Issa compares Benghazi probe to Watergate

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said that it was “fair game” for Republicans to raise money off of their investigation into the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, and compared the inquiry to the Watergate investigation.

In an interview this week with The Tampa Tribune, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said the probe would be a lot easier if the Obama administration had been more responsive from the start.

{mosads}“It takes very little time and very little committees if the administration wants to tell the truth. If the administration wants to continue delaying, denying and lying and covering up, it takes a long time,’’ he said while attending a Republican fundraiser.

“There was a lot of time and a lot of money spent on Watergate to eventually get to the truth about the wrongdoing of Richard Milhous Nixon.”

Issa is not one of the seven Republicans appointed to the select committee to investigate the 2012 attack, during which four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed. Through the Oversight Committee, however, he has led the charge on revealing what he has characterized as a cover-up by the administration.  

Democrats have criticized the attacks as a partisan ploy, which they say has been exemplified by Republicans’ aims to raise money off of their work.

House Democrats have yet to decide how or whether they will participate in the committee.