After ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today ignored on Tuesday that longtime Hillary Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal was set to testify hours later before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, their evening news counterparts joined with the CBS Evening News to also duck this story.
The omission of Blumenthal’s testimony by the CBS Evening News follows CBS This Morning’s scant 20 seconds of coverage on the issue.
Meanwhile, Fox News Channel’s Special Report covered the closed-door hearing on Tuesday night with a full segment that began with fill-in host Doug McKelway mentioning how Blumenthal’s relationship with the former Secretary of State “has inadvertently provided her enemies with ammunition” as “Clinton's long association with both Benghazi and use of private e-mail addresses and equipment are once again front and center.”
As FNC’s chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reported:
[T]here are new questions about 60 e-mails his attorney handed over to the Benghazi Select Committee Friday that were never provided by the State Department. The committee’s Republican chairman told reporters government bureaucracy or Hillary Clinton is to blame.
Herridge added that the State Department “could not explain the gap in the records because it had never seen the Blumenthal e-mails and didn't know whether Mrs. Clinton provided them” and while “[t]he committee's leadership agreed the documents should be public,” they “disagree[d] on the conditions” how it should happen.
Citing sources, Herridge explained that the documents Blumenthal and his lawyers turned over “show Blumenthal provided policy advice, acting as a de facto intelligence operative for then Secretary of State Clinton as fighting raged in Libya and the Obama administration charted a course to support the opposition and overthrow Muammar Gadhafi.”
Herridge wrapped up her report by stating that the reason the duration of Blumenthal’s testimony was taken hours to complete was “because it may be” the “only chance” for lawmakers “to question Blumenthal directly.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from FNC’s Special Report on June 16 can be found below.
FNC’s Special Report
June 16, 2015
6:03 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Testimony on the Hill]
DOUG MCKELWAY: A key adviser to the Democratic frontrunner in the presidential race has inadvertently provided her enemies with ammunition tonight and Hillary Clinton's long association with both Benghazi and use of private e-mail addresses and equipment are once again front and center. Chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge has that story.
CATHERINE HERRIDGE: As Clinton adviser, Sidney Blumenthal was ushered into the closed door deposition on Capitol Hill, there are new questions about 60 e-mails his attorney handed over to the Benghazi Select Committee Friday that were never provided by the State Department. The committee’s Republican chairman told reporters government bureaucracy or Hillary Clinton is to blame.
(....)
HERRIDGE: While Mrs. Clinton said in March she provided all the relevant e-mails to the State Department for review before wiping her personal server clean, today, committee Democrats were on the defensive.
(....)
HERRIDGE: The State Department said it could not explain the gap in the records because it had never seen the Blumenthal e-mails and didn't know whether Mrs. Clinton provided them. The committee's leadership agreed the documents should be public, but disagree on the conditions.
(....)
HERRIDGE: Fox News is told the documents show Blumenthal provided policy advice, acting as a de facto intelligence operative for then Secretary of State Clinton. As fighting raged in Libya and the Obama administration charted a course to support the opposition and overthrow Muammar Gadhafi, the Libyan dictator. Blumenthal did not stop to take reporter questions, but described the deposition as –
SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL: Civil.
HERRIDGE: And the deposition continues at this hour on Capitol Hill. Some lawmakers speculated it could go seven, eight, or nine hours because it may be their only chance to question Blumenthal directly.
