White House press secretary Jay Carney would not explicitly say Monday whether the Obama administration would cooperate with the new Benghazi investigation.
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R., Ohio) announced Monday that Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) would lead the select committee leading the probe into the terrorist attack.
Asked for a "yes or no" response from ABC reporter Jonathan Karl, who memorably sparred with Carney over Benghazi last week, he launched into an attack on what he suspected were "partisan" motives by Republicans and said the White House has cooperated in the past with "legitimate" oversight from Congress.
"What I will say is that we have a long history of cooperating with legitimate oversight from Congress, and that cooperation will continue," Carney said. "What am I not going to speculate about is what the Republicans are up to. It's pretty blatantly apparent based on what they've said and what even other Republicans have said that this is a highly partisan exercise, but I'm not going to go further than that."
Full exchange:
JONATHAN KARL: Yes or no answer. Is the White House going to cooperate with this investigation, yes or now? I've heard a lot of words--
JAY CARNEY: I haven't seen an investigation. I've seen a lot of rhetoric, I've seen talk, I've seen some of the usual partisan assertions and heard them. What I will say is that we have a long history of cooperating with legitimate oversight from Congress, and that cooperation will continue. What am I not going to speculate about is what the Republicans are up to. It's pretty blatantly apparent based on what they've said and what even other Republicans have said that this is a highly partisan exercise, but I'm not going to go further than that.