CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BOB SCHIEFFER: And now from the campus of Clemson University in South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham. Senator Graham, I want to start with this, what Senator Reid just said. He-- he suggested, I asked him, I said, are Speaker Boehner and the mainstream Republicans, the people that have been around here a while just afraid of the Tea Party. And he said, well, that's a pretty good choice of words. Are you afraid of the Tea Party?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-South Carolina/Armed Services Committee/Budget Committee): No, I think they're an important part of the Republican coalition. But Democratic friends should be afraid of the public. How did you lose the House in such overwhelming numbers? How did you lose so many Senate seats? It was about spending, the size and scope
of government, rejection of Obamacare. So our friends in the House, Speaker Boehner who replaced Speaker Pelosi is doing what the American people want in the last election trying to reduce the size and scope of the government, which is a goal shared by the Tea Party. But you can't account for the last election based on a narrow view of America. Americans as a whole are very upset about the size and scope of the federal government. We're trying to reduce spending and our Democratic friends are hanging on to old ideas that every time you try to reduce spending you're being cruel and mean. What's cruel and mean is to pass this debt on--
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): All right.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: --to our future generations.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Senator, let me ask you the same question I asked sen-- Senator Reid, because I know you're heavily involved in some of these negotiations. Do you think next Sunday, we're going to talk about the government being shutdown or will you have found some sort of a way to get together?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I think we'll get together. I think there are enough Red State Democrats, who do not want to take this fight any further. They do want to be seen as reducing spending. We're talking about twelve percent of the budget. Harry is right about that. The 2012 budget on the Republican side will be talking about reducing the size of government by trillions not just billions. But I think we'll find consensus. We've already reduced spending by ten billion dollars. The two CRs that we passed cut spending more than any Congress in the history of America in terms of rescission. So I think we'll find common ground there, enough Democrats
out there who understand they need to be on the right side of reducing the federal government and we'll find a number that we can all agree on.
BOB SCHIEFFER: I want to get to this Afghanistan thing. General Petraeus today condemned the actions of this Florida preacher, who-- who burned the Koran. You heard what Senator Reid said.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yeah.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Is there anything that actually can be done along this line?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: You know I wish we could find some way to-- to-- to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea but we're in a war. During World War II, you had limits on what you could say if it would inspire the enemy. So burning a Koran is a terrible thing. But it doesn't justify killing someone. Burning a bible would be a terrible thing but it doesn't justify murder. But having said that, any time we can push back here in America against actions like this that put our troops at risk we ought to do it. So I look forward to working with Senator Kerry and Reid and others to condemn this, condemn violence all over the world based in the name of religion. But General Petraeus understands better than anybody else in America what happens when something like this is done in our country. And he was right to condemn it.
And I think Congress would be right to reinforce what General Petraeus said.
BOB SCHIEFFER: We saw the report from Liz Palmer, a turmoil all across the Middle East--
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yeah.
BOB SCHIEFFER: --this morning. Is it time to arm the rebels in Libya and go directly after Qaddafi?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, I think it's time to go directly after Qaddafi. If you had TOW missiles given to the rebels in Libya, they could fight the tanks in addition to air power but this strategy that President Obama has come up with, I think, is not going to defeat a determined enemy. The question is, is Qaddafi determined? The strategy is confusing to the
American people. Only twenty-one percent believe President Obama has a clear view of how to handle Libya. It's demoralizing to our allies, particularly people on the ground that we're trying to help. And I think it's encouraging to our enemies. So this strategy is going to lead to a stalemate. And we should be taking the fight to Tripoli. You don't need ground troops but we
should take the aerial campaign to Tripoli to go after Qaddafi's inner circle. They live like kings, go after them, do go after their propaganda machine. The way to end this war is to have Qaddafi's inner circle to crack. The way to get his inner circle to crack is to go after them directly.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So you're calling-- you say what we need to do is air strikes on-- on Qaddafi and his people?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Absolutely. I think he's an international war criminal. I don't believe he's a legitimate leader of the Libyan people. His inner circle is in a bit of disarray. They would be in more disarray if we take the fight to Tripoli. We're going to have a stalemate if we don't change our strategy. The strategy should be to help the rebels help themselves, provide
arms when it makes sense, to take the best air force in the world and park it during this fight is outrageous. When we call for a no-fly zone, we didn't mean our planes. So tomorrow, the American Air Force is out of this fight and as much as I respect our na-- NATO allies, you take a lot of capacity off the table by grounding our airplanes. And that's going to make this war go
longer. I want it to end quickly with one goal in mind, replacing Qaddafi by something that will be better. And I'm confident that what you see in the Arab world, Bob, is a good thing if we manage it well. These people throughout the Arab world are saying, enough to tyranny, enough to
despots, we want a better future, a future that we can recognize and associate ourselves with.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Senator, you know, when a story like this happens and we got two big stories now, the-- the situation in Japan and the situation in Libya, it tends to just sort of overwhelm the rest of the news. And a lot of things--
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yeah.
