The presiding officer are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote . On this vote the yeas are 53, the nays are 42. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote on the hazel nomination. Does anyone yield back their time . Is there objection . Without objection. Is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The question is on the hazel nomination. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote the presiding officer are there any other senators wishing to vote or change their vote . On this vote, the ayes are 95, the nays are 0. The nomination is confirmed. Mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. The senate will come to order. Mr. Reid mr. President , were going to have one more recorded vote. The next vote will be monday at 5 30. Well have two votes at that time. The presiding officer under the previous order, the clerk will report the snierd nomination. The clerk Janice Marion snierd of new york to be assistant secretary. The presiding officer there are now two minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote on the schneider nomination. Is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The yeas and nays have been ordered is there objection . Without objection, all time is yielded back. The question occurs on the schneider nomination. The yeas and nays have been ordered, and the clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote the presiding officer are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote . If not, on this vote the ayes are 64, the nays are 32. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the clerk will report the levine nomination. The Clerk Department of state, suzang. Levine of washington to be ambassador to the swiss confederation. The presiding officer under the previous order, there will be two minutes of debate prior to a vote on the levine nomination. Who yields back time . Is there objection . Without objection. All time is yielded back. The question is on the nomination. All those in favor say aye. All opposed say nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The nomination is confirmed. Mr. Mccain mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from arizona. Mr. Mccain mr. President , i ask unanimous consent to address the senate in a colloquy with the senator from South Carolina as if in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mccain mr. President , 19 months ago, a terrible thing happened in benghazi, libya. Four brave americans were murdered, and the issue has never been not only resolved but as each of the last 19 months has ensued, the issue of how and under what circumstances this heinous crime was committed continues, and the senator from South Carolina and i, the senator from New Hampshire and some others have vowed we will never give up on this issue until the truth is known and the people who perpetrated it are brought to justice. We have seen another page turn in this chapter of coverup and obfuscation by this administration by the belated 19 months later release of the following emails. First one we will not pay much attention to. This is from the benjamin rhodes, who is supposed to be the Public RelationsPublic Affairs office for the National Security council. In fact, he is obviously the propaganda organ. The purpose, the goals as he states them to underscore that these protests are rooted in an internet video and not a broader failure of policy. I tell my colleagues that that was not a fact. That was not a fact. There was no evidence that these protests were rooted in an internet video. In fact, the station chief before these talking points were made up sent a message, this is not a spontaneous demonstration. To show that we will be resolute in bringing harm to americans in justice, steadfast to these protests to reinforce the president s strength and steadiness, thats all about the president ial campaign. Its not about trying to find out who perpetrated this heinous crime. Its not about trying to respond to the people who committed these acts. In fact, because of the coverup and the obfuscation and now 19month delay, not a Single Person who was responsible for the murder of these four brave americans has been brought to justice, as the president promised that they that they would. So yesterday, mr. Carney says well, that it was that this was not the release of this information had nothing to do with the attack on benghazi. My friends, i have seen a lot of strange things in my time, but that has to be the most bizarre statement that i have ever observed. This is all about a president ial campaign. This is all about an effort to convince the American People that the president of the United States had everything under control. The next day after the sunday talk show, susan rice said al qaeda has been decimated, false, that the embassy was safe and stable and secure, false, and of course the whole issue of blaming an internet video lasted on and on for a couple of weeks when it was clear that the evidence did not indicate it. I would yield to my friend from South Carolina on this issue, and i will return. Mr. Graham okay. Thank you. The presiding officer the senator from South Carolina. Mr. Graham this email to remind the body of what were talking about, this email was released as a result of a lawsuit, not voluntarily by the white house. In august of last year, the house of representatives, the committees of jurisdiction subpoenaed all documents related to benghazi, and basically were stiffarmed. Senator mccain, ayotte and myself have written enough letters to destroy a small forest to the white house with nothing to show for it virtually. There was a private Organization CalledJudicial Watch who sued under the freedom of information act and an independent judiciary thank god for that ordered this white house to disclose this email just days ago. Knowing