Rep. Peter King said Saturday that General David Petraeus eventually will have to answer congressional questions about the administration’s handling of the Sept. 11 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya, that claimed the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
“I strongly believe that General Petreaus has to testify, if not this week, then the following week or sometime very soon because it’s not the CIA director who has to testify, it’s the person who was involved at the time of Benghazi. And that was David Petreaus,” the New York congressman told Fox News on Saturday.
Mr. Petreaus stepped down as CIA director on Friday, citing an extramarital affair in his resignation letter, but Republicans, including Mr. King, contend that the general’s resignation should not preclude him from speaking to House and Senate committees looking into the Obama administration’s handling of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The acting director of the CIA, Mike Morell, is expected to take the general’s place at the closed door intelligence committee hearings set for Thursday on Capitol Hill.
Mr. King, like many Republicans this week, said he has unanswered questions about the timing of the Petraeus resignation, coming just days after the re-election on Tuesday of President Obama.
“I have a hard time accepting the whole story,” the New York congressman, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Saturday on MSNBC.
The general carried on the affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, a reserve Army officer, according to the Associated Press. The FBI discovered the relationship by monitoring Mr. Petraeus’ emails, after being alerted Ms. Broadwell may have had access to his personal email account.
