Patricia Smith, the mother of one of the Americans killed in the attack on the Benghazi consulate just over one year ago, gave gripping testimony on Capitol Hill, but one major component was missing during her remarks. Most of the committee’s Democratic members weren’t even in the chamber to hear Smith and other family members speak.
That didn’t prevent Smith from speaking her mind, however, telling those who were present, “Nobody from the government got back to to tell me anything, and I mean that by saying ‘anything.’ And it’s been, I hate to put it in the record, but it’s been pure hell living through all this and not getting any answers. I wanted to be able to … have everything go away, but I can’t do that.”
The Weekly Standard’s Steven Hayes spoke with Bill Hemmer to conjecture about what he believes was behind the Democrats’ walk-out. But Hayes said he couldn’t offer any good reasons.
“I have no idea; I think they owed it to her to at … least be present, if not ask questions,” he said. “You could say it’s a metaphor for the way people have approached this Benghazi hearing [in general].”
Watch his full remarks, as well as the images of the empty Chamber during Smith’s testimony here.
