Hillary Clinton's campaign failed to get permission from NBC News to use a clip of Andrea Mitchell in a new national television ad targeting Republicans and the Benghazi committee, Mitchell said Tuesday.
Clinton pounced on recent remarks by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) about the committee being connected to her recent decline in the polls, saying it suggests the Benghazi investigation is motivated purely by politics to drive down her numbers.
Mitchell's story about McCarthy's comments and the subsequent Democratic backlash is used in the ad, in which she editorializes, reporting that McCarthy said the committee was "created to destroy Clinton's candidacy."
"I just want to point out that they have used a little bit of my voice," Mitchell said. "They've used a little bit of Savannah Guthrie. NBC News in no way authorized them to use any of our material, and we had no idea this was coming."
Time reported on the fallout and what it meant for McCarthy's bid to replace outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner (R., Ohio):
Clinton has hammered the point since then, arguing that McCarthy’s comments show the Benghazi investigation is trying to make "a partisan political issue out of the deaths of four Americans." Her new ad takes that line to the airwaves too.
The ad shows news footage about the gaffe as well as a brief segment of McCarthy’s interview, arguing that it shows "Republicans finally admit it."
"Republicans have spent millions attacking Hillary because she’s fighting for everything they oppose, from affordable health care to equal pay," the ad says. "She’ll never stop fighting for you and the Republicans know it."
Republicans plan to meet Thursday, where McCarthy may be endorsed as speaker. But he will need 218 Republican votes on Oct. 29 to get the job, and his rival for the post, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, says he is confident McCarthy will not get the votes.