After House Majority Leader and Speaker hopeful Kevin McCarthy tied Hillary Clinton's diving poll numbers directly to the creation of the Benghazi Select Committee last week, Republicans have been in damage control to protect the credibility of the Committee and its work.
Last night on The Kelly File, Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy defended the Committee and said despite calls for it to be shutdown, the investigation will move forward. Clinton is expected to testify in front of the Committee on October 22.
"Kevin is wrong and I would ask your viewers and anyone else who's suspicious and those that have been supportive, don't focus on the words that people not on the Committee use, focus on the actions of those of us who have been on the Committee for the last year and a half. Megyn, out of the 54 witnesses interviewed, 41 of them by the way no other Committee interviewed, not a single one of them has been named Clinton. Of the 50,000 documents, new documents that we have accessed, less than 5 percent have anything to do with her and if you look at the public hearings we've had so far, her name has not crossed my lips," Gowdy said. "She was the Secretary of State at all relevant times, we would be crazy not to talk to her."
"She's [Clinton] going to be treated professionally, she's going to be treated fairly," Gowdy continued.
The Chairman also revealed that McCarthy has "profusely apologized" for his remarks.
"Kevin is a friend, that does not insulate him from being wrong, but he has apologized profusely and I have accepted it," Gowdy said.
Meanwhile Democrats on the Committee, with Ranking Member Elijah Cummings leading the charge, are still calling for the Committee to be disbanded ahead of Clinton's testimony near the end of the month.