White House Press Secretary Jay Carney implied Monday that the administration won’t cooperate with the latest House panel looking into the administration’s handling of the 2012 attack in Libya that resulted in the deaths of four Americans.
Carney said the White House has "always cooperated with legitimate oversight," but wouldn't say whether it considers the new panel to be a legitimate inquiry.
Congress has already convened seven Benghazi investigations resulting in 13 hearings, 15 member and staff briefings and over 25,000 pages of documents, Carney said.
“And yet what we said at the time remains true today," he said. “The facts of yesterday are the facts today and they will be the facts no matter how often or for how long Republicans engage in highly partisan efforts to politicize what was a tragedy.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced Monday he’d chosen Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, as chairman of the select committee to investigate the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya.
“I know he shares my commitment to get to the bottom of this tragedy and will not tolerate any stonewalling from the Obama administration,” Boehner said.
Carney didn’t say the administration wouldn’t cooperate, but he questioned the point of the latest look at the matter.I
"You just have to assume Republicans will continue this, because it feeds a political objective of some sort, but at the same time, you have to ask, you know, what about the American people who want to see Congress actually work for them," Carney said. "They're doing none of that. Instead, they're investigating and investigating and investigating investigations and voting, of course, periodically to repeal the Affordable Care Act."