Graham squirms on CNN after Benghazi story collapses: I 'never asked' for '60 Minutes' interview

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday defended his decision to block President Barack Obama's executive branch nominations partially based on a story about Benghazi that 60 Minutes was forced to retract.

Last week, CBS News correspondent Lara Logan admitted that she made a "mistake" after reports showed that her source, security contractor Dylan Davies, was not at the U.S. mission in Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attack as he had claimed.

In an interview with CNN late last month, Graham had cited the Davies interview while repeating his threat to block all of the president's nominations until survivors of the Benghazi attack testified before Congress.

"But the 60 Minutes story was not true," CNN's Candy Crowley noted on Sunday. "Will you now end your threat to place a hold on the president's nominees?"

"No, my request has been going on for a year to talk to the survivors," Graham insisted. "I never asked for the British contractor. I didn't know he existed."

"The 60 Minutes story says the attack on the compound was not a protest, but a pre-planned Al-Qaeda attack that you could see coming for months," he added. "And people who said that were not the British contractor."

"But what spurred your action to block the president's nominee was the 60 Minutes report," Crowley pressed. "So that's what prompted you to do this. I mean, you did it the day after and you cited it."

"I'm not trying to prosecute a crime, I'm not trying to defend a British contractor," Graham replied. "I want to hear from the people who work for us, that are American citizens in harm's way. 'What did you feel like when you were told nobody was coming to help you? Did you see a protest? Did you report a protest? Did you tell the FBI about a protest?'"

Watch the video below from CNN's State of the Union, broadcast Nov. 10, 2013.