Clinton slams Benghazi committee in interview, ad

Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday lashed out at the special House committee investigating the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, calling it a partisan political exercise designed to "exploit" the deaths of four Americans.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's recent comments to Fox News that the Benghazi panel can take credit for her diminished public standing prove Republicans are going after her for political reasons, Clinton said in a televised interview.

The Democratic presidential front-runner told NBC's "Today" show that "This committee was set up, as they have admitted, for the purpose of making a partisan, political issue out of the deaths of four Americans."

Clinton was secretary of state during the 2012 attacks. She stopped short of calling for the Benghazi panel to be disbanded, as some Democrats have urged.

"That's up to the Congress," she said, adding that she was looking forward to testifying before the Benghazi panel on Oct. 22 "to explain everything we've done, everything that I asked to happen."

Laying the groundwork for the testimony, Clinton's campaign released a new 30-second ad that says the Republicans "finally admit it" and points to McCarthy's comment that that the point of the Benghazi investigation is to get Clinton.

"The Republicans have spent millions attacking Hillary because she's fighting for everything they oppose," the ad says.

Emily Schillinger, a spokeswoman for the retiring House Speaker John Boehner, called the ad "a classic Clinton attempt to distract from her record of putting classified information at risk and jeopardizing our national security."

The ad, which will air across the United States on cable television, points out that the committee cost taxpayers $4.5 million.

The House Benghazi Committee was established in 2014, after eight congressional investigations were conducted.

The House committee has expanded its inquiry and is now simultaneously investigating Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.

Wire services