MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript - Benghazi Hearing

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

MADDOW: That was back in January after the official report came out
cataloging the one actually outstanding and really important question from
what happened in Benghazi. On the same question obviously could be and is
asked of time one of our diplomatic facilities is attacked abroad. This is
the outstanding matter. The administration accepted all the
recommendations of the report on this as a problem. They are implementing
those recommendations now.

But today, all of a sudden, apparently, for some reason, impeach, impeach!
We will figure out why later, let`s just impeach!

Joining us now is Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. She represents the
District of Columbia. She is a member oversight committee which held those
hearings in to the Benghazi earlier this week.

Congresswoman, it is a real pleasure to have. Thank you for being with us
tonight.

REP. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON (D), DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Of course.

MADDOW: The information making news today, so much news today about
revisions to the talking points, these revisions as far as I can tell are
something that Congress has known about for quite some time. Why is this a
scandal today?

NORTON: These were revisions Congress knew about, and our committee knew
about most of them. This is an ongoing drama. You`ve got to have a
central character. By the way, for a while there, I thought they were
going to impeach Hillary Clinton before she decided to run for president,
because that seems to have been a major goal of this hearing. And yet even
with the talking points, they haven`t come close to Hillary Clinton. The
state department official apparently said these talking points are for
members of congress, there is an investigation still going on, don`t just
read up on the state department. A statement came out today from Hillary
Clinton saying, this state department official was not instructed by
Hillary Clinton.

So if the point was to get Hillary Clinton or President Obama, we failed.
But what they have done is to revive preemptively, because they think
Hillary Clinton may run for president, as the old Benghazi chapter, this
time with a few flurries but essentially the same chapter rewritten.

MADDOW: From all the testimony that has been presented to your committee,
from everything that you have done in your oversight role and everything
you`ve seen in your capacity in Congress, do you think that there was an
effort to cover up what really happened in Benghazi for political purposes?
Do you see that, bottom line?

NORTON: Here`s the difference between this administration and their
Watergate analogy.

You talk about the talking points that came out today. Where did they get
those talking points? From the administration. The administration turned
all of that over. Yes, the administration is turning things over as they
get it. They put no shame on them the moment that the attack occurred,
where it was from, who did it. Notice that you have some of the same
methodology used with Boston. The administration and others were reticent
to say it was an attack that was a terrorist attack, because they didn`t
have all the information, some of it is coming out now. It may be
described as such an attack if they can link it to this Russian
information.

In the same way, the administration does not want to call a spade a spade
until they are sure it`s a spade. And so, they dance around it, as well
they should. And the president himself comes out and says acts of terror
within days of the attack. This is hardly a cover-up. If it`s a cover-up,
the president himself didn`t get the memo.

MADDOW: Washington D.C. congressional delegate. Eleanor Holmes Norton,
thank you for being with us tonight. It`s nice to have you here, ma`am.

NORTON: Always a pleasure. Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source