Benghazi probe trouble

Gowdy's Rubio nod brings trouble for Benghazi probe

Democrats say the 2016 endorsement shows Gowdy is using his investigative powers for political ends.

By Rachael Bade

White House hopeful Marco Rubio snagged a big-name endorsement this week from Trey Gowdy, the popular South Carolina congressman leading the House investigation of the Benghazi attack.

But the boost for Rubio could mean trouble for Gowdy back in Washington. Democrats are already pouncing, saying it shows Gowdy is not the politically disinterested inquisitor he’s portrayed himself to be throughout his months-long look into the 2012 attack, an investigation that’s scrutinized Hillary Clinton's actions as secretary of state.

“We knew Trey Gowdy was abusing his power as chair of the Benghazi Committee to attack Hillary Clinton. What’s now clear is that he was doing so in order to help Marco Rubio run for president,” Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), former head of House Democrats’ campaign arm, said in a statement to POLITICO. “His actions in Congress and on the campaign trail are nothing more than to further his partisan political agenda.”

Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, has maintained for months that he’s running a fair and impartial investigation that has nothing to do with politics. He abstained from some campaign events and fundraisers, and distanced himself from political comments made by fellow Republicans about his probe — largely out of concern that it could tarnish the Benghazi investigation’s integrity and give Democrats fodder to argue that it’s a partisan witch hunt.

Those efforts, he and his allies have acknowledged, didn’t protect him from accusations of partisanship and attacks from the left on his panel’s credibility. The complaints reached a crescendo in the weeks leading up to Clinton’s marathon appearance before his panel in October.

Now he appears to be casting aside that caution, plunging into the 2016 campaign. A Gowdy spokesperson noted that the lawmaker still refuses to campaign on the topic of Benghazi and argued he is keeping the two issues separate.

“’I am going to tell you who I’m going to vote for: I’m gonna vote for Marco Rubio,” Gowdy said in Iowa on Tuesday. “National security, public safety are the most important things to me and there is nobody better on those issues than Rubio."

Asked about the endorsement, Gowdy said in a statement for this story, “Marco is a friend and has been for five years. I have long admired the manner in which he communicates the conservative message in hopeful, aspirational tones.”

The Clinton campaign declined to comment, but some of her top surrogates slammed Gowdy’s endorsement.

“Trey Gowdy said this was an impartial investigation about the facts. ... Now Gowdy is openly campaigning in the 2016 race, against the very person he is supposed to be judging impartially,” said David Brock of Correct the Record, a group created to defend Clinton. “Gowdy’s political interests are clear. He should step down from his chairmanship if he wishes to maintain what little credibility his supposedly nonpartisan investigation may have left.”

Gowdy adopted a “no politics” policy after he assumed the chairmanship of the Benghazi panel in May 2014. At times, it’s produced an awkward dynamic between him and other Republicans.

In September, a few weeks before Clinton testified, Gowdy backed out of a Texas fundraiser for Rubio. The next month, he chastised House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and several other Republicans publicly after they credited the Benghazi investigation with damaging Clinton’s poll numbers.

And earlier this year, Gowdy canceled an appearance at a fundraiser for the Republican Party of Virginia, after its organizers had said he would talk about Benghazi.

A Gowdy aide dismissed the notion that his Rubio endorsement would color the Benghazi investigation, saying that backing a GOP candidate doesn’t preclude him from being fair-minded in his committee work.

“Rep. Gowdy has not campaigned on the Benghazi investigation, and he is continuing that practice,” Gowdy spokeswoman Amanda Duvall wrote in an email.

Republicans were also also quick to point out that several Democratic members on the Benghazi panel have endorsed Clinton.

“Perhaps someone should tell the DCCC chairman he has no clothes,” said Jamal Ware, a spokesman for Republicans on the Benghazi Committee. “If he bothered to check, he would know Benghazi Committee Democrats endorsed and actively supported Clinton long before she testified before the committee. In fact, some committee Democrats have done little work other than protect her presidential ambitions.”

Gowdy’s allies also argue that he’ll be called partisan no matter what he does because of the nature of his investigation, Clinton’s involvement, and the fact that the GOP leads the committee.

Gowdy’s embrace of Rubio, which included a formal endorsement during a two-day swing through Iowa this week, comes as the Benghazi committee is winding down its work. The panel is slated in the next few months to release its final report on the attacks in which four Americans were killed.

Democrats are sure to bring up his endorsement then, a House Democratic staffer told Politico.

“It certainly doesn’t help him that he’s endorsing a challenger to Hillary Clinton while investigating her,” the staffer said.

Benghazi came up twice during Gowdy’s first event in Iowa, creating a somewhat stilted moment for the chairman. Iowa state Sen. Jack Whitver, who introduced Gowdy to the crowd, said admiringly that Gowdy would hold Clinton accountable with his investigation — a stark contrast from the congressman’s repeated statements that his probe is not centered on Clinton.

A few minutes later, an audience member suggested he believed the U.S. military could have done more to stop the attacks in Libya and asked Gowdy for his take. Gowdy sidestepped the question, not mentioning Clinton or even the Obama administration. He simply urged the crowd to read his committee’s final report when it’s out.