The House had the first of what is expected to be three hearings investigating the fatal attacks on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya last year.
The attacks that resulted in the deaths of four American personnel have been a political lightning rod as Republicans accuse the Obama administration of failing to act swiftly to fix the situation and covering up their failure with Democrats accusing Republicans of using American deaths to play politics.
Three witnesses to the attacks are expected to share what happened from their points of view to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism; Gregory Hicks, the former deputy of mission in Libya; and Eric Nordstrom, a security officer were expected to speak, according to the Associated Press.
Mark Thompson testified at the hearing that he had requested a FEST team -a unit comprising of special operations personnel, diplomatic security and intelligence officials - but was rebuffed from the White House, according to Fox News. Thompson implied that help might have been refused due to uncertainty about the situation.
"One definition of a crisis is that you don't know what is going to happen in two hours," Thompson said.
Daniel Issa, R-CA, the head of the oversight committee and chairman of the hearings, said that the witnesses were the "actual experts on what really happened before, during and after the Benghazi attacks."
In the aftermath of the incident in Benghazi most officials have acknowledged that mistakes were made in the handling of the situation. Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., hoped the hearings could bring this to light.
"It looks pretty clear that there was some catastrophic decision-making that in some way contributed to the death of those four Americans," Rogers said. "And that part I think is what the investigation will unfold."
Democratic leaders have argued that the hearings will bring nothing new to light and are merely an attempt by Republicans to use the blunder for political gain.
"It's politics," Peter Welch, D-VT, said. "If it's a fair-minded question of what we could do better (on security), that would benefit us all. But if it's intended to embarrass the president or perhaps Hilary Clinton, then it will be damaging no matter who the next secretary of state is or who the next president is."
Republicans such as Sen. Lindsey Graham from South Carolina argue that it was the Obama administration that lied to the American people for political gain in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
"There was an effort by some senior people to put a political spin on this rather than tell the story that it was a terrorist attack from the get-go because it was so close to the election," Graham said.
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