Over 10 hours into the Benghazi Committee’s hearing on Thursday, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) got the first applause line.
As the energy to the room slowed into a slog over discussion of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server, Cummings took his turn in the third round of questioning to issue an impassioned indictment of the committee’s direction.
“It bothers me when I hear people even imply that you didn’t care about your people. That’s not right,” Cummings said. “And then I sit here and I watch you. And I saw how you kind of struggled when you were talking about that night. And I just for one want to thank you.”
He suggested what the committee was doing was “Monday morning quarterbacking.”
“So I don’t know what we want from you. Do we want to badger you over and over again until you get tired, until we do get the gotcha moment that he’s talking about? We’re better than that,” Cummings said, his voice raising. “We are so much better. We’re a better country. We’re better than using taxpayer dollars to try to destroy a campaign. That’s not what America is all about!”
