Former Rep. Trey Gowdy, the man who led an 11-hour public congressional hearing on the Benghazi consulate attack, said Monday that he believes such hearings are “utterly useless”—now that they’re used to investigate President Trump’s inner circle.
Gowdy, now a Fox News contributor, joined Fox & Friends to weigh in on last week’s House Oversight Committee hearing involving former Trump “fixer” and personal attorney Michael Cohen.
“What we learned this past week is how utterly useless public congressional hearings are,” the South Carolina Republican said. “I think two closed-door sessions this past week on the Senate and House side with the intelligence committees were very helpful. That is why they’re bringing Cohen back.”
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In October 2015, Gowdy was the point man who grilled Hillary Clinton during 11 hours of questioning before the House Select Committee on Benghazi over the terrorist attack that killed four Americans in 2012, when the then-presidential candidate was secretary of state. Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, chaired that committee and the House Oversight Committee at the time.
“The closed-door hearings are constructive,” Gowdy continued. “You get an hour to ask questions as opposed to five minutes.”
Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy asked, with a wry smile: “Are you suggesting that Congress is less interested into getting to the bottom of it, and more interested in making Donald Trump look bad over the next two years until Election Day?”
Gowdy replied: “Let me ask you this: What serious finder of fact can you name that identifies information in five-minute increments and does it on television and flips from one side to the other? Grand jury doesn’t do it. Your local sheriff doesn’t do it. The United States attorney doesn’t do it.”
Doocy reminded him: “You tried to do it in a past.”
Gowdy responded: “And I was an utter unmitigated failure.”
