A number of conservatives criticized popular right-wing commentator Charles Krauthammer for saying that the Benghazi issue is over, saying they would continue to push the issue.
“I just think that as a political issue the country is now tired of it,” Krauthammer said on Fox News this week. “As a political fact, this thing is done. Unfortunately you only have a certain amount of time, a certain amount of attention, and the clock has run out on Benghazi.”
While to many, Krauthammer was simply providing an obvious and realistic analysis of the Benghazi saga: Republicans haven’t found anything to sink the Obama administration with and it’s time to move on.
But to others, Krautahmmer’s comments amounted to heresy.
The conservative Heritage Foundation called his comments “shocking,” while the lead editor “AllahPundit” at the right-wing website Hot Air (founded by Michelle Malkin) took on Krauthammer, arguing that “[i]t’s actually not true that the public is tired of this investigation.” Benghazi is “worth pursuing,” says AllahPundit, “even on grounds of political expedience … unless it means ignoring other foreign-policy matters involving White House malfeasance or negligence.”
But those on the right who have made Benghazi a rallying cry are pushing back on Krauthammer the hardest.
“Mr. Krauthammer’s premise for his assumption is flawed,” Larry Ward of Special Operations Speaks (SOS) told ThinkProgress in an email. “Benghazi is not nor never was about politics. It is only about justice and accountability.”
SOS is currently leading a campaign “DEMANDING” that the House create a select committee to investigate Benghazi, something House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has opposed.
“We can never and will never relent on our mission to find justice for those massacred and injured in Benghazi,” Ward said.
Bob Adams, the President and co-founder of Revive America, a conservative group that has been pressuring Boehner on Benghazi, told ThinkProgress that he disagrees with Krauthammer. “The country is not tired of it,” he said. “They’re never going to let it go because if violates probably one of the core ideas of what it means to be an American which is, we don’t leave our men and women behind on the battle field.”
When asked what he thinks a select committee might find on Benghazi that hasn’t already been reported, Adams said “there are many questions that need to be answered, picking one would be difficult. I think the larger question is, what do we not know?”
Adams outlined the path forward on Benghazi. “The investigation is going nowhere and so you have a new House Speaker who is willing to let the barn doors open,” he said. As the National Journal reported on Thursday, it appears that Adams will have some allies on Capitol Hill to do just that.