Strong reviews of Hillary Clinton’s appearance from several Editorial Boards and opinion writers:
“Unsurprisingly, the hearing yielded no new information about the attacks. It quickly and predictably devolved into a partisan battle between Republicans intent on hurting Mrs. Clinton’s bid for the White House and Democrats who sought to make her look presidential.”
“As she has on the campaign trail, Ms. Clinton hinted Thursday that she would use America’s international toolbox with ambition — “I believe, lead with diplomacy, support with development and, as a last resort, defense” — and probably more confidently than President Obama has. If the hearing was useful at all, it was in filling out her larger vision for U.S. foreign policy.”
“For 17 months, to the tune of $4.7 million, Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi have been promising the nation that the hounding of Hillary Clinton was something more than a waste of tax money and a partisan fishing expedition. On Thursday, they put her on the stand for their big reveal.
“They failed.”
“In her opening speech, Clinton reminded the committee what it was supposed to be about: The deaths of four Americans. Yet it still squandered the opportunity to find ways to improve safety for other diplomats in the future, by peppering her with inconsequential questions about emails and her friendship with Sidney Blumenthal — which got Republicans exactly nowhere.”
“What’s the difference between the House Benghazi committee and a circus? A circus doesn’t pretend to have any high-minded purpose, but instead presents itself as only what it is: a show. And a circus is sometimes entertaining. Oh, and a circus isn’t potentially infinite.”
“But injecting Blumenthal as a central character in the Benghazi probe doesn’t help Republicans demonstrate that Clinton did wrong. And the justification for invoking him — to demonstrate that Clinton had more contact with him than with Stevens — is a stretch. Whatever else one thinks of the former journalist — I’ve clashed with him over the years — he had nothing to do with what happened in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012.”
“News flash: the hearings demonstrated Mrs. Clinton as a consummately professional, well spoken, intelligent, and extraordinarily patient person.”
National political reporters declared Hillary Clinton’s strong resilience throughout the 11-hour-long hearing, responding to hundreds of questions from the Republican-led panel:
“Her surrogates expressed awe. ‘The woman has amazing endurance’ said former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. ‘She didn’t only handle the Republicans today — she answered every question with the grace and a commanding knowledge of a true leader.’”
“But as it turns out, Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee were simply too incompetent to achieve their own goals.”
“After 11 hours, three rounds of testimony, and some 300 questions for Hillary Clinton, the chairman of the Republican-led House Select Committee had no answer when asked to name a piece of new information gleaned from Thursday’s hearing on the handling of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack.”
“Despite the long hours, Republicans failed to catch Clinton off her guard or come up with significant new revelations to argue that she was negligent in her duties that led to the death of four Americans in Libya.”
“You don’t have to like Clinton to see that this is a coup for her campaign. Not only has she bolstered her image as a smart, competent policymaker, but she’s even defused her email controversy—or come close to it—by talking about the issue in a calm, nonadversarial way. Meanwhile, by the fifth hour, committee members like Roskam were hitting Clinton for having a skilled press team.”
“If in January 2017, Hillary Clinton is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, historians may well point to this month as the moment her campaign turned around. Like the first brisk snap of fall, Clinton’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad summer has morphed overnight into the best week of her campaign: Joe Biden is out, her poll numbers are up, her crisp debate performance reassured nervous Democrats and her measured resolution before the House Benghazi committee made her interrogators (of both parties) seem small by comparison.”
“This has been the best week of the Clinton presidential campaign.”
“[Subtitle:] She avoided obvious missteps and defended her time at Foggy Bottom”
”[Subtitle:] Enduring an 11-hour festival of mansplaining, with a sexist assist from GOP women, Hillary Clinton looked calm and presidential.”
Even an admission from conservative commentators that the Benghazi Committee’s hearing was a ‘waste of time’ that offered Hillary Clinton a big victory over Republicans:
“So a hearing billed as an epic, High Noon-style confrontation — granted, the hype came from the media, not Republican committee members themselves — instead turned out to be a somewhat interesting look at a few limited aspects of the Benghazi affair. In other words, no big deal. And that is very, very good news for Hillary Clinton.”
“[Subtitle] Some of Hillary Clinton’s top critics think she won the day.”
“But after the former secretary of state’s marathon testimony on Thursday, in which she endured 11 hours of questioning, even conservatives admitted the hearing accomplished very little.”
“Fox News contributor Erick Erickson criticized today’s House Select Committee on Benghazi hearing, calling it ‘a waste of time’ and writing that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ‘is far too bright to be trapped.’”
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