CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: 2012 Benghazi Attack

Interview

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BOB SCHIEFFER: And we want to go now to Clemson, South Carolina where Republican Senator Lindsay Graham is standing by. And Senator, I want to talk to you about the story that just won't seem to go away, and that is this controversy over Benghazi. I want to talk to you about the email that came to light this week that touched off the new fury on the Republican side over Benghazi.

It was written by Ben Rhodes, a key national security advisor to the president, also in full disclosure mode, we have to say he is the brother of David Rhodes, who is the president of CBS News. But anyway, this email involves talking points that Mr. Rhodes put together for U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice who famously went on the Sunday shows, including this one, right after the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans.

And she said it was a result of a spontaneous demonstration and not a terrorist attack. But the quote from the talking points that Republicans have seized on is, those talking points advised Rice to quote, "underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video and not a broader failure of policy."

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.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, you actually said at one point that they were lying to the American people. What specifically-- what was the lie?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, that the consulate was strongly, substantially and significantly secured. A couple things I would like somebody to explain to me. Who told Susan Rice that this consulate before the attack was strongly, significantly and substantially secured? It was a death trap. On 16 August there was a memo coming from Libya to Washington saying, "We can't withstand a coordinated terrorist attack at the Benghazi consulate because the Al Qaeda flag is flying." Additional numerous requests for security were denied in Washington to the point that the head of security in Libya said he believed the Taliban were working in Washington. Who told her the level of security?

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well--

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: That's a lie. It wasn't secure.

BOB SCHIEFFER: You're saying that's just a lie. That--

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: That was a lie.

BOB SCHIEFFER: That everybody knew that.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Right. And it's a lie that the video caused the protest. The CIA said they never associated the video with the demonstration. Who told the White House that the video was the causal event here? Who told Susan Rice that the video caused the protest when the CIA said they never said that?

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well--

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Where did the White House get this from?

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.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me shift the subject just a little bit. I want to ask you about Ukraine. We'll be going there later in the broadcast to talk to Clarissa Ward for all the latest. But to say the least, things are very dicey there. It seems to be even more dangerous. Should we be doing something that we're not doing now? What's your advice to the administration right now?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, 1) the Ukraine has been dismembered. The election of May 25 cannot go forward. Putin has successfully dismembered the Ukraine and even special forces and intelligence agents could disrupt the Ukraine. I fear now that there will be a civil war.

What the administration should do is punish Putin for what he has done in an effective way. The last round of sanctions, the ruble went up in value. The Russian stock market surged. It should've been called the Russian economic recovery act.

What I would do if I was the administration, I would sanction the energy economy of Russia, the banking system of Russia and try to drive the Russian economy into the ground. And I would have armed the Ukrainian people, no American troops on the ground, so they could defend themselves. I would change the cost benefit analysis.

I would go after Putin's economy and if Russian people are happy with Putin, make them pay a price. President Obama is delusional about what's going on in Ukraine that affects our national security all over the world.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right, well, Senator Graham, we thank you for getting your take this morning. And we'll be back in a minute. I'll have some thoughts on last night's White House Correspondents Dinner.

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