Establishing Select Committee on Benghazi

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, 30 years ago, America suffered an incredible tragedy; 241 Marines in Beirut lost their lives when terrorists bombed the barracks in which they were living. At that time, we had a President whose name was Ronald Reagan, and we had a Speaker of the House whose name was Tip O'Neill. Different parties.

That was an enormous tragedy. An investigation needed to be done, and it was done. It was done on a bipartisan basis. One investigation was done. And there was a presumption that no matter how tragic this was and no matter how important it was to hold people accountable--and that was done--that everybody involved had the best intentions for America's future strength.

And there seems to be a premise, at least to me, that this President of the United States has any less commitment to protecting the lives and safety of the American people than any other President.

I will tell you, I was an opponent of the war in Iraq, and I was critical of the policies and the decisions of our then-President George Bush. But never once did I question that his motivations were anything less than what he thought was best for America.

We are going off the rails here. This is a tragedy. But there is a real question, at least on the part of many of us, and I think many Americans, as to whether we are doing this right. How is it that there is such glee that the decision is made to go forward after seven other committees, 25,000 documents--more work could be done--but how is it that there was such glee on one side that they turned it into a fundraising opportunity? Who would do that?

Mr. Gowdy won't do it, and he is a good man. But do you know what? If we are going to proceed, it has got to be on the level. We have a seven-to-five committee that is being organized. It is not even-handed. You can't have these tough decisions that not only have to be made right but have to be made so that there is credibility with the American people that they are on the level and not political where you don't have a bipartisan approach, you don't have everybody weighing in on subpoenas.

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