BOB SCHIEFFER: --that would be getting coverage, don't get coverage. One of those is-- is Iraq. I'm told that you're concerned about what's happening in-- in Iraq right now. Why so?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, I'm deeply concerned. We're inside the ten-yard line in terms of finishing the job in Iraq. But in 2011, all troops are supposed to leave Iraq, American troops. I do not believe the State Department can carry on their mission of helping the Iraqi government and people, reconstitute their society to help them build a civil society without
American forces there to provide security, air-- air power, logistical support the Iraqi army. This idea of being pushed that we'll have State Department army, I will not vote for that. I will not support that. We need American troops in 2012, ten to fifteen thousand, left behind in Iraq to provide to security to our people who are helping the Iraqi people maintain air superiority to have an edge against Iran. And to make sure that the Iraqi army--
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): What--
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: You-- you say a State Department army. What are-- you're
going to have to explain that. What are you talking about?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well--
BOB SCHIEFFER: What are they planning here?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, here's the back-up plan. If all military forces have withdrawn from Iraq in 2011, the State Department has come to the Congress and said we're going to need over fifty MRAPs, mine resistant vehicles. We need a fleet of helicopters and thousands of private security guards to protect us as we go to the four consulates in Iraq to do our job to help the Iraqis build a civil society out of a dictatorship. I think that is a losing formula.
I do not believe the State Department should have an army, that that that's not the way to provide security to our State Department. That if we're not smart enough to work with the Iraqis to have ten to fifteen thousand American troops in Iraq in 2012, Iraq could go to hell.
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Are-- are you--
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: There are fights now between Kurds and the Arabs.
BOB SCHIEFFER: I-- I -- I'm sorry. But I find this a-- a hard to believe. Are you talking about we're going to arm our diplomats and put them in these kinds of vehicles that people are driving around in Iraq now?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Yeah. You-- you-- you've got it, Bob. That we're going to have private security guards providing security. I think American soldiers and the Iraqi army should provide security. We're talking about helicopters, a fleet of helicopters so they can get around to the four consulates, spread throughout Iraq. We're talking about MRAPs, mine resistant vehicles bought by the State Department, a mini State Department army. We've never done that before. That will fail. I'm urging the Obama administration to work with the Maliki administration in Iraq, to make sure that we have enough troops ten to fifteen thousand beginning in 2012, to
secure the gains we've achieved to make sure Iran doesn't interfere with the Iraqi sovereignty and-- and to develop this country. We can't do it with a State Department army and I will not support that. This is a defining moment in the future of Iraq. And the Obama administration has the wrong strategy in libity-- Libya and in my view they're-- they're going down the wrong road
when it comes to Iraq.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, I find all of it hard to believe. We have about twenty seconds, senator. I want to go back to make sure I understand what you said about-- about Libya. You're ready to give missiles to the rebels there?
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: I think TOW missiles-- I'm ready to look at arming them to help themselves. We need American air power back into the fight and we need to take the fight to Tripoli. Go after his inner circle. That's the way to end this war decisively and quickly. The strategy we have is going to lead to a stalemate. It needs to change. Help the rebels, take the fight to Tripoli. Get this thing over with. Qaddafi must go. It would be a disaster to keep him in power.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, you certainly made some news this morning, senator. I'll give you that. Thank you so much--
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source