Benghazi panel looking for a ‘unicorn,’ Dem says

A House Democrat on Tuesday mocked the special committee investigating the Benghazi terrorist attacks, suggesting they are looking for a “conspiracy” that doesn’t exist.

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), who is part of the special select committee probing the 2012 attacks in Libya, said she is increasingly convinced that GOP lawmakers are looking for a “mythical creature, this unicorn” that she described as a “nefarious conspiracy that does not in fact exist.”

{mosads}Sanchez said that she was “skeptical” about the scope of the select committee before she joined it but put her concerns aside in hopes the investigation would be nonpartisan.

“Boy, it really looks like I was wrong with that one,” she said at a hearing of the panel.

Democrats and Republicans sparred Tuesday over the work of the special panel’s investigation, with Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) pushing back on allegations that the investigation launched last year is moving at a “glacial pace.”

Gowdy accused the Obama administration of acting slowly on requests for documents and interviews with witnesses, saying he has “zero interest” in dragging out the investigation.

“We’re going to pick up the pace,” he said.

The House created the select committee to investigate the Benghazi attacks last May, over the objections of Democrats who have accused the GOP of launching a “witch hunt” aimed at attacking Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of the State at the time of the deadly assault.

Republicans say there are still unanswered questions about the incident, the administration’s response and warnings about the security situation in Libya that deserve a thorough examination.

The infighting on the panel spilled into the open late Monday after Democrats accused Republicans of conducting witness interviews in secret and withholding information. They also complained Gowdy has not approved rules for the committee that would allow them greater participation.

As the partisan sniping continued into Tuesday’s open hearing, Sanchez apologized to the witnesses on hand.

“Tensions that have been boiling over for some time,” she said.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) tried to lower the temperature, urging panel members to find a way to issue a final bipartisan report on the attacks.

If the final report isn’t backed by both sides, he said, the panel “will have been a complete failure, a meaningless failure” and a “complete waste of time.”