AP Photo Clinton campaign blasts McCarthy for Benghazi panel remarks

Hillary Clinton’s campaign and its allies are seizing on House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s boast that the Benghazi Select Committee — the panel set up to review the former secretary’s actions related to the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Libya — has succeeded in damaging her poll numbers.

"This is a damning display of honesty by the possible next Speaker of the House," press Secretary Brian Fallon said in a statement emailed to POLITICO. "Kevin McCarthy just confessed that the committee set up to look into the deaths of four brave Americans at Benghazi is a taxpayer-funded sham. This confirms Americans' worst suspicions about what goes on in Washington."


Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) has long insisted that his aim is solely to understand what went wrong in Benghazi, and not to attack Clinton. "‘While much outside attention has been paid to the former secretary, this investigation has never been about her and never will be," he said in September.

But on Tuesday night, McCarthy suggested the opposite to Fox News host Sean Hannity.

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable right? But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping," McCarthy said. "Why? Cause she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen.”

"I give you credit for that," said Hannity. "I'll give you credit where credit is due."

David Brock, founder of pro-Clinton rapid response group Correct the Record, called for an end to the Benghazi inquiry and an ethics investigation into why it happened.

“Kevin McCarthy’s admission that the Benghazi Committee is a taxpayer funded political hit job to bring down Hillary Clinton should be the final straw for the media, for Members of Congress, for taxpayers and for the families of the four Americans who died in the Benghazi tragedy,” Brock said in a statement Wednesday.

“It is time this investigation comes to an end and Republicans admit — like McCarthy did last night — that this entire thing was a political sham,” he said. “Next, the House Ethics Committee must open an investigation into this abuse of power and misuse of taxpayer funds for political purposes.”

McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gabriel Debenedetti contributed to this report.