John McCain missed a classified briefing on the details of the Benghazi attack on Wednesday.
What was McCain doing during the briefing? According to ABC News , McCain was on the senate floor demanding answers from the White House about the Benghazi attack
Business Insider reports that officials from the State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA and the National Counterterroism Center gave a three hour briefing to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. McCain, who is part of the committee, missed the briefing due to a “scheduling conflict.”
While the other members of the committee were being briefed about the situation McCain was criticizing the White House for how it has handled the attack on September 11 in Libya.
McCain said at a press conference:
“More than two months after the Benghazi attack, there are still many unanswered questions … While we await the findings and recommendations of the administration’s internal review of the Benghazi attack, it’s essential for the Congress to conduct its own independent assessment.”
ABC notes that McCain may have received some of the answers he was looking for at the briefing but he probably would not have been satisfied. The top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, Senator Susan Collins, said that the briefing only “scratched the surface” of the situation.
Collins said:
“I really wasn’t (satisfied). There are many, many unanswered questions. I feel that we’ve only scratched the surface through the briefings that we had today.”
There are currently four senate committees looking into the Benghazi attack but McCain is calling for an independent group to investigate the situation. Collins, however, disagrees.
Collins said:
“I do not see the benefit of creating a brand new committee when we already have the Senate’s chief oversight committee, plus the Intelligence Committee, examining this very important matter.”
