This is video from yesterday’s session of the Benghazi Special Committee, in which Rep. Trey Gowdy is querying Adm. Mike Mullen, a co-chair of the Accountability Review Board which reviewed the State Department’s actions surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi massacre, on that ARB’s practices.

And as you’ll see, Mullen offers very little in the way of explanation for why that ARB didn’t bother to interview then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was ultimately responsible (or, if you prefer, penultimately responsible, since Clinton’s boss Barack Obama would be ultimately responsible) among American government employees for what happened in that city on that night.

Mullen also offers very little in the way of explanation for his recommendation to Cheryl Mills, who as Gowdy notes was basically Clinton’s lawyer at the State Department, that Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Programs at the U.S. Department of State Charlene Lamb, who was in charge of the State Department office that denied requests for extra security at our Benghazi facility in advance of the attack thereon, would be a “bad” witness. Gowdy gets Mullen to admit that Lamb’s honesty and integrity weren’t in question; in fact, without saying so in as many words Mullen actually admits his recommendation was based on having run departments before and knowing how best to present information for the good of the department.

In other words, how to cover his ass. He knew that Lamb would make the State Department look bad in front of Congress and so while he was co-chairing the ARB he was giving the State Department’s lawyer advice on what evidence to present and what evidence to withhold in an effort to salvage its credibility in the wake of Benghazi.

If you have any faith in our federal government or the Obama administration, or the Clinton State Department, for that matter, after watching this video we’d like some of what you’re drinking.