that the email was going to come out, the white house provided it to the congress a few days ago. What does that tell us . That tells us that they did not want you to know about this email, and they talk about 25,000 documents they provided. It doesnt matter the number of documents you provided to the congress. You could have provided us the benghazi phone book. Its the relevance of the documents and the significance of the documents, and the reason they did not want you, me and anyone else to know about this email, because its the smoking gun that shows that people at the White House Level now, these are people that work for the white house, for the administration were very intent on shaping the story about benghazi away from what they knew to be the truth. And heres the problem for the white house. This was seven weeks before an election. President obama had said repeatedly bin ladens dead, al qaeda is on the run, the war is receding, my Foreign Policy is working. Many of us were critical of president obamas Foreign Policy, particularly in libya because africa daffy fell, after qadhafi fell, we did nothing to secure the country. Senator mccain and a couple of others and myself, senator rubio, went in 2011 to libya and we said in an oped piece if we dont get rid of these militias, libya is going to become a safe haven for terrorists. And you have got to understand this about the benghazi consulate it had been previously attacked in april of 2012. The British Ambassador had been attacked in june of 2012. The british closed their consulate. The red cross closed their office because they had been attacked, and we have got email traffic coming from libya to washington at the state Department Level saying in august saying on august 16, we cannot secure the benghazi consulate from a coordinated terrorist attack, and al qaeda flags are flying all over benghazi. What they did not want you to know was the consulate in benghazi was very unsecured, everyone else had left the town and that the numerous requests for security enhancements going back for months had been denied. They didnt want to you know that because it would make the American People mad that the facility was so unsecured in such a dangerous area and people in washington constantly ignored requests for additional security. Heres what they wanted you to know. To convey that the United States is doing everything we can to protect our people and facilities abroad. That, to me, is the worst of the whole email because theyre trying to convey to the American People the families of the fallen that these things happen but we did all we could to protect your family and those who serve this nation. Nothing could be more untruthful about benghazi than this statement that they did everything they could to secure the facility. And the question as to whether or not this email relates to benghazi was the most offensive thing coming out of the white house in quite a while. No one else died. There was an attack on an embassy in cairo with property damage. What do you think susan rice was going to be asked about on sunday, 16 september . Everybody in the nation wanted to know how our ambassador and three other brave americans died. To suggest they werent trying to prepare her to talk about the deaths of an american three americans, four americans is just insulting to our intelligence, but the document itself tells you it was directed toward explaining benghazi. To show that we will be resolute in bringing people who harm americans to justice, that was part of what they wanted her to convey. No one else was hurt, other than benghazi. So within the document itself, they are talking about reinforcing the view that we will go after those who harmed americans. The only people who were harmed, the four People Killed were in benghazi. So thats just a baldfaced lie, thats insulting our intelligence, and it really is disrespectful to those who died in the line of duty to suggest this email they would not give us without a court order had nothing to do with the death of four americans. It had everything to do mr. Mccain i might add that all of the emails were supposed to be given to the congress in return for the confirmation of mr. Brennan as head of the c. I. A. They didnt do that. Mr. Graham no. The bottom line here is the goals set out in this email are to try to convince the American People seven weeks before an election we had done Everything Possible to protect our people and facilities, to underscore that the protests were rooted in an internet video and not a broader failure of policy. Im here to tell you, and i dare anybody to show you where im wrong, there is no evidence of a protest outside the compound that led to an eventual attack. I have talked to the man in charge of security at benghazi. The only survivor i have been able to talk to. He told me that when the ambassador went to bed shortly after 9 00, there was nobody outside the compound that would not have let him go to bed if there would have been protesters and they would have reported up to the chain of command a protest. Mr. Mccain and the next day, the station chief sent a message there was not, slash, not a spontaneous demonstration. Mr. Graham that was the 15th, so i will get to that in a second. So this is in real time. People are reporting a coordinated terrorist attack. There was no protest. The video had nothing to do with this because there were no protests. Why was this . They are far less culpable in the eyes of the American People and myself if, in fact, this was caused by a video we had nothing to do with, a protest that you could not see coming. The truth of the matter is this was a coordinated terrorist attack that you could see coming for months, and it was a result of a broader failure of policy. Why did they not want to admit that. They are seven weeks out. It undercuts everything they were trying