Sounding like a lunatic, and acting as sleazy as possible, Sen. Lindsey Graham said that President Obama and the White House are disconnected from reality on Benghazi.
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BOB SCHIEFFER: This email only came to light this week following a lawsuit. It was not sent to congress as part of the continuing investigations up there. And you’ve called it a smoking gun. Senator, a smoking gun of what?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, I think a couple things. Twenty months after the attack, the most important thing really is that it required an independent judiciary to present this email to the American people. If it were up to the White House, you would have never known about this email.
Congress subpoenaed all documents relating to Benghazi in August, and 20 months later they’re hiding things. I mean, they say this email doesn’t matter. These are the same people that tried to hide it. What does it matter? Well, this is the messaging email. They’re trying to prepare Susan Rice for a Sunday TV appearance.
This email was on Friday, the 14th of September, three days after the attack. She was goin’ on all five shows on Sunday. And what was the purpose of this email? To protect the White House politically from the damage that could’ve been done from the truth coming out about Benghazi, six, seven weeks before the election. To underscore it wasn’t a foreign policy failure, that a protest caused by a video, and the consulate itself was strongly, substantially and significantly secured.
They were trying to create an impression to the American people that this wasn’t a broader foreign policy failure and it was totally disconnected from reality on the ground. They were trying to protect the President’s re-election. They saw Benghazi, I think, Bob, as a threat to his re-election. It wasn’t a fog of war problem they had. They created a political smoke screen.
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BOB SCHIEFFER: As you well know, critics on the other side are saying that Republicans are just using this for political politics, that this is just all politics. It’s been investigated and investigated, and now Speaker Boehner is going to have yet another investigation. What do you say in response to that?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: I would say that if it weren’t for an independent judiciary we would never know about this email, that clearly demonstrates the White House tried to shift the story away from a coordinated terrorist attack of an unsecured facility to a video that caused a protest of a strongly secured facility that they really couldn’t be held responsible to.
I would say to anybody who believes that this is just about politics, “Go tell that to the family members. Go explain to the family members how it’s okay for the White House to withhold information from the congress and the American people.” And thank God for an independent judiciary.
Go tell the family members that it’s okay for Susan Rice to get on national TV five days after the attack and claim that the facility where their people died, where their loved ones died, were strongly secured when it was a death trap. And explain to the families this video Internet story that helped the President’s re-election was so far from the truth it makes you mad.
So anybody plays politics with Benghazi is going to get burned. So if we’re playing politics with Benghazi, then we’ll get burned. If our Democratic friends are shielding the administration and trying to protect them and the administration tried to protect themselves, their re-election because they couldn’t stand the truth about Benghazi, then they’ll get burned.
Sen. Graham (R-SC) did a few things that all conspiracy theorists due. He asked lots of questions, and he no facts to back up his conclusions. Earlier this week Graham called President Obama and the White House scumbags, when the real scumbag in this situation is Lindsey Graham. Sen. Graham lied about his military service overseas during the first Gulf War, and now he is using the bodies of four dead Americans for political gain.
Republicans have no evidence to back up their Benghazi conspiracy theory. It has been nearly two years since the attack, and they have nothing to support their claims. The real scumbags in this situation are the desperate Republicans who are catering to the far right zanies in their party in order to keep their seats.
Lindsey Graham is being dishonest for the sake of personal political gain. His Benghazi spiel sounds crazy, but crazy is what gets a Republican elected in a red state, and Sen. Graham doesn’t care how scummy he has to get in order to keep his seat.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
