McCain, Graham to go to Egypt at Obama's request

President Obama asked two key Republican senators to tell Egyptian military leaders in person their country must quickly shift to democracy, one senator said. "The president reached out to us, and I said obviously I'd be glad to go," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters. Graham will travel to Cairo with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as early as next week, Graham said. He said the logistics and who they'd meet were being worked out by the State Department, but he said he expected they'd meet with Egypt's opposition as well as its military leaders. Graham and McCain met several times with members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the past. "We want to deliver a unified message that killing the opposition is becoming more and more like a coup," Graham said. The Obama administration has carefully avoided referring to the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi July 3 as a coup, which could force it to stop sending $1.5 billion in annual aid. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Sunday Congress should consider suspending the aid in response to an Egyptian security services attack Saturday that killed at least 72 people and wounded hundreds more. "We have to relook at granting aid," Feinstein said on CNN's "State of the Union." "The ball is in Egypt's court." Graham told CNN Tuesday the idea of the Egypt trip first came from Secretary of State John Kerry, who said it was important for military leaders to hear firsthand from U.S. lawmakers, especially members of Obama's political opposition, that key Washington players were on the same page. "They want it to be someone from the Congress, not just the executive branch, so we can make it real to them that Congress is not going to tolerate a military takeover and throwing everyone in jail," Graham told CNN. He noted having McCain in Egypt on Obama's behalf could be especially symbolic, since McCain is Obama's former opponent for the White House. "I think it really does demonstrate how democracy works. They didn't put John McCain in jail so he could never come back again," Graham said.