to tell the American People about their Foreign Policy. This is the smoking gun that shows they were consciously trying to manipulate the evidence to steer the story away from a coordinated terrorist attack of the security into the land of the internet video, causing a protest. That, to me, is unacceptable and is clear as the sun rises in the east for those who care. Now i will go to this and turn it back to senator mccain. President obama after this attack said the following but everything that every piece of information we get, as we got it, we laid it out for the American People. I am here to tell you that that statement has not borne scrutiny, that this administration did not live up to this statement. Heres another statement. From jay carney. I can tell you that the president believes that ambassador rice has done an excellent job as the United States ambassador to the united nations, and i believe that and i know that he believes that everyone here working for him has been transparent in the way that weve tried to answer questions about what happened in benghazi if you were trying to be transparent about what was happening in benghazi, why would you fail to provide the relevant information, the information that was provided was based on the available assessment at the time . Im here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, they have not provided the relevant information. Why . Because the relevant information crumbles the story susan rice told on 16 september, crumbles the story of the president himself when weeks later he talked about a protest caused by video that never happened. The reason they havent shared this with us is because it exposes the lie of benghazi. And i will end with this thought. You would not know today about an email on 14 september setting goals for susan rice to meet on 16 september to change the whole narrative if it were not for an independent judiciary and a private organization. This white house has stiffed the congress. Mostly the media has been awol. But the reason we havent stopped is because weve met the families. To any member of the congress who thinks benghazi is a republican conspiracy designed to help Lindsey Graham or anyone else get elected, why dont you go to the family members and explain to them what happened . Why dont you tell the family members that your government the government was upfront and honest and see if they will believe you. This email that came from a court requiring the white house to disclose it is devastating. Its devastating because it shows that three days after the attack, their goal was not to inform the American People of what happened but to shape the story to help the president get reelected. And i hope and pray that matters to the American People, and i believe it does. And i hope and pray that our friends on the democratic side will start taking a little bit of interest, because i can tell you this about senator mccain and myself. When president bushs policies in iraq were crumbling, we did not have enough troops and john mccain, to his credit, said that publicly and asked for the resignation of president bushs secretary of defense because of failed policy. When we discovered the abuses at Guantanamo Bay and abu ghraib when it came to detainee policy, both of us stood up and said the system failed. Dont believe it when they tell you this was a few bad apples. Why did we do that . Ive been a military lawyer for 31 years. It means a lot to me to adhere to the conventions weve signed up to. Senator mccain, if there was ever an American Hero in the senate, its him, whos lived through a country that practices torture and he did not want us to go down that road. When we did those things, we were great americans holding the system accountable and doing the country a service. Now all of a sudden were just party hacks. Im here to tell you, what drove us then drives us now. When you ask people to serve in faraway places with strange sounding names and to go out on the tip of the sphere, you owe it to help them if you can, give them the best ability to survive and if something bad happens, you owe their families the truth. Just as in iraq, they tried to shape the story in a fashion that did not bear scrutiny. It wasnt a few deadenders. It was system failure that led to the collapse of iraq. And thank god we changed tactics and we overcame our problems. This benghazi story is about a Foreign Policy choice called the lightfoot print that caught up with this administration. Its about an administration that said no to additional security requests because they didnt want to be like bush. It was a story about an administration too stubborn to react to facts on the ground, that kept a consulate open when everybody else closed theirs, unsecured, believing that ignoring the problem would solve the problem. We have now found evidence of their willingness, desire to change the narrative from a coordinated terrorist attack of an unsecured facility to something they really couldnt control and they did the best they could seven weeks before an election. And all i can say, if the shoe were on the other 23509 and this had been the bush administration, it would be frontpage news everywhere and our colleagues on the other side would be up screaming. And it is sad to me that it hasnt been news everywhere and its sad to me that my democratic colleagues in the house in particular have disdain for trying to find out what happened in benghazi. Mr. Mccain and the fact is, i would say to my friend, the time has now come for a select committee. The time has now come because these talking points raise more questions than answers. It is time for a bipartisan, bicameral select committee to investigate the entire benghazi fiasco and tragedy and it needs to be done soon. The American People and the families of those brave ones who sacrificed their lives deserve nothing