Kerry why Rice made "false statements" about the attack.
"There's no family in America that wants justice more than the State Department family," Kerry said, when asked about the administration's investigation into the attack.
"We have identified people, and they're building a case. We're going through the tedious, laborious, and very difficult process of gaining evidence from a part of the country which is dangerous," Kerry said.