Boehner: No Comment on NRCC Fundraising on Benghazi (Updated) (Video)

Boehner refuses to weigh-in on GOP fundraising efforts tied in to the House's investigation of the 2012 attack in Benghazi. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Posted May 8, 2014 at 12:25pm

Updated, 1:04 p.m. | Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio refused to answer whether it is appropriate that Republicans are fundraising off of their efforts to empanel a special committee to investigate the 2012 attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

When asked three times at his weekly press conference Thursday about the National Republican Congressional Committee’s fundraising solicitations, Boehner demurred, each time skirting the question by giving a variation of the following:

“Our focus is on getting the answers to those families who lost their loved ones. Period,” he said.

Boehner said he thinks the 7-5 split is fair, and said he told the same to Pelosi on their Wednesday phone call.

“I had a conversation with the minority leader yesterday and made clear that this is a serious investigation, that we wanted to work together to get to the truth,” he said. “This is a serious effort to get to the truth and I would hope that my colleagues across the aisle would see it the same way I do and appoint members.”

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel issued a statement Thursday condemning Boehner and the NRCC.

“Fundraising off the Benghazi tragedy is despicable and insulting and has no place in the national conversation,” he said. “Speaker Boehner and Chairman Walden should immediately take down their BenghaziWatchdogs.com website and stop insulting the memory of the brave Americans who were lost there.”