House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he will not disband the House committee investigating the Benghazi attack, despite House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s controversial comment this week that the panel helped damage Hillary Clinton.
“This investigation has never been about former Secretary of State Clinton and never will be,” Boehner said in a statement provided to CNN Thursday. “Indeed, the Select Committee’s very existence is only the result of the Obama administration’s obstruction of routine congressional investigations and its failure to properly comply with subpoenas and document requests.”
Senate Democrats have called on Republicans to disband the panel in the wake of McCarthy’s gaffe this week. The California Republican is the favorite to succeed Boehner as House speaker.
Other Republicans have said the panel is clearly not focused on attacking Clinton, but instead focused on finding out what happened in the Benghazi attack.
“The fact remains that Secretary Clinton and the Obama administration have done everything they can to delay, derail, and stop this investigation,” Boehner said. “They’ve failed to turn over documents in a timely way, and their own actions have needlessly prolonged this panel’s work.”