Benghazi politics may be bigger albatross for Gowdy than Clinton

Heidi M. Przybyla | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Clinton to panel: 3 things we learned from Benghazi Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi. In her opening statement, Clinton shared three things she believes the country has learned from the tragedy.

Trey Gowdy was once described as the "most valuable Republican of the 2016 election cycle so far.’’

That was according to an August tweet by conservative columnist Bill Kristol, who made the assessment about the leader of a special Benghazi committee that appeared poised to discredit Hillary Clinton’s record as secretary of State, and by extension, her 2016 presidential bid.

Most Valuable Republican of the 2016 election cycle so far: @TGowdySC. — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 13, 2015

Two months later, Gowdy is the one under siege.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s comments linking the committee to Clinton's declining poll numbers ignited a firestorm over whether the committee was, from its inception, intended to damage Clinton’s 2016 presidential aspirations. What’s not in dispute is that the committee’s work has become a bigger albatross for Republicans recently than for Clinton.

Democrats are hoping to galvanize support from Clinton's nationally televised appearance on Thursday before the committee through a variety of methods, including a rapid response operation, broadcast and online ads and a strategy by committee Democrats to use the event to highlight erroneous information about Clinton’s role in Benghazi.

During the hearing, Democrats plan to go on the offense to debunk misinformation around the 2012 terror attacks on the U.S. embassy in Libya, including that Clinton personally approved or reduced security or ordered a stand down.

"It’s an opportunity to puncture these myths and the biggest myth of all: that this select committee is trying to do anything but damage Secretary Clinton,’’ said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a panel Democrat.

Gowdy says he’s focused on the four Americans killed in Benghazi and on providing a definitive account of the attacks. While there have been seven previous congressional investigations, the South Carolina congressman says he's interviewed 41 witnesses that no other committee interviewed, including seven who were eyewitnesses.

Republicans will be aggressive in questioning Clinton, which carries risks for the Democratic front-runner. But they'll also be trying to demonstrate that their focus is on Benghazi and not the private email server she used while at the State Department, said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report.

"Before the McCarthy comment, Republicans knew that the committee was always going to be covered (by the media) in the context of another problem for Hillary Clinton,’’ said Rothenberg. "Now the context will be about Republicans trying to score political points. That’s a very different context,’’ he said.

McCarthy’s comments reversed the politics of Benghazi. The Clinton campaign’s first ad to air on national cable highlighted his remarks. Now an outside group supporting her, Media Matters, is launching paid online ads and releasing a book called The Benghazi Hoax. A super PAC supporting her is broadcasting ads for two days beginning Wednesday in four early voting states.

Last week, the Clinton-aligned group Correct the Record blasted out a cost analysis of the committee’s 17-month investigation titled "Harassing Hillary Clinton: Your tax dollars at work.''

The deluge, including a letter to Gowdy from the top Democrat on the committee threatening to release transcripts of witnesses who testified in private, prompted Gowdy to issue a 13-page rebuttal on Oct. 8.

Compare the party's efforts now to a few months ago, when Republicans were using Benghazi as a political cudgel.

In April, as Clinton announced her 2016 bid, the group "Stop Hillary PAC’’ used Gowdy’s image to drum up support for a pledge backing the committee. The Republican opposition group America Rising released a web video using footage of her Senate Benghazi testimony spliced with images of burning buildings.

The Kristol tweet lauding Gowdy's role in the 2016 campaign was sent as recently as August — at the same time Democrats were accusing the congressman of slow-walking the Benghazi investigation to coincide with presidential primaries.

For his part, Gowdy was sharpening his focus on Clinton's emails. At the end of March, he'd sent a formal request for Clinton to testify, citing questions about her server, including why she deleted some emails and had a private account in the first place.

Now Gowdy and other committee Republicans say Clinton is but one witness, that their investigation will go on many more months and that they are solely focused on Benghazi.

"She's an important witness, but she is one witness,’’ Gowdy said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation.

"I care about her emails only to the extent that they relate to Libya and Benghazi,’’ said Gowdy. "The rest of it, classification, Clinton Foundation, you name it, I have zero interest in.’’

There are always risks when public officials testify for hours on national television as Clinton plans to. During her 2013 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Clinton got in a testy exchange with Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson in which she raised her voice and waved her hands, a flare up used in the Republican web ad.

McCarthy’s blunder means Republicans are now in the uncomfortable position of avoiding such made-for-television fireworks that could redound to Clinton’s favor. Republicans are also mindful that some of Hillary Clinton’s best political moments have come when she is under siege or playing the victim.

McCarthy’s comments were followed by those of a fired committee staffer who accused Republicans of going after Clinton, as well as those from Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., who said he believes that tarnishing the former secretary of State is part of the committee’s objective.

Gowdy says the former staffer left in June and "has no idea what we have done’’ since then, while Hanna has never served on the committee.

Yet in the aftermath, Gowdy’s approach to witnesses linked to Clinton also appears to have softened.

When Republicans wanted Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal to testify, Democrats accused Republicans of leaking news of a subpoena before he’d even received it. More recently, when the committee interviewed Clinton’s former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and her closest aide, Huma Abedin, Gowdy issued polite statements, including thanking Abedin for her service to the country.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, said Gowdy is retreating. "He’s now trying to shift back to where we should have been all along. That is looking at the Benghazi incident,’’ said Cummings.

Follow @HeidiPrzybyla on Twitter.