There's "no question" someone from Hillary Clinton's circle - if not the former secretary of state herself - was involved in the "cover-up" of any missteps by the administration following an attack on a U.S. consulate last Sept. 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa told CBS News.. "If Hillary Clinton is not responsible for the before, during and after mistakes... it's somebody close," Issa said. "There certainly are plenty of people close to the former secretary who knew, and apparently were part of the problem".. Ahead of a hearing on Benghazi in Issa's committee this week, Fox News reported that Mark I. Thompson, the deputy coordinator for operations in the State Department's counterterrorism bureau, will testify that Clinton attempted to cut out the bureau from communications about the attack.. Such charges would likely cripple not only Clinton's pristine record as secretary, but also the chance that she'll decide to launch a presidential bid in 2016.. Those close to Clinton who may have engaged in "deliberately, premeditated lying to the American people," Issa said, could include Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy or Beth Jones, acting assistant secretary for near eastern affairs at the State Department.. In excerpts of an interview with investigators released Sunday, Greg Hicks - the No. 2 official in Libya at the time of the attack that killed Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans - claimed that "everybody in the mission" thought the strike was a terrorist act "from the get-go".. Meanwhile former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee predicted that President Barack Obama won't finish out his second term in light of the "cover-up" of the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the former Arkansas governor called the affair "more serious than Watergate".. "I believe that before it's all over, this president will not fill out his full term. I know that puts me on a limb," he said. "But this is not minor. It wasn't minor when Richard Nixon lied to the American people and worked with those in his administration to cover-up what really happened in Watergate. But, I remind you — as bad as Watergate was, because it broke the trust between the president and the people, no one died. This is more serious because four Americans did in fact die".. Huckabee, however, said his predication about Obama "will not happen" if the Democrats seize control of the House and retain control of the Senate next year.. "If they're able to get control of the House and maintain the Senate, this will not happen because they won't let it happen," Huckabee said.. "And they won't let it happen not because they're protecting just the president, they're trying to protect their entire political party. If they try to protect the president and their party, and do so at the expense of the truth, their president and their party will go down. Now, here's what I'm going to suggest will happen — as the information and facts begin to come out, it will become so obvious that there was a concerted and very, very deliberate attempt to mislead this country and its people to lie to Congress, as well as to you".. And as the truth about the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi emerges, Huckabee said, "they will have lost the right to govern".. "The highest levels of people in the United States government all the way up to the president knew that what they did tell us was not true," he said. "And they continued to tell it throughout an election season and beyond, and they've tried to change the subject. And when the facts come out, they will not be able to stand. They will have lost the right to govern".. What happened with Benghazi is not a "political issue" — "this goes all the way to the heart of the integrity of the United States government," Huckabee said.. "When a president lies to the American people and is part of a cover-up, he cannot continue to govern," Huckabee said.. "And as the facts come out, I think we're going to see something startling. And before it's over, I don't think this president will finish his term unless somehow they can delay it in Congress past the next three and a half years"..
5 years ago