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By James Arkin, Real Clear Politics–

Hillary Clinton jousted with Republican interrogators Thursday during a marathon 11-hour grilling by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, defending her role in events leading up to the 2012 terrorist attack that claimed four American lives, her response during the events that night, and the administration’s characterization of the attack in the days that followed.

The thrust of GOP questioning focused on charges that Clinton ignored repeated requests by Ambassador Chris Stevens, one of those killed on Sept. 11, 2012, to beef up security at the U.S. embassy in Libya, or that she was negligent for being unaware of those requests. Clinton argued that some requests for more security were met, others were not, but that State Department security experts, not her staff, handled those requests.

Republicans also questioned Clinton about the personal email address and private server she used while secretary of state, although they didn’t bring it up until the 10th hour of the hearing.

Democrats on the panel, meanwhile, largely used their time to criticize the committee itself, calling it a politically motivated attack on the Democratic front-runner for president and a waste of taxpayer money.

The hearing came after several intense weeks for the committee, beginning last month when Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a television interview that the panel had successfully lowered Clinton’s poll numbers. The Clinton campaign and congressional Democrats seized on that statement and related comments to call into question the purpose of the committee and attempt to discredit the work it has done over the last 18 months.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, panel chairman, used his 15-minute opening statement largely to stress that the committee has gone beyond the work of eight previous investigations into the attacks, such as interviewing new witnesses (including eyewitnesses to the attack), reviewing thousands of new documents and looking at Clinton’s and Stevens’ emails.

“This committee is going to do what we pledged to do, and what should have been done long ago, which is interview the witnesses, examine the relevant evidence, and access the documents,” Gowdy said. “We are going to pursue the truth in a manner worthy of the memory of the four men who lost their lives and worthy of the respect of our fellow citizens.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, then spent his 15 minutes trying to systematically condemn those efforts, suggesting that the latest investigation has not added new information.

“These documents and interviews do not show any nefarious activity,” Cummings said of new material the committee has unearthed. “In fact, it’s just the opposite. The new information we have obtained confirms and corroborates the core facts we already knew from the eight previous investigations. They provide more detail, but they do not change the basic conclusions.”

Republicans on the committee, after enduring weeks of criticism, came into the hearing at a perilous time, needing to debunk claims that their motivation was purely political. Indeed, during the first seven hours of the testimony, no mention was made nor were questions asked about Clinton’s private email setup – aside from Gowdy using it to justify why it had taken so long to call Clinton in to testify.

But the committee did question extensively her email correspondence and her overall approach to the turmoil in Libya, where dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown by rebel forces. Many of the email questions focused exclusively on her extensive exchanges with longtime friend Sidney Blumenthal, who did not work at the State Department but did contractual work for the Clinton Foundation and often emailed Clinton advice and information about Libya.

Republicans pointed out time and again that while Blumenthal had “unfettered” access to Clinton via email, Stevens did not have her personal email address and did not correspond with her that way. They linked this point to the fact that Stevens had sent repeated requests for additional security in Libya, many of which were not met.

Clinton’s response to this was two-pronged: First, she said Blumenthal’s emails were unsolicited and merely advice and comments from an old friend. Second, she said that while Stevens did not have her email address, he had many other ways to contact her and that they communicated often, though not by email.

“You didn’t need my email address to get my attention,” Clinton asserted.

The former secretary of state also said that Stevens’ requests for additional security were not directed to her or her staff, but to security experts within the department. She argued that that was the appropriate channel to make such requests, which is why she had not seen any of them.

“Chris Stevens communicated with a number of people that I worked with on a daily basis at the State Department,” Clinton said. “So far as I know, he did not raise any issue of security with any of those people; he raised it where he knew it would be properly addressed.”

Though the hearing didn’t steer clear of political waters – Democrats accused Republicans of conducting a partisan investigation and Republicans accused Democrats of being obstructionist – lawmakers mostly avoided angry outbursts. One notable exception came near the end of the morning session, when Gowdy extensively questioned Clinton about her email relationship with Blumenthal. Cummings objected to the line of questioning, which led to a heated exchange between them.

“If we’re going to release the emails, let’s do the transcript. That way the world can see it,” Cummings said of the panel’s interview with Blumenthal, nearly shouting. “You asked for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Well, that’s what we want to have. Let the world see it.”

Democrat Adam Schiff seconded the motion, and Gowdy responded to both of them, saying, “I would hasten to remind both of you the only reason we have Blumenthal emails is because he emailed the secretary of state. Those are her emails. That’s why they were released.”

The panel ultimately voted against releasing the transcript of the interview, with all Republicans siding not to release it and Democrats voting to make it public.

Republicans also made the point that overall policy in Libya, including the U.S. intervention that led to Gadhafi’s demise, was largely because Clinton pushed for it and that she “owned” both the victories and subsequent failures there that followed. Rep. Peter Roskam, one of the committee Republicans, said, “You were author of the Libyan policy. You were one that drove it. It was your baby.”

“Let me tell you what I think the Clinton doctrine is,” Roskam continued. “I think it’s where an opportunity is seized to turn progress in Libya into a political win for Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Clinton responded by calling Roskam’s comments a “political statement.”

“I don’t understand why that has anything to do with what we are supposed to be talking about today,” she said.

It took nearly 10 hours for the email controversy to directly be addressed by the committee. Rep. Jim Jordan, in his third round of questioning, asked Clinton about her emails.

Rep. Adam Smith interrupted Jordan, asking heatedly, “I’m sorry, but what does this have to do with what happened in Benghazi?”

Jordan fired back, “It has everything to do because we want to get the record so we can get to the truth.”

Clinton also faced a grilling from Gowdy, in the final round of questions of the night, about her emails. He questioned whether Clinton could be sure that every email related to Libya and within the committee’s jurisdiction had been turned over to them, or whether it was possible that there were emails remaining that were work related. Clinton said she was certain all work-related emails had been turned over.

“You say that you turned over everything,” Gowdy said. “I don’t get a chance to watch you a lot on television, but when I see you are interviewed, you make a point of saying ‘I turned over everything.’ How do you know that?”

“I know that because there was an exhaustive search done under the supervision of my attorneys and that is exactly the outcome,” Clinton said. “We turned over every work-related email.”

Gowdy and Clinton’s exchange over the emails was the final questioning of the night. After he finished, Gowdy gaveled out the hearing almost precisely 11 hours after it began.

Clinton, who agreed to appear before the panel one time, is finished testifying. The committee returns to work Friday and will issue a final report in the future.

James Arkin is a congressional reporter for RealClearPolitics. He can be reached atjarkin@realclearpolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesArkin.