Fact-checking the vice presidential debate

AP Photo/Eric Gay

In the one-and-only vice presidential debate of the general election campaign, Vice President Joe Biden and Republican candidate Rep. Paul Ryan went head-to-head over issues ranging from Iran, to job creation, to Medicare. Below, CBSNews.com looks into the facts behind those charges.

LIBYA

RYAN: "When you take a look at what has happened just in the last few weeks, they sent the U.N. ambassador out to say that this was because of a protest and a YouTube video. It took the president two weeks to acknowledge that this was a terrorist attack. He went to the U.N. and in his speech at the U.N. he said six times -- he talked about the YouTube video."

President Obama did technically refer to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya as an act of "terror" on September 12 -- the day after the incident -- in remarks in the White House rose garden.

"No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for," Mr. Obama said.

However, it's true that the administration, including U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, maintained for several days that the attack was spontaneous and the result of protests over an inflammatory anti-Muslim video. Meanwhile, CBS News reported on Sept. 12 that the assault appeared to be a planned terrorist attack.

In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 25, Mr. Obama did, as Ryan said, say the word "video" six times. He didn't give any indication, however, that the attack was an act of terrorism.

• White House response to Libya attacks: A timeline

BIDEN: "This lecture on embassy security -- the congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for, number one... Number two, Governor Romney, before he knew the facts, before he even knew that our ambassador was killed, he was out making a political statement which was panned by the media around the world."

The Hill reported last month: "The Obama administration requested $1.801 billion for embassy security, construction and maintenance for fiscal 2012; House Republicans countered with a proposal to cut spending to $1.425 billion. The House agreed to increase it to $1.537 billion after negotiations with the Senate."

That means House Republicans asked for $376 million less in security funding and eventually agreed to $264 million less. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said on CNN this week that House Republicans "absolutely" voted to cut funding for embassy security. "Look we have to make priorities and choices in this country," he said.

As for the point about Romney's political statement -- the Republican campaign issued a statement in the 10 o'clock hour on Sept. 11. "I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi," Romney's statement said. "It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."

About eight hours later, the Associated Press reported that Libyan officials confirmed the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. Then about an hour later, the president confirmed Stevens' death. Then that morning, Sept. 12, Romney said he stood by his initial remarks criticizing the president.

BIDEN: "Well, we weren't told they wanted more security there. We did not know they wanted more security again."

As CBS News reported this week, Eric Nordstrom, the former regional security officer in Libya, "told congressional investigators that he had requested more security but that request was blocked by a department policy to 'normalize operations and reduce security resources.' Under questioning, though, he said he had sought mainly to prevent any reduction in staff, rather than have a big increase... A memo Tuesday by the Oversight Committee's Democratic staff provided details of Nordstrom's interview with the panel's investigators. In that interview, Nordstrom said he sent two cables to State Department headquarters in March 2012 and July 2012 requesting additional diplomatic security agents for Benghazi, but he received no responses."

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[drums]

Did you check factcheck.org before you opened your mouth, OK I see you are just quoting Rush the godfather of the Republican Party!

[imposter222]

Where in the world does Time Magazine assume the next president will be creating 12-million jobs? There's a world recession going on; many companies are cutting back on jobs, because demand isn't sufficient to keep workers at current levels. Europe's unemployment rate is over 11%; what that means is that demand for our goods and services have been reduced by the second largest economy in the world.

Even China's productivity is barely increasing again, but their inventory has been building up for the past several months.

Who will be buying American made goods and services?

[jenions]

Republicans get a grip & try recovering your memories. Your policies for 8 years under your George W Bush are WHAT WRECKED AMERICA - & for sure, under your Romney/Ryan you'll find your contry soon embroiled in another war, or more than one war extra, AND FOR CERTAIN YOUR REPUBLICAN POLICIES WILL THEN COMPLETELY CRIPPLE YOUR AMERICAN ECONOMY and there will then be no going backwards to better days under Democrat Clinton days and no going forwards either.

[kashford2]

If a previous administration can have this much impact on a current administration, doesn't that mean that Bill Clinton owed his good fortunes to the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations?

[ber-ber24]

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR ANOTHER 4 YEARS OF OBAMA/BIDEN??? Another 10-20 million on welfare and food stamps??? Another 10 million unemployed?? I can hardly wait!!
Do you not know? (What am I saying? Of course you don't know, cause you CHOOSE to blindly believe what the media tell you. And I do understand. In the past we've been able to trust them to tell us the truth about what's really going on--but since the Vietnam Era, they've developed their own agenda.)
There are several big govt. agencies about to lay off 10's of thousands of people in Jan. and the FEDERAL GOVT--Obama and Eric Holder--have asked them to forego the mandatory 60 day notification "required by Federal Law", and not tell these employees ahead of time. They have guaranteed them Federal Taxpayer dollars to settle any legal disputes that may arise from the failure to give notice. WHY??? BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT VOTERS TO KNOW BEFORE THE ELECTION!! After the election...WHO CARES?? Obama has already spoken about how much more "flexible" he'll be able to be AFTER THE ELECTIONS. He will have NO LIMITS on anything they want to do. They'll shut down all the coal mines they can, cut out all the oil drilling they want, make sure the Canadian Oil Pipeline is NEVER built, they're already destroying the medical care system--which will lead to layoffs nation-wide (Can we say "huge rise in unemployment, loss of benefits, more mortgage foreclosures, more people forced on welfare, food stamps and unemployment?) They will RAISE TAXES AS MUCH AS THEY WANT---AND ALL YOU'LL BE ABLE TO DO IS SAY, "BUT THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU PROMISED!"
Why can people never seem to understand? A welfare dependent society is just what Democrats have been pushing for, for decades. Then, when the govt-dependent masses decide to finally stand up and BE AMERICANS and say, "No! I don't like this policy! NO! That's UNCONSTITUTIONAL!" All they'll have to do is yank our govt-dependent financial chains to get us to shut up and fall back in line. IS THAT REALLY THE AMERICA YOU WANT?? IS THIS REALLY THE HOPE AND CHANGE YOU DREAMED OF??

[Jaylah54200]

Martha: "Congressman Ryan, please tell us what you'd personally bring to the office of Vice President."

Lyin-Ryan: "Honesty."

ROFL. Yeah, that's how he got his nickname. Because he's so honest.

[drums]

It just baffles me, how these people only hear what they want, Romney especially never tells the truth!

[ocvoter]

What most Americans call a "Lie", CBS News calls "The President's early inaccuracies". It seems CBS lies too.

[attygilbert]

The suggestion that Biden won the debate is a more a product of the liberal media, then the actual debate: (1) The fact checkers of the CNN "conveniently" relied on one source that suggested that Iran was years away of developing a fully functional nuclear missile. Using this to suggest that Ryan's response was somewhat "false." On the other hand, CNN totally ignored Dr. Robert Reardon's (an MIT Graduate) assessment concluding: "Despite years of U.S. diplomatic efforts to stall that progress, the Iranians have succeeded in building an extensive enrichment program and likely possess the technical capacity to produce at least one nuclear weapon should they choose to do so." (This is quite consistent with Ryan's position).
Quite frankly, Senator Ryan's comments were consistent with Dr. Reardon's position. For CNN to play games with information that clearly falls within "classified" materials obviously protected under the "Government Secrecy Act of 1997" shows to what extent CNN will go to get their clear choice of Obama/Biden elected. This can be best be called "influence peddling"not "truth." Americans must be intelligent when they vote. (2) In debate, we call laughing, interrupting, and seeking to disrupt the other side as unethical, rude, and unskillful. This was clear of Bidden. Bottom line, for this and many other reasons, Biden lost the debate and lost my vote. He is a reflection of the President.

[ekimball002]

Wow, an MIT graduate AND a PhD. Well, then there's no way he could be wrong!

[Forward777]

After you figure up the entire Romney Ryan plan to reduce the National Debt they will reduce it after restoring the Bush tax cuts and 'Not Cutting One Dime' from any program while increasing military spending for old friends of GOP military contractors. The grand total of the reduction is..... $47.00

[forumcomments]

I have heard this statement a few times and it still amazes me. To even hint that the lack of security in Lybia was due to budget reductions is rediculous. Most countries close their embassies at the initial signs of any secuirty concerns. Maay have been closed for much less. I truly believe the US gov would do use all of its resources to prvent a terror attack on an embassy or any US locations. However, blaming the budget just doesn't seem right.

