Graham Discusses Benghazi, IRS on Fox News

well White House is now trying to defend itself a from three potentially major scandals that could rock the Obama administration a second term the

white house press secretary said to face reporters today twelve thirty combat everybody is going to be watching that and

what will this briefing %HESITATION entail here with more on this this morning South Carolina Republican senator

Lindsey Graham member of the Senate Armed Services Committee senator good morning good to have you with us today thank you good morning so

what I do is work our way through these these three issues %HESITATION and get your reaction and and what Congress might do about them let let's start with the first one which is the potential %HESITATION

constitutional first amendment issue of freedom of the press the AP is raving mad about this they're saying that they're reporters and their editors in

their congressional posts %HESITATION coverage spots basically had their phone records %HESITATION investigated

by the justice department just part does department says we take freedom of the press extremely seriously and we would we have not violated anything in

this case what do you think well I think this is something the Congress should look at you know they're they're investigating

who leak classified information about a year for plot in Yemen Dustin appropriate thing for the just apartment to do but

to subpoena %HESITATION documents to go to court to get a subpoena for phone records of people who are supposed to report the news is

the last resort there are a lot of hurdles you have to overcome there's no other way to get the information other than going after the reporters themselves %HESITATION

this sounds a suspicious I think is designed to intimidate people who may come forward in the future to

tell stories that the Obama administration would not like to hear we're going to follow you and if you talk to reporter we're going to know about it sprawling

effort intimidate people in the administration more than anything else yeah you know what what do you think would have been the right for

them to take I mean certainly we've seen them %HESITATION you know ask reporters to turn over their sources before would that not have been the appropriate first step well

the guy lies in department of justice I you do these things from what I understand they kind of just went to the last %HESITATION

option first and again this is a pretty obvious effort made intimidate people within the administration that

were watching you were going to watching you talk to but this is for Congress has a oversight function and I hope will perform alright

let let us talk about and the second issue which really goes to the honesty and integrity of our taxation system in the United States of America which

is a pretty important sacrosanct thing you have to feel that you you're on a level playing field %HESITATION

when you pay your taxes and when you apply for tax exempt status which is what these organizations did yesterday

had wind of this situation what about that well I think you're having %HESITATION power given to the Obama administration by the American people being

impeding the efforts of conservative groups to form unite and convey a message they're

using the power of the Internal Revenue Service to the benefit of the vomit ministrations politically