Hillary Clinton closes her binder last night after 11 hours in the hot seat on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
THE BIG IDEA:
— This has been the best week of the Clinton presidential campaign. After Hillary Clinton won the first debate, Vice President Biden declared Wednesday he would not challenge her. Then Thursday she tamed House Republicans during an 11-hour appearance before the Benghazi panel. The trio of big wins gives her big momentum going into Saturday’s Jefferson-Jackson Democratic Party dinner in Des Moines.
If she had stumbled at the debate, Biden had jumped in and/or a bombshell had dropped during her congressional testimony, the race for the White House could look very different. Instead, 100 days out from the Iowa caucuses, HRC is as much the front-runner for the Democratic nomination as ever.
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— Here are eight reasons the former secretary of state emerged not just unscathed, but stronger, from her marathon Benghazi testimony:
- The GOP landed no solid punches. In a striking moment after the hearing adjourned at 9 p.m., Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the committee chairman, told reporters he learned nothing new from Clinton’s testimony. “I don’t know that she testified that much differently today than she has in the previous times she’s testified,” he said. Outside the cloakroom late Thursday, many Republicans were subdued. Our colleague Bob Costa relays that there was no celebrating and, privately, many admitted Clinton was formidable.
- Clinton looked like a fighter, something the Democratic base craves. One of Hillary’s problems is that primary voters in the early states think she lacks fire in the belly (that’s part of what Bernie Sanders is tapping into). Thursday, Clinton looked more like a David throwing rocks than a Goliath wearing armor.
- Clinton rose above the political fray. Hillary didn’t appear to be testifying for a Democratic primary audience, leaving the political points to her Democratic counterparts on the committee (who repeated many of the same talking points being pushed by her campaign). She sat, looking bemused, while Gowdy and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings clashed heatedly during the most dramatic moment of the hearing. She appealed for “common ground” and “statesmanship” on foreign policy, an effort to clean up her declaration during last week’s debate that Republicans are her “enemy.”
- Clinton became a sympathetic figure when the Republicans badgered. GOP Rep. Mike Pompeo (Kan.) was ridiculed, including by conservative thought leaders, for pressing Clinton on whether Ambassador Chris Stevens had her personal e-mail, cellphone number, fax number, or home address. The Kansan’s argument that Clinton friend Sidney Blumenthal had more access to Clinton than the ambassador to Libya looked ham-handed. Alabama Rep. Martha Roby got mocked online for asking Hillary if she spent the night alone after the Benghazi attack. When Hillary laughed, Roby did not understand why and became upset.
- Clinton committed no made-for-TV gaffe. Hillary clearly prepared carefully, and it showed. This was the strongest of her three congressional appearances related to Benghazi. Most importantly, she avoided giving her opponents the kind of devastating soundbite that she did two years ago when she told Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), waving her arms: “What difference, at this point, does it make!?” That line remains a staple of Republican stump speeches. There was no parallel Thursday.
- Clinton did not seem evasive, which could help with her trustworthiness problem. Sitting there and taking every question made Hillary look transparent, especially after the spring scandal over her failure to turn over e-mails and the summer stories about refusing to give interviews to the national media. Remember, George W. Bush only agreed to speak with the 9/11 Commission for one hour – and in private. Under oath, Clinton could have been exceedingly cautious about what she revealed. But, precisely because she is a presidential candidate, she was surprisingly expansive.
- Clinton looked presidential. She vigorously defended her State Department record and showed her understanding of foreign affairs. She came across as serious and dignified, and her presence filled the room. She recounted in grueling detail the chaos and uncertainty of the night of the attacks: “This was the fog of war,” she said dramatically. In perhaps the most powerful moment of the day, she declared: “I would imagine I’ve thought more about what happened than all of you put together. I’ve lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done.”
- The 67-year-old showed impressive stamina. Not counting the breaks, Hillary (who turns 68 on Monday) spent more than eight hours testifying. She has a pretty intense campaign schedule for today. The hearing was so newsless that conservative media outlets turned toward minor details: The Drudge Report leads this morning with a Weekly Standard item about a coughing fit Clinton had in the final hour of her testimony. But bottom line: Clinton’s endurance was impressive.
Here are top moments from the House Select Committee hearing on Benghazi where former secretary of state Hillary Clinton testified. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
— The mainstream media—in print, online and on the air—is playing this as pretty much a nothing burger, which is great news for Clinton.
- Washington Post A1 analysis by Karen DeYoung: “Republicans land only glancing blows in day-long rehash.”
- ABC: “The ‘get Hillary’ committee did not get Hillary.”
- CBS: “Clinton took more than 300 questions … but what came out of it?”
- NBC: “In The GOP Attempt To Look Apolitical, Clinton Won.”
- CNN: “Clinton avoided major damage to her presidential campaign.”
- Even Fox News, which deserves more credit than anyone for making Benghazi such a big dang deal, cut away from live coverage of the hearing hours before it ended. Leading their web site this morning is a story about an illegal immigrant who beat a toddler in California. The headline on their leadeall is: “Clinton seeks to turn page on Benghazi after testimony – but can she?”
- New York Times: “At Hearing, Clinton Lets Others Do Shouting.”
- USA Today: “No clear wins for GOP at Benghazi hearing.”
- Boston Globe: “Clinton remains unruffled”
- Bloomberg: “Clinton holds ground…”
- NPR: “Clinton endures…”
- Politico: “Clinton survives…”
- Chicago Tribune: “11-hour grilling … reveals little new”
— Liberal commentators, who have often been critical of Clinton this year, rose to her defense. This matters because, right now, Hillary needs to shore up support to secure the nomination. Attacks from the right could help prod liberals to fall in line sooner than later.
- Huffington Post: “Even conservatives realize (the hearing) was ridiculous.”
- Vox.com: “Clinton’s 11-hour testimony was her best campaign ad yet.”
- Matt Taibbi, who writes for Rolling Stone: “The Republicans may have just won Hillary the election.”
- The Guardian: “Clinton deflects conservative jabs.”
- The New Republic senior editor Jeet Heer: “So if the goal was to show that Hillary Clinton is smart as a whip and has remarkable stamina, the hearing was a success.”
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:
