WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. Lindsey Graham is determined to get more answers about the deadly Sept. 11 attack against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Now the South Carolina Republican says he will hold up Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nominees to head the Pentagon and the CIA until he gets that information.
Graham has accused the White House of “stonewalling” requests to release more information about the attack that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of Benghazi,” he said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The White House has urged quick approval of the president’s second-term national security team and scolded any lawmakers trying to “play politics” with critical nominations.
A Democratic colleague branded Graham’s threat to stall the nominations as “unprecedented and unwarranted.” Senators should have the chance to vote on whether former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., will be defense secretary and whether John Brennan, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, will be CIA director, said Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island.
The White House did not address Graham’s demand for more information, but did note that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified Thursday before Congress about the chaotic day of the attack.
In January, Graham had signaled he would delay Brennan’s pick and told Fox News he would “absolutely” block Hagel unless Panetta and Dempsey testified about Benghazi. The senator said he was “happy as a clam” when he learned the hearing with Panetta and Dempsey had been scheduled.
Republicans have accused the Obama administration of an election-year cover-up and at the hearing several suggested the commander in chief was disengaged as Americans died.
“We know nothing about what the president did on the night of September 11th during a time of national crisis, and the American people need to know what their commander in chief did, if anything, during this eight-hour attack,” Graham said on CBS.
Graham contended that a six-person rescue team was delayed from leaving the Benghazi airport because of problems “with the militias releasing them and a lot of bureaucratic snafus,” and he said he wants to know whether Obama called any Libyan officials to expedite their mission.
