CAROL COSTELLO (HOST): A couple of questions for you. This report was released kind of in dribs. Like part of the report was released earlier this morning. And then between 8:00 and 9:00 A.M. eastern time, the whole report was dumped. Why was it done that way?

REP. PETER ROSKAM (R-IL): I don't know. I think there was a larger effort to get the information out in ways that were sequential and that made sense and there were some pre-arrangements with some news outlets, but I think the larger point is this: America asks its citizens to go to dangerous places and do difficult things. And they do that willingly. And that happens with members of the military and the clandestine services and diplomats, and they go understanding that it's dangerous, and the deal that we make with them essentially is, if the wheels come off the cart and they're at risk, everything will be deployed to save them. And the point of the Benghazi committee is, that didn't happen, and it is drawing a very stark contrast between the heroism on the ground, and these stories are just unbelievable, the eyewitness accounts of the severity of the attack, the thickness of the smoke, the confusion of the event in its totality, and the seemingly lack of urgency that took place in Washington, D.C. And moving forward, we've got to make sure that never happens again.

COSTELLO: And, Congressman, you're right, this is a very important investigation. But I think that people are confused about it, and I'll give you an example of why. So, actually, two reports on Benghazi are going to be released today, and also an addendum, and this is on the same investigation. The addendum is written by conservatives on the Benghazi committee who don't think the report is critical enough of Hillary Clinton. A separate report was released by the Democrats on that Benghazi committee because they say they were left out of the process. That report clears Clinton of all wrongdoing. And, as you just heard, Dana said the whole report is going to bereleased by the Republicans on the Benghazi committee at the top of the next hour. So, which report should voters believe? 

ROSKAM: Here's, I think, the larger point. It's not unlike a Supreme Court opinion. You have a majority opinion, sometimes you have concurring opinions, you have a minority opinion. For the Democrats to claim that they were not a part of this process is a conclusion that they're coming to of their own choosing. Remember, this is the group of people that said we shouldn't have this report. Every question has been asked, they said. Every question has been answered. Every witness has been interviewed, we were told by the Democrats on the committee, and there’s no new information  --

COSTELLO: But conservative Republicans on the committee are going to release their own addendum. They don't agree with the report either.

ROSKAM: Well they agree with the lion's -- They agree with the report. They're not objecting to the report. You can ask them specifically about their, essentially, concurring opinion. But as Dana pointed out a minute ago, what they're trying to do is highlight and bring into contrast some of the political issues that the main report doesn't do. It doesn't mitigate, though, it doesn’t mitigate any -- 

CAROL COSTELLO: Does a part of you wish that those conservative Republicans wouldn't do that and talk about the politics of this, when [Rep.] Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is trying to make this non-political?

ROSKAM: Not for a second. Look, here's the point: Washington failed. Washington completely was acting as if that was somebody else's family that was under attack. The officials in Washington, from the State Department to the White House to you name it, the Department of Defense, were slow-moving. There was never a force that was going to be deployed to Benghazi. That’s what the report finds.  Never. Isn’t that shocking? Isn’t that jarring, the notion that these people were basically told possibly somebody is coming to rescue you, and nobody was ever coming to rescue them? That’s the scandal that we need to focus on, and that’s the scandal we need to make sure never happens again.

COSTELLO: OK, so there was an Accountability Review Board. It made 29 recommendations to the State Department. The State Department adopted 28 recommendations. Now that the report is out, what's the endgame? What should happen? What needs to happen? Should there be more recommendations? Should the State Department change – institute changes, more changes? Like, what's the endgame here?

ROSKAM: The endgame here is, number one, to have a thorough understanding of what actually happened. And it means spending several hours -- and as Trey Gowdy pointed out a couple minutes ago, that reading this report, the totality of the report, is about the same time as our soldiers were sitting on a tarmac waiting for aircraft to take them to do the rescue mission. So, it's not too much to ask people to read the entire report. Secondly we've got to recognize that there has to be an immediate urgency. So, for example, the president of the United States issues an order at 5:00 P.M. It's followed up by a subsequent order by the secretary of defense at 7:00 P.M., and that information is not transmitted through the entire Department of Defense for hours. In the meantime, new information, we learn that there was a White House meeting where they spent the lion's share of their discussion talking about a video which was never part of the point in the first time. So, here we've got people that are taking their eyes off the ball --

COSTELLO: So should there be consequences -- what consequences? I mean, should somebody be charged for  -- what consequences should there be for this?

ROSKAM: The consequences of a tragedy are unfortunately borne by the people in the families of those who lost their lives. They bear the burden here. 

COSTELLO: I guess I’m talking about who should be punished, for lack of a word, because of all of these mistakes that were made? 

ROSKAM: The entire system failed them. [Ambassador] Chris Stevens goes into Benghazi without any diplomatic cover when he first goes in. He's not covered by the ViennaConvention. He's not covered by the normal things -- he's just going in basically on his own. The State Department is fully aware of the nature of the danger. The Diplomatic Security officers say, “we need a more aggressive machine gun to defend ourselves.” They make these repeated requests time and time and time again, and you have bureaucrats in Washington that say, “we're not going to do this.” They' people in Washington were more concerned about the disposition of the Libyans. The rescue forces were forced to change clothes four different times. Should they go in civilian clothes? Should they go in military clothes? Civilian, military. They wasted three hours. Those types of things are absurd. They're scandalous. But you know who bears the burden? The people who bear the burden are the ones who lost their lives, and that's the shame of this. 

Previously:

Don’t Get Spun By Bogus “New Revelations” In The GOP Benghazi Report

Select Committee Democrats Identify Fox News As Vector For Benghazi Misinformation

Democrats’ Benghazi Committee Report Destroys Right-Wing Media Myths

A Comprehensive Guide To Benghazi Myths And Facts