A Democrat on the House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks has called for the panel to be disbanded, leading its spokesman to label him in a stinging response as being "a member of the committee in absentia."
In an op-ed piece in The New York Times on Friday, California Rep. Adam Schiff said that the committee should be shut down because it is "aimless," "slow-moving" and "partisan."
"It has acted in a deeply partisan way, frequently failing to consult or even to inform Democratic members before taking action, and selectively leaking information to the press," Schiff wrote.
House Speaker John Boehner created the panel in May 2014 to investigate the attacks on the U.S. compound in Libya that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, including two former Navy SEALs.
The committee is chaired by South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy. Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings is the ranking Democrat.
But Jamal Ware, who serves as Gowdy's spokesman for the panel, hit back hard in an email blast to news organizations — including Newsmax — later Friday.
Its subject line: "Where in the World is Mr. Schiff."
The legislator "has only attended one of the more-than-45 interviews conducted to date by the Select Committee on Benghazi," Ware said.
"In fact," he continued, "save for voting no to create the committee and then attending a press event on the now well-disproven Democratic talking point that all has been 'asked and answered,' Mr. Schiff has largely been a member of the committee in absentia."
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to testify before the panel in October.
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