McCain skips Benghazi Briefings-So does 5 Out of 8 Republicans

[brookiecookie87]

McCain skips Benghazi briefing, gets testy when questioned by CNN

Posted by

CNN Senior Congressional Producer Ted Barrett

(CNN) - Most of the Republican members of a Senate committee investigating the terrorist attack at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, skipped a classified briefing by administration officials on the incident Wednesday, CNN has learned.

The missing lawmakers included Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who at the time of the top-secret briefing held a press conference in the Capitol to call for the creation of a Watergate-type special Congressional committee to investigate how and why the attack took place.

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McCain, who has accused President Barack Obama of not telling the truth about the Benghazi attack, said that even though there are several committees involved in the probe, only a select committee could streamline the information flow and resolve the "many unanswered questions" about the tragedy.

When CNN approached McCain in a Capitol hallway Thursday morning, the senator refused to comment about why he missed the briefing, which was conducted by top diplomatic, military and counter-terrorism officials. Instead, McCain got testy when pressed to say why he wasn't there.

"I have no comment about my schedule and I'm not going to comment on how I spend my time to the media," McCain said.

Asked why he wouldn't comment, McCain grew agitated: "Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment and who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?”

When CNN noted that McCain had missed a key meeting on a subject the senator has been intensely upset about, McCain said, "I'm upset that you keep badgering me."

While McCain refused to shed light on why he didn't show, his spokesman Brian Rogers emailed CNN a short time later with an explanation. He blamed it on a "scheduling error" but wouldn't provide any more detail.

According to a Democratic aide on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, only three of the eight GOP members of the committee attended the two hour briefing that ran from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET. By contrast, seven of the nine Democratic members were there.

McCain's press conference took place at noon.

McCain did spend several hours in a Senate Intelligence Committee briefing on Benghazi Thursday, and plans to attend the panel's closed-door session on Friday with former CIA Director David Petraeus.

[Joqui]

lol when are the republicans going to learn to stop playing the American people for idiots. They need to change their strategy. This fear mongering isn't working any more.

[mehamil1]

Again: 

[sweet-a-kins]

 only for political purposes

Quoting emeraldangel2.0:

weren't they the ones calling for an investigation?

 

[sweet-a-kins]

 because he hasn't missed them, your right wing media sources are liars

and they called for an investigation, they can at least pretend to care

Quoting yourspecialkid:

 1.  Why bother with an ADMINISTRATION briefing...when everything about Benghazi coming from them has been a lie?

2.  I must have missed your post bashing on Obama for missing more than half of his.

 

[sweet-a-kins]

 republicans don't care about Americans being killed, they care about political posturing

Quoting mehamil1:

Again: 

 

[caito]

For caring so much they sure are proving they don't care that much.

[motha2daDuchess]

Quoting yourspecialkid:

 

Quoting jaxTheMomm:

1. I thought this entire affair was a matter of extreme importance?  If it's that important, why would you skip anything?  Especially if you think the briefing might be "a lie"?  If that's what everyone has been squawking around about, it makes zero sense to skip anything.

2. Why are you perpetuating a lie?

Quoting yourspecialkid:

 1.  Why bother with an ADMINISTRATION briefing...when everything about Benghazi coming from them has been a lie?

2.  I must have missed your post bashing on Obama for missing more than half of his.

 1.  I didn't realize our legislators had clones....I mean how else can they be 2 places at one time?

2.  What lie.....OHHHHHHH, you mean the lie the WH has been trotting around as the Benghazi truth.............well some lies need to be perpetuating....less people get away with them.

You do know Petraeus is testifying right now don't you.  Sources are saying his testimony will be very damaging to the WH.

Same sources that told you Obama was gonna lose????

[Friday]

Obviously political posturing is more important to some than doing their jobs.

[_Kissy_]

I think it would be wonderful if Republicans were informed and not just opinionated.