FOX "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" - Transcript - Benghazi

Interview

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VAN SUSTEREN: And Senator Lindsey Graham says when you hear more from the State Department whistleblowers this week, it's going to make you mad. Senator Graham joins us. Nice to see you, sir.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: It's going to make you mad.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, before we get to the question of the State Department whistleblowers testifying on Wednesday...

GRAHAM: Right.

VAN SUSTEREN: ... we have information that people from the CIA want to come out and testify, but they've been told by the CIA director Brennan specifically they will be polygraphed if they are tied to this. Do you have any information to corroborate that?

GRAHAM: I've heard that same story. I know there are some CIA agents reaching out. They feel frustrated. The CIA generally got this right, and they feel frustrated about what happened that night before and after. So we'll see where this goes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Are these CIA agents who are on the ground in Benghazi that night, or are these CIA agents -- people -- CIA here in Washington?

GRAHAM: It's my belief that at least one of them was on the ground, but time will tell.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, now...

GRAHAM: The dam's about to break on Benghazi.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. You wrote a letter May 6th to the State Department -- I mean, March 15th to the State Department. Today you're finally getting one back. And it's from the -- Thomas Gibbons, acting assistant secretary, legislative affairs.

And he says, among other things, that -- that -- he says, "The department appreciates your interest in talking to the five State Department diplomatic security agents who survived the attack. At the same time, we have serious concerns about the welfare and want to be careful not to interfere with the FBI's investigation of the attack."

They go on to say, "Should their identities become public, they may become targets, putting their lives, as well as those of their families and the people they protect, at increased risk."

Your response, sir?

GRAHAM: Completely unacceptable. The five people who were diplomatic security have never been talked to by the Congress. It's our job to oversee and provide oversight to the executive branch.

And look what's happened. Thank God for the House, Jason Chaffetz and Darrell Issa pushing this thing. So no, we want the survivors to come forward, and we'll protect their identity. We want to know what happened.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did you -- did -- have -- did the ARB talk to these people, do you know?

GRAHAM: I have no idea. All I know is that what we're knowing -- what we're finding out is that the story told by the State Department, Susan Rice, the president himself was so completely wrong and false.

There's a reason. Why did Susan Rice and the president push this narrative that it was a spontaneous event caused by a hateful video? Because if the truth had come out seven weeks before an election this was an al Qaeda-inspired pre-planned attack, it would undercut the narrative...

VAN SUSTEREN: All right...

GRAHAM: ... politically that bin Laden's dead, we're all safer. Political manipulation is rampant here. It is no accident that the story told by the Washington folks, including the president, was beneficial to the president and disconnected from reality because we can't talk to anybody who actually lived through it. Now you got a guy coming forward called Greg Hicks...

VAN SUSTEREN: Now, you're the first one who spoke to Greg Hicks.

GRAHAM: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: You spoke to him in March. What did he -- what was he likely talking -- like, why hadn't he come forward before March?

GRAHAM: One, he's a professional diplomat, doesn't want to get involved in politics, but he's a man of conscience. He knows what happened that night. He's the last guy to talk to Chris Stevens. He knows it was a terrorist attack from day one.
And what baffles everybody that lived through this is how Washington could tell a story about what they lived through so different than what actually happened on the ground.

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