Graham Campaign Press Release - On Boston Herald Radio's Morning Meeting, Graham And McCain Remember 9/11 And Address The Importance Of Defeating ISIL

Alexandria, VA - This morning, on the 14th anniversary of 9/11, Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain joined Boston Herald Radio's Morning Meeting in a joint-interview with Hillary Chabot and Chris Villani. During the show, they discussed Senator McCain joining Graham on the campaign trail this weekend, the 9/11 attacks and how to prevent our homeland from getting hit again, and why Senator McCain believes that Lindsey Graham is the most qualified to be Commander-in-Chief out of the entire 2016 presidential field.

Senators Graham and McCain have been two of the leading critics of President Obama's strategy to "degrade and destroy" ISIL, and they continued to voice their concerns at a national security press conference Friday afternoon in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Listen to the full interview here:

McCain On Graham's Candidacy: "The Day That Lindsey Graham Is Inaugurated As President, It Is Going To Send A Chill Up The Spine Of Mr. Baghdadi."
"Well thank you, it's my pleasure to be with you all and to be back up in New Hampshire. I'm with my friend Lindsey Graham and we're going to do the same thing we did in 2008 and that is to have one on one with the folks of New Hampshire and a lot of good town hall meetings. I believe that in the world we're living in now, it calls more for Lindsey Graham's knowledge, experience and leadership...Lindsey Graham is the happy warrior. He is a happier warrior than I am and he is funnier than I am. I think I've got a pretty good shtick but people are kind of tired of my routine. People come to town halls because they want to primarily see the candidate but they also want to have a little enjoyment and he does a great job at that because he's quick on his feet. But the other thing that is going to come through here is more and more national security is going to be the determinant in the minds of the voters. And they do examine the candidates and the more they see Lindsey Graham the more they are going to appreciate his qualifications... the world is in greater turmoil than any time since WWII...This will be the first election since 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected, that national security has the prominent spot that it does in this election. And there's nobody more qualified, and I've seen a lot of them...But the fact is that we need a leader who can hit the ground on inauguration day and hit it running.

"...I will support the nominee of the party. I'm a good Republican, but I do believe that we need somebody with a broad breadth of experience. I'm sure you remember the day that Ronald Reagan was elected the hostages came home. The day that Lindsey Graham is inaugurated as President, it is going to send a chill up the spine of Mr. Baghdadi."

McCain On Remembering 9/11: "We Still Revere The Memories Of Those Brave Fire Fighters Who Were Going Up The Stairs While Everybody Was Going Down The Stairs."
"Well all of us, every American that is alive, remember where they were on that day. I was in my Senate office as was Lindsey Graham and I happened to have the television set on and saw the impact. And then of course we evacuated the Capitol, and to this day we don't know where the airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania was headed but there is certainly speculation that the United States Capitol might have been one of the two targets. Either the White House or the United States Capitol. It changed America. It changed the world...It was a time that America united as very few times in our history. I'm proud of what we did. We had to go to Afghanistan. Those who argue well, we never should have gone to Afghanistan, the people who attacked the United States of America were there and we had to respond...we had to understand the nature of the new challenge that we face and frankly we still have not come up with solutions to this problem of radical Islam, which attempts to destroy everything we stand for and believe in. We still revere the memories of those brave fire fighters who were going up the stairs while everybody was going down the stairs."

McCain On Lindsey Graham Being The Most Qualified: "I Believe That Lindsey Graham Understands This Threat Better Than Anyone I Know."
"...But right now, as we speak, and the reason I am so supportive of Senator Lindsey Graham is that there are thousands of young men particularly from Europe, but from all over the world that are going into Iraq and Syria and they're going to come out. Say that only 1% of them wanted to attack America, that's a whole lot of young men. Now I believe that Lindsey Graham better understands this threat better than anyone I know. He has been to Iraq and Afghanistan and the briefings and the work on the Armed Services Committee, and his own service of 33 years in the Air Force reserves qualify him in a unique kind of way. And that does not mean that I am diminishing any of those others that are seeking the Republican nomination, but I am saying that if you compare the record and compare the work that Lindsey Graham has done in the United States Senate and Congress, not just his active duty service but also on the major issues on defense, I think they're unmatched."

McCain On Benghazi And Glen Doherty's Family: "When Lindsey Graham Is President Of The United States, You Will See This Issue Resolved."
"Yes you can, yes we can [do something]. Put them in contact with Lindsey and me and we will do something in the Armed Services committee on that, that's terrible. I also want to point out that the person who highlighted this tragedy and the malfeasance and malfunctioning of the Obama Administration was Lindsey Graham. There is nobody who has fought harder for the families of those brave four Americans who were killed and he has dedicated a number of hours on the floor on this whole Benghazi issue and we will never rest, and I can guarantee you one thing; when Lindsey Graham is President of the United States, you will see this issue resolved."

McCain On The Refugee Crisis: "...Lindsey Graham And I Have Been Saying All Along That This Crisis Was Going To Happen."
"Could I just say to start with, Lindsey Graham and I have been saying all along that this crisis was going to happen. Maybe not in the dimensions that it has become, but we've been on the floor and in town halls all over America. Lindsey Graham and I have been saying that this is a catastrophe in the making. This is a failure of American leadership. Time after time this President [ignored] the situation. He called ISIS the JV... The whole thing in Syria, when the President ignored the red line, when he overruled his major advisors on providing weapons and training to the Free Syrian Army...If I were ISIS and I'm sure they're as smart as I am, I might be infiltrating some young people into that flood of refugees to make them capable of maybe doing some bad things once they got here...So I want to approach the issue very carefully, I want to make sure and I know Lindsey does too, that we're going to bring an end to this refugee crisis rather than emptying out every country in the Middle East."

Graham On The Refugee Crisis: "It's A Direct Result Of President Obama Screwing This Up...He Doesn't Know What He's Doing."
"We should be screening them, we should take our share and we should get to the bottom of the problem like John said...If you go back over the last four years and look at what John said we should've done and when we should've done it, we wouldn't be having 11 million displaced Syrians and 2,800 people die in the process trying to flee Syria. So yes, refugees, we should take our fair share. We should vet them. But if we don't get to the bottom of this, there are 30 million people in Syria. They're all going to leave. I mean the ones that are not getting killed are going to try to leave. It's a direct result of President Obama screwing this up...Everything he has done in the Mid East has come back to bite him. He said no to troops in Iraq. He said no to a no fly zone and helping the free Syrian Army three years ago and at the end of the day, he doesn't know what he's doing."

Graham On Glen Doherty And Benghazi: "...When They Needed Their Country, Their Country Wasn't There Because Of Their Commander-In-Chief."
"Kelly Ayotte's been all over this. She's met with the family a couple of times. We're going to help Kelly in anyway possible... The thing about Glen is he was killed in the last 30 minutes of the fight. They were there for nine and a half hours. And don't get me started on Benghazi. You know the emails are important, but it really goes to how could it have been a death trap...? Yes, we'll try to help Glen's family. I know Kelly has met with them. The answer is yes, we will try... At the end of the day, they were left hanging. I mean there were four Americans when they needed their country, their country wasn't there because of their Commander-in-Chief. You know, I still can't get over the fact that we know everything Obama did on the Bin Laden raid. They made two movies out of that...Can you tell me what he did that night? I have no idea what he did that night."

Graham On Today's Press Conference: "We're Going To Walk People Through What A Miserable Failure [Obama's Plan] Is" And What It Means "To Not Degrade And Destroy ISIL."
"To the family members of 9/11, the victims: We're always with you. I remember it very well like John said... It was a year ago yesterday or the day before that President Obama announced his plan to degrade and destroy ISIL. We're going to walk people through what a miserable failure this is and what it means to us not to degrade and destroy ISIL. It means another 9/11 is what it means. I think the next 9/11 is coming from these foreign fighters going into Syria with western passports. That's the most likely scenario."