After Last Week's Hearing, Benghazi Panel Goes Back Behind Closed Doors

Don’t look for the House Se­lect Com­mit­tee on Benghazi to do busi­ness in pub­lic again any­time soon.

On the heels of Hil­lary Clin­ton’s 11-hour ap­pear­ance be­fore the pan­el last week, the com­mit­tee is head­ing back be­hind closed doors for what’s likely to be the rest of the roughly two dozen in­ter­views that Re­pub­lic­ans en­vi­sion.

Closed-door, tran­scribed in­ter­views have been the GOP’s stand­ard prac­tice throughout the long-run­ning probe, which has in­cluded just four pub­lic hear­ings (and Clin­ton’s was the first since Janu­ary).

That pref­er­ence likely re­in­forced by the hear­ing with Clin­ton, which was widely viewed as a polit­ic­al win for the Demo­crat­ic front-run­ner and also fea­tured some bit­ter ex­changes between Re­pub­lic­ans and Demo­crats.

Com­mit­tee Chair­man Trey Gowdy, ap­pear­ing on Meet The Press on Sunday, said private ses­sions don’t in­clude “bick­er­ing” among mem­bers. Host Chuck Todd asked Gowdy wheth­er TV cam­er­as add to “grand­stand­ing” on both sides of the aisle.

“What do you think, Chuck? You have been fol­low­ing Con­gress for a long time. I can just tell you the private in­ter­views, there is nev­er any of what you saw Thursday,” Gowdy said. He said the next two dozen in­ter­views would be be­hind closed doors. “The private ones al­ways pro­duce bet­ter res­ults,” he said.

Gowdy said the pub­lic set­ting for Clin­ton’s ap­pear­ance was the choice of the former sec­ret­ary of State.

On Fri­day, Benghazi pan­el mem­ber Susan Brooks said Re­pub­lic­ans hope to an­nounce dates for in­ter­views with former De­fense Sec­ret­ary Le­on Pan­etta and former CIA chief Dav­id Pet­raeus “very soon.”

Speak­ing on Fox News that even­ing, Gowdy called the Clin­ton hear­ing a “food fight” as he signaled that he’s un­likely to sched­ule a pub­lic hear­ing with Pan­etta, though he did not com­pletely close the door on the idea.

“If I can do Pan­etta in pub­lic—he is a very well-re­garded guy on both sides of the aisle, I think he would be a good wit­ness, if I can do him in pub­lic and have a con­struct­ive con­ver­sa­tion, but part of what I saw yes­ter­day Greta wasn’t all that con­struct­ive, and for the Amer­ic­an people just to tune in­to a nine hour food fight, I would err on the side of a private one be­fore I would do that,” Gowdy told Fox host Greta Van Suster­en on Fri­day.

Asked if any of the re­main­ing in­ter­views will be con­duc­ted as pub­lic hear­ings, com­mit­tee GOP spokes­man Jamal Ware said Sat­urday that “The tran­scribed in­ter­view re­mains the com­mit­tee’s primary means of talk­ing to wit­nesses.”

It re­mains un­clear when, ex­actly, the probe that has been run­ning for 17 months will wrap up, al­though it’s ex­pec­ted to last un­til some time next year. Re­pub­lic­ans say they’re still await­ing more doc­u­ments from the Obama ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Demo­crats had in re­cent weeks sug­ges­ted they may walk away from the com­mit­tee, that they al­lege is a par­tis­an witch hunt, after Clin­ton’s ap­pear­ance. But after a meet­ing with House Minor­ity Lead­er Nancy Pelosi on Fri­day in the Cap­it­ol, Demo­crats an­nounced that they would con­tin­ue par­ti­cip­at­ing for now.

The com­mit­tee is deeply di­vided, and Demo­crats say they have con­cluded that they can counter Re­pub­lic­ans more ef­fect­ively by re­main­ing on the pan­el.

“We have de­cided to stay on the com­mit­tee, be­cause some­body has to be in the room to de­fend the truth, whole truth, and noth­ing but the truth,” Eli­jah Cum­mings, the pan­el’s top Demo­crat, said Sunday on Meet The Press.

He cited Clin­ton’s ap­pear­ance as evid­ence.

“If you listened to the ques­tions that were be­ing asked by Re­pub­lic­ans and the way they tried to at­tack her, you really did need to have Demo­crats in the room to give the oth­er side of the story, not so much … to de­fend her, but to try to make sure that the com­plete pic­ture was painted,” Cum­mings said.