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"After
yesterday’s 11-hour hearing, there can be no remaining doubt
that the Benghazi Select Committee is a taxpayer-funded fishing
expedition to derail Secretary Clinton's presidential campaign,"
the five Democrats said in a statement.
They said they met with Nancy Pelosi, who leads the Democrats in
the House, on Friday, and then called on the Republican House
speaker, John Boehner, to shut down the committee.
But, they added: "If the Speaker rejects our request, Democrats
will continue to participate at this point in order to make sure
the facts are known and the conspiracy theories are debunked."
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who was U.S.
Secretary of State at the time of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in
Libya, passed a tough political test on Thursday, calmly
deflecting harsh Republican criticism of her handling of the
incident during a testy 11-hour hearing in Congress.
The Democrats on the panel had said they would discuss whether
to resign after Clinton testified. Democrats have criticized the
panel as an expensive, time-consuming project bent on hurting
Clinton's 2016 presidential aspirations.
Republicans say the purpose of the panel is to thoroughly
investigate the incident, which killed four Americans, including
U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
The Democratic members of the committee are U.S. Representatives
Elijah Cummings, the ranking member, Adam Smith, Adam Schiff,
Linda Sanchez and Tammy Duckworth.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle)
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