Hillary Clinton’s Last Appearance Before Congress? Another Benghazi Hearing

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to testify on the Benghazi attacks on Jan. 22, in a hearing that could be her last appearance before Congress as chief of U.S. diplomacy.

Sen. Bob Corker, the ranking Republican member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday that Clinton’s hearing could probably take place that morning.

“I think they feel she is going to be healthy enough to come in that day,” Corker said. “If that were to occur, we could move very quickly – maybe even that afternoon – to Sen. [John] Kerry’s hearings and have those right after. So my sense is the process that most of us would like to see could take place. … She is anxious to want to come up and testify on Benghazi. I think that is an important thing both for her and obviously for our country and very important to happen prior to the Kerry confirmation and I think it’s going to happen that way.”

John Kerry has been nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed Clinton, who is retiring, as secretary of state.

Clinton was scheduled to go before Congress in December but fell ill and was unable to appear in person. Instead, she sent her deputies.

The U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, came under heavy attack last Sept. 11, resulting in the deaths of four Americans. U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens was killed in the assault.

Republicans have criticized the State Department for failing to provide adequate security at that U.S. mission before the attack, especially as there was a series of security incidents in surrounding areas months prior that could have been an indication of imminent danger.