Trey Gowdy, an outspoken Republican congressman from South Carolina, blasted Obama administration officials during Wednesday's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Libya U.S. Consulate terrorist attack, raising his voice to levels rarely heard on the House floor.
Gowdy went after both U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney for providing "demonstrably false" statements about the attack, not just to Congress, but to the American people as well. He slammed the Obama administration for initially saying the attack was in response to a video and not an act of terrorism, delivering a blistering and impassioned critique of the White House's handling of the incident.
Gowdy quoted Rice as saying, "Our current assessment is that what happened in Beghazi was...in fact, initially a spontaneous reaction" to an anti-Muslim YouTube video.
"I don't know what the phrase "in fact" means in diplomatic legalese. I can tell you what it means in a court room, it means it's a fact," Gowdy proclaimed.
"I would like to have another hearing where we can ask Ambassador Rice, under oath, who told you what when. You are going to blame the intelligence committee? You come before this committee and you tell us who told you it was video!" he added, raising his voice now.