Krauthammer: Benghazi committee's legitimacy 'will come from its results'

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Krauthammer: Benghazi Select Committee

Krauthammer: Benghazi Select Committee Legitimacy “will come from its results”

Charles Krauthammer told viewers Friday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that he was satisfied with the seven Republicans picked by House Speaker John Boehner to serve on the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

"I don't think you have to have a committee of seven experts," Krauthammer, a Fox News contributor and syndicated columnist, said. "I think it is good to choose people who will not seek the limelight. The most important thing here is that the legitimacy of the committee will not come from the composition but will come from its results.”

The House of Representatives voted 232-186 Thursday to establish the panel, and earlier in the week determined that the committee will consist of seven Republicans and five Democrats, with Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., as chairman.

Boehner on Friday named the six other Republicans who will serve: Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., and Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga.

Boehner, R-Ohio, told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo: “This is a serious investigation. I don’t want theater, I don’t want a sideshow, I want the members of this committee to find the facts for the four families who lost their loved ones.”

But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has weighted boycotting the proceeding over disagreements with Boehner over how the committee will operate, telling reporters Friday, “ let's not be accomplices to this diversionary tactic. It's all subterfuge because they don't want to talk about what our responsibilities are here.”

Krauthammer said that’s the wrong approach.

“The Democrats imagine that if they boycott, that will somehow de-legitimize it and the results will be ignored," he said. "Perhaps initially, but all the committee has to do, is to discover new facts, as we discovered a week and a half ago, with the Rhodes memo, and that you cannot ignore."

“So, I hope that Pelosi decides that she does not want to be an accomplice to a side show, and withhold Democratic members," he continued. "It won't affect the result, but what it will do is allow the Republicans to follow up on their questions in a coherent way, without being interrupted by Democrats hurling softballs, or making speeches that are ways to essentially exonerate the administration.”