Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might testify about the 2012 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Representative Elijah Cummings, a member of the House Select Committee investigating the attack told CNN on Tuesday that Clinton has agreed to appear before the committee.
“The chairman asked me back in September to inquire as to whether Secretary Clinton would testify,” Cummings said.
“She immediately said she would and that she wanted to come in December,” Cummings said, “but if December did not work, she would come in January. She said, ‘I’ll do it, period.’ The fact is, she was very clear. She did not hesitate for one second.”
The House committee is probing the September 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi which reportedly led to the death of US Ambassador Chris Stephens along with four others.
According to CNN, up to 35 CIA operatives were working in Benghazi during the attack, but it has never reported how many of them died or injured.
Republicans have vowed to use the attack against Clinton if she run for the 2016 presidential election with Senator Rand Paul believing the incident might disqualify the former secretary of state for a high political job.
“Hillary Clinton got cable after cable to protect the consulate in Benghazi. And what did she do? Nothing,” Paul said earlier this month during a speech in Reno, Nevada.
“I say, Hillary Clinton’s behavior of not providing adequate support should absolutely preclude her from ever being considered as president,” he said.
Clinton had previously expressed her reluctance to testify in the case. During her previous testimonies she admitted that a “system breakdown” worsen the situation during the siege on the consulate.
The Obama administration and Clinton were under fire by the Republicans who argue that the military held back assets that could have saved lives and that the president and his secretary of state lied to the public about the nature of the attack.
In an interview with Press TV last year, American journalist Don DeBar said that Democrats and Republicans in Congress were playing a political football over the Benghazi attack.
“This incident in September 2012 has been a political football between the Democrats and Republicans of the United States where instead of holding President Barack Obama responsible or culpable for conducting an illegal war, destroying a country, murdering the nominal head of state, [committing] all international war crimes, violation of American and international law, instead of holding him responsible for that, they fight over the killing of the US ambassador, who also apparently was the CIA station chief there during the entire takeover of the country -- and several of his aides. That is what the focal point has been,” DeBar said.
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