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GOP Sens. McCain, Graham complain Libya questions have gone unanswered
The Obama administration has failed to respond to GOP questions about Libya, a group of Republican senators said Wednesday.
The four Republican senators sent a seventh letter to President Obama on Wednesday demanding a response to their previous questions regarding the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The letter did not contain new questions, but instead summarized six previous letters GOP senators have sent administration officials that have not been answered. The letter, signed by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), said they had “failed to receive a single letter in response” to their seven queries.
“You and your senior administration officials have not been forthcoming in providing answers to the many questions that have emerged,” the senators.
An administration official did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
McCain has been one of the administration’s most vocal critics regarding the attack, accusing the White House on Sunday of either a “massive cover-up” or “incompetence.”
Republicans say that the White House is hiding the truth about Libya in the run-up to the presidential election, as the administration’s story has shifted from blaming the attack on protests over an anti-Islamic video to labeling it a planned terrorist attack.
The administration says that the changing explanation is due to initial intelligence assessments being incorrect, and some Democrats have accused Republicans in Congress of playing politics with the incident.
House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) also issued a statement Wednesday slamming the administration for not answering her questions on Libya. She noted a letter sent by eight House committee heads to administration officials and her own letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“Despite several attempts to get answers, the Administration is still keeping Congress and the American people in the dark as to what really happened,” Ros-Lehtinen said in the statement.
The Libya attack became an issue in the presidential campaign — most notably in the second presidential debate — but has faded somewhat after Romney did not attack Obama on the issue in the third debate, which focused on foreign policy.
This story was updated at 2:52 p.m.
