Gowdy: Benghazi committee will answer questions about attack

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Rep. Trey Gowdy on how the Benghazi probe will move forward

Congressman to lead select committee

The chairman of the House special investigative committee on the Benghazi terror attack said on "The Kelly File" Wednesday that critical questions will be answered about the 2012 assault on the U.S. consulate in Libya.

"Time is no barometer of thoroughness," Rep Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told Megyn Kelly. "When we get through this select committee, those questions will be answered for the family members and (former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) will have another chance to talk to us."

Despite threats of a possible boycott by Democrats, the House plans to vote on the committee on Thursday.

Addressing concerns that last year's Benghazi hearings did not result in enough "probing questions" when Clinton appeared, Gowdy said he was not necessarily committed to making the potential 2016 presidential candidate appear at a hearing, but might instead opt for a deposition, which he said could be more effective.

"That is the route that is most conducive with eliciting the truth," Gowdy said. "It's not five minutes of pounding your chest in a committee room."

One day after a House resolution announced that the committee would be made up of seven Republicans and five Democrats, Gowdy brushed aside House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's urging that its membership be equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.

"As the president famously likes to say, 'elections have consequences,' and the consequences of the last U.S. House race is that we are in the majority," Gowdy said. "When (Pelosi) was in the majority and she had the chance to constitute a select committee, she certainly did not constitute it equally, nor were any of the Senate committees equally constituted."

Nevertheless, Gowdy said he hoped Democrats will participate in the investigation.

"Our goal is to get at the truth, and they could help us do that, and I hope that they come," he said.