“I think the report is full of crap,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) of the report released Friday night by the House Intelligence Committee on the 2012 Benghazi attack.
In a testy interview on CNN’S “State of the Union,” Graham blasted the intelligence community for “doing a lousy job policing their own,” while host Gloria Borger tried to argue that there have been enough reports on Benghazi finding that no one lied.
Graham’s response? “That’s a bunch of garbage.”
“This report puts all the blame on the State Department and absolves the intelligence community,” said Graham. “When the Department of Defense looked at it, the Department of Defense was held blameless. At the end of the day, everybody’s pointing fingers at everybody else.”
“That’s why you need a Joint Select Committee, thank God for [Rep.] Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and [Rep.] Elijah Cummings (R-Md.), and when the Intel. Committee says there’s no evidence of manipulating the American people that is absolute garbage. When they say there’s no evidence of CIA personnel mislead[ing] the Congress regarding the talking points, that’s a lie, because I was on the receiving end of the lie.”
“Well let me ask you this – because the American people, after eight investigations, might be saying that it’s enough already,” responded Borger, arguing a point in favor of the report instead of asking a question. “They might be saying this is overkill, that we don’t need another investigation, that we shouldn’t be spending taxpayer money on yet another investigation…”
Graham: “My response is, that if we’re overreaching, if Trey Gowdy and Elijah Cummings are doing this for the wrong reasons, it will blow up in their face[s]. If the things I’m saying about this episode fail to bear fruit, it will blow up in my face. But I know Benghazi pretty well… the people that have been looking at Benghazi… have not come up with what I think is a reasonable explanation for all the shenanigans…”
“And as to our friends on the Intel. Committee in the House, I don’t buy the idea that the Agency did not mislead the Congress --- because I was there when they misled me. I don’t buy the idea that everything was just the State Department’s problem and you had no blame yourselves.”