House Republicans have come down on Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for comments he made on Tuesday to Fox News host Sean Hannity, in which he suggested that the Benghazi oversight committee had succeeded in hurting Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

As reported in Fox News, McCarthy, who in all likelihood will be the next speaker of the House of Representatives, spoke of the Benghazi oversight committee as if it were part of that “vast right wing conspiracy” Clinton mentioned in 1998 when she was first lady. 

"Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?" McCarthy rhetorically asked, before saying, "But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought."

CNN reports that Republicans were outraged by the remarks, as the GOP had painstakingly tried to keep the focus of the inquiry on the Obama administration's handling of the attacks and not get into the Clinton email scandal at all.

Republicans fear that what McCarthy said may have undercut months of political tact and given Democrats a powerful circumstantial weapon to use against the GOP.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., speaking to CNN, clarified that bringing down Clinton was not the goal of the committee. Issa said, "Any ancillary political activity that comes out of it is, in fact, not the goal of the committee and is not what the committee is seeking to do."

Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who said he totally disagrees with McCarthy’s comments, went so far as to say that this slip-up might ultimately mar McCarthy’s chances of becoming speaker.

McCarthy, who at 50 has had a decidedly rapid political assent, was actually shadowed by Kevin Spacey, when the actor wanted to prepare for his role as Frank Underwood on the Netflix series “House of Cards.”

The New York Times reports that Clinton said she found McCarthy’s comments regarding her “deeply distressing.”