Benghazi investigation, presidential race to dominate Sunday talk shows
WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's upcoming testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi will be one of the main topics on the Sunday talk shows.
Clinton is scheduled to testify before the panel on Thursday in a long-awaited showdown between the Democratic presidential candidate and House Republicans. The committee was created 17 months ago to investigate the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The focus of the probe has since shifted to Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of State.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., made news recently by suggesting the panel's goal is to damage Clinton's presidential campaign. Clinton has seized on those remarks to portray the committee's investigation as a political witch hunt against her — a charge GOP leaders have denied.
Clinton and other top presidential candidates — including Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republicans Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson — will appear on several of the talk shows.
Here's the full lineup:
CBS' Face the Nation: Benghazi committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., will talk about what he hopes to learn from Clinton's testimony Thursday. The panel's top Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, will discuss his recent suggestion that it's time for the committee to wrap up its work. Democratic strategist David Axelrod will analyze the recent Democratic presidential debate and whether there is still room for Vice President Joe Biden to enter the race.
Fox News Sunday: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be interviewed by host Chris Wallace.
CNN's State of the Union: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will discuss her campaign with host Jake Tapper. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican candidate for president, also is scheduled to appear.
ABC's This Week: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson will talk about their campaigns. Also, two members of Congress who served in Iraq, Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, will react to President Obama's decision to leave 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan into 2017.
NBC's Meet the Press: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas will discuss his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Cruz raised more than $12 million in contributions in the last quarter and has been rising in some recent polls. Two members of the Benghazi committee, Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., will talk about Clinton's upcoming appearance before the panel.
WUSA9’s Capital Download with Derek McGinty and Susan Page: Tad Devine, Bernie Sanders' political strategist, will discuss the Vermont senator's campaign.