--- title: Hillary Clinton Ad Hits Kevin McCarthy Over Benghazi Comment description: California Rep. Kevin McCarthy isn't even Speaker yet, and he's already starring in a negative ad from Hillary Clinton. canonical: https://time.com/4062648/hillary-clinton-ad-benghazi-kevin-mccarthy/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-06T14:05:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:28.313Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Hits House Republicans on Benghazi in Ad og:description: She argues they've politicized the issue. og:url: https://time.com/4062648/hillary-clinton-ad-benghazi-kevin-mccarthy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt090a982cfb0dfedb/698867030a4a228ab39c66a5/hillary-clinton-ad-kevin-mccarthy-benghazi.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) delivers brief remarks during a news conference following the weekly House GOP conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol June 10, 2015 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Hits House Republicans on Benghazi in Ad twitter:description: She argues they've politicized the issue. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt090a982cfb0dfedb/698867030a4a228ab39c66a5/hillary-clinton-ad-kevin-mccarthy-benghazi.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Hits House Republican Leader in New Ad > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 6, 2015 2:05 PM UTC  House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) delivers brief remarks during a news conference following the weekly House GOP conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol June 10, 2015 in Washington, DC. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) delivers brief remarks during a news conference following the weekly House GOP conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol June 10, 2015 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 6, 2015 2:05 PM UTC California Rep. Kevin McCarthy isn’t even Speaker yet, and he’s already starring in a negative ad from Hillary Clinton. The Republican frontrunner to lead the House of Representatives is off to a rocky start after he bungled a television interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week, saying that a special committee on Benghazi helped bring Clinton’s poll numbers down. “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” the current House majority leader told Hannity. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not fought.” **Read More:** [_John Boehner Exits and a New Fight for the GOP Begins_](http://time.com/4057298/boehner-exits-and-a-new-fight-for-the-gop-begins/) Clinton has hammered the point since then, arguing that McCarthy’s comments show the Benghazi investigation is [trying to make](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/05/kevin-mccarthys-big-benghazi-mistake-was-exactly-what-hillary-clinton-needed/) “a partisan political issue out of the deaths of four Americans.” Her new ad takes that line to the airwaves too. The ad shows news footage about the gaffe as well as a brief segment of McCarthy’s interview, arguing that it shows “Republicans finally admit it.” “Republicans have spent millions attacking Hillary because she’s fighting for everything they oppose, from affordable health care to equal pay,” the ad says. “She’ll never stop fighting for you and the Republicans know it.” Republicans plan to meet Thursday, where McCarthy may be endorsed as speaker. But he will need 218 Republican votes on Oct. 29 to get the job, and his rival for the post, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, says he is confident McCarthy will not get the votes. **Read Next:** [_New Fight Over House Speaker Exposes Power of Conservative GOP Rebels_](http://time.com/4060782/house-speaker-jason-republican-chaffetz-kevin-mccarthy/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4062648/hillary-clinton-ad-benghazi-kevin-mccarthy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4062648/hillary-clinton-ad-benghazi-kevin-mccarthy/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Hits House Republican Leader in New Ad","datePublished":"2015-10-06T14:05:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:28.313Z","description":"California Rep. 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