Democrats question motive of special Benghazi committee

As the House prepares to create a special committee Thursday to investigate the 2012 Benghazi attacks, Democrats are considering boycotting the committee, with some questioning its political motives and calling it a kangaroo court.

"There's not going to be a sideshow; there's not going to be a circus," House Speaker John Boehner said.

Boehner also said the White House brought this on itself by withholding some emails about Benghazi for months - until it was forced to release them in a recent lawsuit.

"The White House played a more significant role in the developments of how they were going to describe this, certainly more than anything that had been disclosed thus far," Boehner said.

The new select committee will be chaired by South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy. He will be joined by six other Republicans and five Democrats, if the Democratic Party participates at all.

Democrats argue Benghazi has already been investigated by four separate House committees. Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly sat on two of them.

Connolly thinks the Republicans are doing it for political reasons.

"To keep the base fired up between now and the midterm elections," he said.

Gowdy insists he just wants to know why the administration initially described the terrorist attack as a spontaneous response to an anti-Muslim video. He said he wants to interview former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Some Democrats are torn about whether to participate because if they do they would essentially be condoning the investigation. However, some argue that if they are not involved they will have no say over who gets called to testify and how long this probe lasts.