New Clinton TV Ad Highlights on McCarthy’s Benghazi Gaffe

“Every­body thought Hil­lary Clin­ton was un­beat­able, right? But we put to­geth­er a Benghazi spe­cial com­mit­tee,” Mc­Carthy said on Fox News late Tues­day night. “What are her num­bers today?”

The ad’s nar­rat­or then states: “The Re­pub­lic­ans have spent mil­lions at­tack­ing Hil­lary be­cause she’s fight­ing for everything they op­pose. From af­ford­able health care to equal pay, she’ll nev­er stop fight­ing for you, and the Re­pub­lic­ans know it.”

The ad, ac­cord­ing to The Wash­ing­ton Post , will be­gin air­ing Tues­day on CNN and MS­N­BC. Clin­ton’s cam­paign did not re­spond to ques­tions, and the size of the buy is not clear.

Mc­Carthy pushed back Tues­day morn­ing in a new emailed state­ment from his of­fice.

“The mis­sion of the Se­lect Com­mit­tee on Benghazi is to find the truth — Peri­od,” said Mc­Carthy spokes­man Matt Sparks. “The in­teg­rity of Chair­man Gowdy, the Com­mit­tee and the work they’ve ac­com­plished is bey­ond re­proach. The ser­i­ous ques­tions Sec­ret­ary Clin­ton faces are due en­tirely to her own de­cision to put clas­si­fied in­form­a­tion at risk and en­danger our na­tion­al se­cur­ity.”

The ad is the latest sign that Demo­crats see an open­ing to polit­ic­ally un­der­cut the Benghazi probe, which has fo­cused heav­ily on her private email sys­tem, ahead of Clin­ton’s high-pro­file testi­mony be­fore the pan­el on Oct. 22.

Mc­Carthy’s has sought to walk back the com­ments, which have also com­plic­ated his race to re­place the out­go­ing John Boehner as House speak­er.

The re­marks, which were badly out of step with long-stand­ing GOP claims that the com­mit­tee is not polit­ic­al, irked Re­pub­lic­ans in­clud­ing Rep. Jason Chaf­fetz, who is mount­ing an up­hill can­did­acy against Mc­Carthy for the speak­er’s gavel.

While the email scan­dal has been dam­aging to Clin­ton’s cam­paign, she and oth­er Demo­crats see Mc­Carthy’s com­ment as a way to play of­fense.

A num­ber of Cap­it­ol Hill Demo­crats have called for the Benghazi pan­el to be dis­ban­ded. Clin­ton at­tacked the pan­el in re­marks on NBC’s Today show earli­er Monday.

“This com­mit­tee was set up, as they have ad­mit­ted, for the pur­pose of mak­ing a par­tis­an polit­ic­al is­sue out of the deaths of four Amer­ic­ans,” she said.