House Democrats on Wednesday failed to pass legislation that would have shut down the Select Committee on Benghazi in wake of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy's inadvertent admission that the panel was formed by Republicans in order to detract from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York introduced the "privileged resolution" on Tuesday to force the House to take a vote on killing the panel. However, the House rejected the measure in a 240-183 procedural vote Wednesday afternoon, reports NBC News.

The "privileged resolution" came after Rep. McCarthy confessed that the panel is merely a political tool being used to undermine Clinton's presidential bid.

"Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee, [and] 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," he said during an interview with Fox News.

Following his comments, Slaughter presented the resolution which included a list of grievances that Democrats have against the Benghazi panel, and specifically called out McCarthy for his remarks.

"Whereas a widely-quoted statement made on September 29th, 2015 by Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Leader of the House of Representatives, has called into question the integrity of the proceedings of the Select Committee and the House of Representatives as a whole," read one part of the resolution.

"Whereas this statement by Representative McCarthy demonstrates that the Select Committee established by Republican leaders in the House of Representatives was created to influence public opinion of a presidential candidate," read another part.

The measure also argued that the use of taxpayer dollars for "political purposes undermines the integrity of the proceedings of the House and brings discredit to the House." Since it began 17 months ago, the committee has cost taxpayers more than $4.5 million. It also has no end in sight. Plus, Clinton is scheduled to testify before the Benghazi committee on Oct. 22.

"This is a terrible abuse of taxpayer dollars. Enough is enough, it's time to shut down the Benghazi Select Committee. If the Committee continues its abusive investigation, Democrats will have to consider how long our continued participation makes sense. We have no interest in lending legitimacy to a committee devoid of any," Rep. Adam Schiff, who sits on the select committee, said Wednesday in a statement, according to The Huffington Post.