This morning, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” that the way the Obama administration handled the Benghazi controversy was a "cover up." He made the assertion after ABC News reported that the State Department had a hand in editing the CIA's Benghazi talking points in the days after the America’s diplomatic compound in Libya was attacked last year.

MaCain told the interview program, "I'd call it a cover-up. I would call it a cover-up in the extent that there was willful removal of information which was obvious." He went on to criticize the way Jay Carney, the White House spokesperson, characterized of the edits to the talking points that were featured on news programs after the attacks. The talking points went through twelve revisions and all mentions of terrorism were taken out. These talking points by Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, on five Sunday talk shows that weekend.

McCain told the program, "For the president's spokesman to say, that, 'Well, there was only words or technical changes made in those emails' is a flat-out untruth. That's just not acceptable." He suggested that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was award of the State Department’s requested changes and should appear again in front of a Congressional select committee. He said, "I think the secretary of state has played a role in this. She had to have been in the loop some way, but we don't know for sure."

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., disputed McCain's comments. Reed said that the revisions reflected efforts to efforts to form a "consensus document that avoided all of the difficult issues." On the morning program, Reed countered, "I think this was the classic issue of interagency's battle about who will say what."

McCain also called for a select committee to do full interviews, "I don't know what level of scandal, unquote, this rises to, but I know it rises to the level where it requires a full and complete ventilation of these facts. We're still uncovering information which frankly contradicts the original line that the administration took."

McCain didn’t go as far as to join a Republican wave to impeach the president, saying "With all due respect, I think this is a serious issue. I will even give the president the benefit of the doubt on some of these things. We need a select committee."