[1IFbuyC]

First, there was no American Embassy in Libya as it was known as the American Mission in Benghazi. Second, we don't know what happened there yet & we may never fully know. U.S. intelligence has a history of carrying out its own foreign policy initiatives when it disagrees w/a sitting President as it did in Southeast Asia back in the 1960's when JFK was in office, & its conceivable what happened in Benghazi on 9/11/12 was carried out by a faction controlled by some branch of the American intelligence community intent on embarrassing President Obama. This could very well be the first in a series of September/October surprises during this election cycle. Does the right-wing have more planned before election day? As they've clearly shown since at least Dick Nixon's time, they're capable of resorting to almost anything.

[IVoteMyConscience]

"I don't want to cost jobs," Romney said in the first 2012 President debate on October 3rd. "My priority is jobs." If you'd like to see Romney's record on jobs, it's on video here:

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZMndjLIQUFw"

Who told the truth in the first 2012 Presidential debate? Who lied? Milt Shook has compiled a list with citations here:

http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2012/10/a-small-sampling-of-romney-lies-at-last-nights-debate.html

If you'd like to see Obama's record as President--whether he and Biden have focused on benefiting Democrats or Republicans or both or neither--Shook has compiled a list with citations here:

http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/what-has-obama-done-since-january-20-2009.html

If you'd like to see stats of last fifty years of Republican and Democratic Presidential Administrations creating jobs for Americans--including the neo-con Republican model that Romney advocates--Shook has compiled a list with citations here:

http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2012/06/the-stark-difference-between-democrats-republicans-issue-1-jobs.html

And if you'd like to see whom among the American people Obama and Biden have really represented during this Administration, Shook reveals that in detail here:

http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2011/08/more-politics-101-obama-is-smarter-than-us.html

Please--read.

Make an informed, educated decision for yourself about what's best for you and for America.

[jenions]

An up-to-date article in Time Magazine regarding THE FACTS quite CLEARLY STATES THAT REGARDLESS OF WHO THE NEXT PRESIDENT IS THAT 12 MILLION JOBS WILL BE CREATED. And if people wnat to think Romney is going to create these 12 million jobs as he says he will IT WOULD PAY TO REMEMBER WELL THAT WHEN ROMNEY WAS GOVERNOR HIS STATE RANKED 47TH IN JOB CREATION!!!

[realisticfromthemiddle]

I'm still trying to figure out what math class Romney took? 20% tax cut across the board but going to close enough loopholes to cover that. What loopholes are big enough to make that up? Gonna cut government spending but increase defense spending. How is that gonna work. That seems like the fuzziest math I have ever seen. Defense spending is the single largest portion of spending and we are going to increase it? I know, "broaden the tax base," yeah right. Haven't we seen how that works already under the previous president who is exempt from all blame for this mess we are in right now?

[cubscout09]

Believe in America page 155
53. Immediately cut non-security discretionary spending by 5 percent

Non-security discretionary spending, that would be Education, Regulatory Agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Believe me, the fewer details the better for Romney/Ryan.

[SupeMom]

The DoD budget has been cut in the past 8 years. (Yes, 8 - which means it's not just Obama, but GW Bush did, too). Approximately 60% of the budgets for the armed services felt the cut. Not at the top... the services themselves. The largest (90% of the cut) was to the USAF. It was because of today's war being waged out in the open has changed. Even large corporations are switching from the armed security guards at the elevators and doors to the 20 year old geek in the basement vault surrounded by computer terminals. Even the Army is working with better tech - but less. This is where the cuts got deep. Notice all those news reports about less planes, but the new jets they got can do the job of all the old ones? Well, you forget that the whole computer-tech-savvy force needs training & people, too! So if Romney were to give some money back to the defense budget, it really wouldn't be that much to worry over.
Gotta stay in the reports to really get an idea of what's happening... and geez it's not even the tip of the proverbial iceberg!