Seven memorable moments from Benghazi hearing

Hillary Clinton and lawmakers on the House Select Committee on Benghazi are enduring a long day of testimony.

The former secretary of State began her testimony shortly after 10 a.m., and has continued to take questions from lawmakers all day.

Clinton at times has been overshadowed by fiery exchanges between lawmakers on the panel.

At other times, she has gone back and forth with Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and other members of the panel.

Here are the seven most memorable moments so far. 

Gowdy threatens new Blumenthal questions

Gowdy (R-S.C.) ended the three-hour morning session with a heated confrontation with committee Democrats about longtime Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal.

Then, just as the debate was peaking, he banged it to a close, with a warning that there would be more on the way.  

“If you think you’ve heard about Sidney Blumenthal emails so far, wait until the next round,” Gowdy intoned.

In the afternoon, Gowdy repeatedly tried to tie Clinton to Blumenthal, claiming that his special access to the former secretary of State surpassed that of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, one of the four men killed in the 2012 attack in Benghazi.  

His ambiguously sourced memos on the state-of-play in Libya distracted Clinton, Gowdy alleged, when she should have been worried about Stevens’ security.

GOP blocks effort to make Blumenthal transcript public

Shortly after breaking for lunch, Gowdy conceded to a vote on Democrats’ effort to make Blumenthal’s nine-hour closed-door deposition before the committee in June.

The effort failed on a 7-5 party-line vote, which was expected. Afterwards, lawmakers carried on with their questioning of Clinton.

Still, the moment marked a rare break in the committee’s hearing.

It took Clinton off the hot seat for a moment, and emphasized the Benghazi panel’s deep partisan divide.

Roskam freezes over Clinton’s notes

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) repeatedly halted his first question of Clinton so she could skim notes from her aides.

“I can pause while you’re reading the notes from your staff,” the member of the select committee told her.  “Go ahead and read the note if you need to.”

Roskam’s suggestion elicited a chuckle from Clinton.

“I can do more than one thing at a time,” the former secretary of State retorted.

“I’m just giving you the courtesy of reading your notes,” Roskam responded after questioning her further.

Jordan accuses Clinton of blaming Benghazi on a video

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) charged Clinton with spreading the idea that an anti-Islamic video inspired the Benghazi attackers.

“There’s no evidence for a spontaneous protest,” he said.  “You picked the video as the narrative.  Where did it originate? It originated with you.

“Madame Secretary, Americans can live with the fact that good people sometimes give their lives for their country,” Jordan added.

“What they can’t take is when their government is not square with them.  You could tell the truth [and] call it a terrorist attack.”

Clinton admits Libya ambassador lacked her email address

Clinton revealed that Chris Stevens, the ambassador to Libya who died in the 2012 Benghazi attacks, did not have her personal email address.

Subsequent testimony revealed he also lacked Clinton’s cell phone and fax numbers and her home address as well.

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Ky.) repeatedly criticized the Democratic White House for giving her email information to staff and other associates while leaving the Benghazi consulate in the dark.

He accused Clinton of missing more than 600 security requests that never made their way to her.

Brooks stacks evidence against Clinton

Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.) produced a pile of Clinton’s emails during her first interrogation of the former secretary of State.

Brooks argued that a taller stack depicted Clinton’s messages about Libya in 2011, while a smaller version reflected her correspondences during 2012.

“I’m troubled by what I see here,” she told the Democratic presidential front-runner.

Clinton countered that she rarely used email for official business, instead preferring on in-person meetings, classified cables and other methods instead.

Clinton didn’t conduct most business over email

Clinton rarely ever used email to communicate about her work, she said on Thursday, following months of questioning about her “home brew” email server.

“I did not conduct most of the business that I did on behalf of our country on email,” Clinton testified.

In fact, her State Department office didn’t even have a computer, she maintained.

Clinton’s use of a personal email address and private server have hounded her presidential campaign, and raised questions about whether she tried to evade public scrutiny or may have endangered sensitive information.

This year’s revelation about her exclusive use of a private email server only came out because of the work of the Benghazi committee.