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Duckworth Votes to Disband Benghazi Committee After Clinton Endorsement

Tammy Duckworth
Tammy Duckworth / AP
October 8, 2015

Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.) voted on Wednesday to disband the House committee investigating the Benghazi terrorist attack, weeks after Hillary Clinton endorsed the Illinois Democrat’s Senate campaign.

The vote is a departure from Duckworth’s comments on Clinton last spring, when she called on the presidential candidate to testify before the committee and promised to hold her "accountable."

Duckworth, who sits on the Benghazi select committee, appeared to walk back her tough statements late last month. Clinton endorsed Duckworth in the Democratic primary in early September.

Duckworth blasted Republicans for "wast[ing] millions of taxpayer dollars simply to score political points" through the committee and said it should be shut down.

"The decent thing to do is to wrap up the Committee’s work as soon as possible," said the congresswoman.

House Democrats forced a floor vote to disband the Benghazi committee on Wednesday, but the Republican majority blocked it.

Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee on Oct. 22.

The Duckworth campaign accused Sen. Mark Kirk, the Republican incumbent in the Illinois race, of "flat-out lying about what [Duckworth] has said about Secretary Clinton testifying before the Benghazi committee" on Monday.

A spokesperson for Kirk responded by telling Politico that if Duckworth "is unwilling to buck her own party to find out what really happened in Benghazi, then how can she be trusted to represent our state in the U.S. Senate."