MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Benghazi House Committee

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SCHULTZ: Welcome back to The Ed Show. Well, republicans simply are not being honest about the motivation behind their Benghazi witch hunt. There have been how many hearings? How many briefings and congressional reports? And, oh by the way, over 25,000 pages of documents reviewed. Republicans still claim not enough. Now, they have formed a new select committee, a brand-new committee to investigate. California senator, Barbara Boxer has had enough and telling it like it in. In an op-ed with the Huffington Post, Boxer writes between 1998 and 2013, there were at least 501 significant attacks against U.S. diplomatic facilities and personnel in 70 countries, which resulted in the deaths of 586 people, including 67 Americans. During the Bush administration, there were 166 attacks, which killed 116 people including 18 Americans. Those attacks were all terrible tragedies. The difference is that we never had a political party spend years exploiting them for political gain.

Folks, let`s call this what it is. It`s an election-year special.

Republicans are getting a two-for-one deal. They are openly fund raising off this tragedy by keeping the scandal narrative alive. Republicans are also using the side show to smear Hillary Clinton ahead of 2016, if she decides to run. It is obvious, republicans are afraid of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, their fund raising machine. They should be. The Clinton`s, by the numbers raised well over $1 billion for non-profits and hundreds of millions for those -- for their own political campaigns. You think the republicans want to go up against that? No, they want the easy route. So, they better start smearing early on. They didn`t do it that way, the way the republicans did it, the Clinton`s did.

And instead of wasting taxpayer dollars and misleading the American public, I would like to see the republicans get to work and pass any kind of meaningful legislation. Ain`t going to happen before the midterms. Joining me is California senator, Barbara Boxer. Senator, good to have you with us tonight. First of all, thank you for profoundly putting out the numbers. I think that has been -- I think I`m remised for not going that deep on exactly what it has been like and thanks for doing that. In your op-ed, you said republicans have only one goal, that`s to turn this into a scandal.

BARBARA BOXER, CALIFORNIA SENATOR: Yes.

SCHULTZ: Or what is their target?

BOXER: Well, Benghazi is a tragedy. We know that. When we lose one American it`s a tragedy. We lost four here. It`s a tragedy. But, they want to turn it into a scandal for their own benefit and the only thing that is scandalous is really their behavior. You know, Ed, I was in the congress for a long time. When I was in the house, there was a horrific, horrific terror attack on marine barracks in Beirut. I don`t know if you remember that.

SCHULTZ: I do recall that. Yes.

BOXER: We lost 241 marines. They were killed. It was unbelievable. Tip O`Neill and the republicans joined hands. There was a bipartisan investigation, cooperation, everyone worked together. At the end of the day, we learned something from it. We worked together to make sure that never happened again and that`s what we should be doing here. Look, the republicans won`t even let us pass an Embassy Security Bill. They`ve blocked it every single time. We need to make sure that our embassy`s are protected. I want to share something with your viewers. I`m not leaning over for water. I`m leaning over to show you something. I don`t know, can you see this?

SCHULTZ: I can.

BOXER: Ed, it`s very heavy. That`s half of the reports. Half of the reports that have come out from the congress on this. We have had 17 hearings and 50 briefings, and 25 interviews and subpoenas and 25,000 pages of documents and six congressional reports. This is just half of them.

SCHULTZ: Senator, how is this hearing going to be different?

BOXER: Because, if you listen to the person they picked to head this, before he was watching his Ps and Qs, he said he was going to put the administration on trial -- on trial. They are so blatant in this. I think it`s going to backfire. You know, they never mentioned, it was Hillary Clinton who was the first one to call for an independent investigation. And that investigation was headed by the most non-partisan team, Ambassador Pickering and Mike Mullin, a military man. They came out and said look, we have a lot more to do in terms of securing our embassies, our consulates.

Who was it that put those actions into place? Hillary Clinton and now, John Kerry. So, if you really want to be honest about this thing, Hillary Clinton called for the first investigation. They are just so scared of 2016, Ed, they don`t know what to do. They can`t talk about Obamacare anymore, because 8 million people signed up. Then people are getting Medi- Cal, Medicaid -- Medi-Cal in my state.

SCHULTZ: Sure.

BOXER: And it`s working. They have to turn their attention to this.

SCHULTZ: Well, 15 months of private sector job growth, they have had nothing to do with that, either. Now, the National Republican Congressional Committee already rolled out a new fund raising campaign called Benghazi Watchdogs. Speaker Boehner deflected questions about the fund raising. Here it is. I want your reaction.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four Americans died in Benghazi. Should the NRCC fund raise all of your efforts in the subcommittee?

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: Our focus is on getting the answers to those families who lost their loved ones, period.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But should the NRCC, they are fund raising off it.

BOEHNER: Our focus is getting the truth for these families and the American people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The campaign committee, which you are very involved in is fund raising off this. Why is that happening?

BOEHNER: Our focus is on getting the truth for the American people and these four families.

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SCHULTZ: Senator, your response to that?

BOXER: It`s just sad. You know, you see a speaker of the house is ducking and dodging and won`t answer the question. It`s insulting to the person who asks it. It`s insulting to the American people. Answer the question.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

BOXER: And the biggest question is why are you doing this when we have had all of these hearings, subpoenas, documents, papers, briefings, interviews.

There is no right answer. It`s just that they want to make the people believe that the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton did something wrong when they didn`t. They didn`t. This is a tragedy.

SCHULTZ: OK.

BOXER: It is not a scandal. And their behavior is scandalous.

SCHULTZ: Senator Barbara Boxer of California, great to have you with us on
The Ed Show.

BOXER: Thank you.

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