Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) on Sunday responded to questions about Republicans using terrorist attacks in Benghazi to raise funds by saying that Democrats had done it first with the Sandy Hook shootings in 2012, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
During an interview on Fox News, host Chris Wallace pointed out to Gowdy that it was hard to believe that his probe into Benghazi was not political when the National Republican Congressional Committee had sent out a fundraising letter last week citing the investigation in a plea for donations.
"Isn't this exactly the problem?" Wallace asked. "The danger, the risk that you overstep your bounds -- the GOP, but not you personally -- you overreach, and you make this political... you end up going on a political hunt instead of dealing with issues people deal with [in] their daily lives, like Obamacare and jobs?"
"Yes," Gowdy agreed. "Which is exactly why I have said I will never and have never send out fundraising literature trying to raise money on the grief and tragedy of four dead Americans, and I have asked my colleagues to follow suit."
The South Carolina Republican then pivoted to slam the "duplicity and hypocrisy of Democrats all of the sudden concluding certain things are above politics."
"They raise money on Sandy Hook, they raise money on Katrina, they raise money on Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "So for me, I will not raise money on Benghazi. Just like I never raised money using crime victims when I was a prosecutor."
"And I've asked my colleagues to follow suit, but it would be helpful if our colleagues on the other side of the aisle did not have selective amnesia when it comes to what's appropriate to raise money off of and what is not."
