The 2016 Blast The latest POLITICO scoops and coverage of the 2016 elections. Email Sign Up

Tweets from https://twitter.com/politico/lists/team-politico



Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, is greeted by Rep.Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., left, and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking member, right, after marathon testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington. | AP Photo | AP Photo Elijah Cummings endorses Hillary Clinton

Top Benghazi panel Democrat Elijah Cummings endorsed Hillary Clinton for president on Sunday, a move that could further sink the House Libya investigation into partisan wrangling but helps Clinton in Cummings’ home state.

The Maryland Democrat, who also leads House Oversight Democrats, had previously declined to endorse the former secretary of state, telling reporters he was holding off until the probe of the attack that left four Americans dead in Benghazi concluded. Clinton’s work at the State Department, after all, is a key pillar of the investigation.

But with the investigation approaching its two-year anniversary, and Maryland’s late-April Democratic primary just days away, Cummings backed the front-runner in an op-ed submitted to The Washington Post, writing, according to the paper, that Clinton “not only understands the challenges facing Baltimore and other cities, she’s laid out a clear and detailed agenda that meets those challenges head-on.”

The endorsement is already having a spillover effect on the Benghazi panel, where conservatives are raising eyebrows at the top Democrat’s choice to back Clinton before the panel’s probe of her work finishes.

“Democrats on the Select Committee have coordinated with the Clinton campaign from day one, so Ranking Member Cummings’ endorsement was one of the worst kept secrets in Washington,” a Benghazi Committee spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “He has not lifted a single finger to help the committee get records it requested more than a year ago, some of which the State Department finally turned over Friday afternoon.”

Clinton backers say those concerns are unfounded. Neera Tanden, president of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, for example, tweeted Monday that “the panel chair endorsed Rubio. Hello?” Chairman Trey Gowdy endorsed presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio.

Cummings also took the right to task for raising a stink over his endorsement.

“As a leader in Maryland, Ranking Member Cummings has a duty to his constituents to let them know where he stands before the Maryland primary,” a Democratic spokesperson for the panel said in a statement Monday. “Chairman Gowdy has the same duty and already made his decision months ago. Chairman Gowdy himself said the committee’s work would be finished last year, but Republicans continue to drag out this political stunt closer and closer to the election. Mr. Cummings held out as long as he could but — absent any request for his endorsement — he has now made his decision.”

When Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, endorsed and campaigned on behalf of Rubio (R-Fla.) earlier this year, Democrats held up his move as proof of partisan motives — though several panel Democrats had already endorsed Clinton. Gowdy’s backers argued that the chairman’s stumping and support for Rubio did not overlap with the Benghazi issue.





"We knew Trey Gowdy was abusing his power as chair of the Benghazi Committee to attack Hillary Clinton. What’s now clear is that he was doing so in order to help Marco Rubio run for president,” Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), former head of House Democrats’ campaign arm, told POLITICO back then.

Cummings’ endorsement is invoking a similar reaction from the other side of the aisle, which argues that Clinton is directly linked to the committee’s work. Republicans have blasted Cummings, alleging he protected her.

During a high-stakes, 11-hour hearing last October, Cummings helped the former secretary of state ward off GOP accusations that she neglected the Benghazi compound and conducted irresponsible Libya policy.

Now more than ever, and with the Benghazi panel’s findings on the horizon, Cummings will play a key role protecting his candidate from any damaging tidbits or accusations that could surface in the committee’s final days.

Cummings also took an implicit shot at Bernie Sanders: “Families in Baltimore who are hurting right now need more than the promise of a political revolution.”

A Washington Post/University of Maryland poll released last week showed Clinton with a 15-point lead over Sanders in Maryland, less than half the advantage she held in a Baltimore Sun/University of Baltimore poll conducted in early March.

Cummings’ endorsement of Clinton solidifies the backing of Maryland’s entire Democratic congressional delegation, including Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin. Cummings, Mikulski and Cardin participated in a campaign event for Clinton on Sunday in Baltimore.

