By Thomas McKinless

Two days before former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is to appear before the Senate Select Committee on Benghazi, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that Republicans will be under intense pressure to justify the committee’s continued existence. “You would hope that something this serious and this important would not be so freely subjected to partisan politics,” Earnest said. “Unfortunately, that’s precisely what’s occurred, and given that pressure, I’m sure that Republicans on the committee are going to come loaded for bear, and they are going to come out with aggressive, hostile questioning of the secretary of State.” The Benghazi committee has faced increased scrutiny since the beginning of October, when Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the committee had hurt Clinton’s poll numbers.