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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Biden and Ryan Battle in Kentucky; Shuttle on the Move; Medicare Fact Check; Move Over Big Bird: "Malarkey" the New Trend
Aired October 12, 2012 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey.
REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A fierce and yes sometimes funny debate from the presidential nominees, but just how accurate were their statements? This morning, we will drill down on the facts.
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: And the space shuttle Endeavour is on the move in Los Angeles. We're going to go live to the streets of L.A. That is straight ahead for you.
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. We're happy you're with us this morning. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman, I think. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.
SAMBOLIN: You are working overtime.
So up first here, Paul Ryan and Joe Biden battling it out in the Bluegrass State, and unlike last week's presidential debate, this one had a little bit of fire. The vice president coming out swinging, Ryan keeping cool and counterpunching.
So let's go to the score cards. The CNN/ORC poll taken right after the debate shows 48 percent of the voters who watched thought Paul Ryan won, 44 percent favored Joe Biden. That's basically a statistical draw.
Senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash is live from Danville, Kentucky, this morning.
And, Dana, this was a much more spirited debate this time around, a debate with a capital "D." DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it sure was. I was in the hall last night, and it was rocking and rolling from the beginning, pretty much right through the entire 90 minutes. There was some grimacing and grinning, a lot of it actually on the left. There was some smirking on the right, but all in all, it was quite a substantive debate on the central issues of the day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): These were two men who both came ready to tangle.
BIDEN: I don't know what world these guys are in.
BASH: On taxes --
RYAN: You can cut tax rates by 20 percent and preserve important preferences for middle class taxpayers.
BASH: Not mathematically possible.
RYAN: It is mathematically possible.
BASH: On Medicare --
BIDEN: If they just allow Medicare to bargain for the cost of drugs like Medicaid can't, that would save $156 billion right off the bat.
RYAN: And it would deny seniors choices.
BASH: On the president's foreign poll --
RYAN: When we look weak, our adversaries are much more willing to test us. They are more brazen in their attacks and our allies are less going to trust us.
BIDEN: With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey.
BASH: The vice president seemed determine to make up for the president's mistakes last week, almost immediately launching the attack lines Obama never used in his debate.
BIDEN: But it shouldn't be surprising for a guy who says 47 percent of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. My neighbors, they pay more effective tax than Governor Romney pays in his federal income tax.
BASH: Before the debate CNN was told Paul Ryan's team anticipated Biden being aggressive where the president was not, especially on Mitt Romney's infamous 47 percent remark.
RYAN: Mitt Romney is a good man.
BASH: Romney was ready with a well-practiced retort.
RYAN: With respect to that quote, I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: But I always say what I mean, and so does Romney.
BASH: Biden's recovery plan for a demoralized Democratic base was not just in what he said but what he did.
RYAN: In spite of their opposition.
BIDEN: Oh, God.
BASH: The president was criticized for not interrupting, Biden jumped in constantly.
RYAN: As a result of this --
BIDEN: That didn't happen.
RYAN: Mr. Vice President --
BASH: The president was slammed for nodding as Romney spoke. Biden used the split screen to give a running commentary of disapproval with his facial expressions. Ryan had a zinger red for all that, too.
RYAN: I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other.
BASH: For 90 minutes, voters saw two dramatically different visions, from the economy.
BIDEN: The last people who need help are 120,000 families for another -- another $500 billion tax cut over the next 10 years.
RYAN: Our entire premise of these tax reform plans is to grow the economy and greet jobs.
BASH: To national security threats, like a nuclear Iran.
RYAN: And if they get nuclear weapons, other people in the neighborhood will pursue their nuclear weapons as well.
BIDEN: War should always be the absolute last resort.
BASH: For the most part it was a substantive debate between two longtime lawmakers who tried to disagree without being too disagreeable.
BIDEN: When my friend talks about --
BASH: Biden avoided any trademark gaffes but did provide a little levity.
BIDEN: This is a bunch of stuff. Look, here's the deal --
MARTHA RADDATZ, MODERATOR: What does that mean, a bunch of stuff?
BIDEN: Well, it means it's simply inaccurate.
RYAN: It's Irish.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: We Irish call us malarkey.
RADDATZ: Thanks for the translation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: And, Dana, the stuff was certainly flying at that debate last night to quote Joe Biden there. A debate with a lot of substance, as we've all been remarking this morning, but also there's this discussion about style and all the interruptions certainly on the side. Joe Biden interrupting Paul Ryan.
But "The New York Times" this morning had an interesting point. They said there was a strategy there. They said what the Democrats were hoping to do is sort of poke holes or draw attention to inconsistencies and what they say they see in the Republican argument. What do you make of that?
BASH: I totally agree. It really was -- seemed as though, we know this in even talking to some Biden sources. Joe Biden learned the lesson of President Obama's mistakes and then some.
The way that he reacted, it was he knew that camera was on him. He knew that they were going to get every eye roll and every grimace and every grin, and there were a lot of them, and -- and it was -- it was a strategy certainly to, I believe, make clear to the Democratic base, since we have all been talking about the fact that there's so few undecided voters, to make it clear that the Democratic ticket is still in the game.
If you look at the polls and sort of talk to Democrats about what the big problem was at the presidential debate last week, it was that the Democrats were just demoralized, deflated. And that's why you saw some of the swings in the polls, particularly in the battleground states.
SAMBOLIN: Certainly a lot of excitement. Thank you so much, Dana Bash live for us in Kentucky.
So both sides went into full spin mode afterward. Everything was under the microscope. Ryan's level of experience, Biden's interruptions and his facial expressions. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
JIM MESSINA, OBAMA CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Congressman Ryan was out of his depth and showed clearly that the ticket is not ready for prime time on foreign policies, and I think that was a decisive difference between the two sides. REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I thought it was a great night for us. I was excited for Paul. He was solid. He had a command of the issues. And quite frankly I was embarrassed for the vice president. I mean, the laughs. We counted 82 times that Joe Biden interrupted Paul Ryan.
BEAU BIDEN, SONE OF JOE BIDEN: If the only criticism coming from the right and from some folks out there is that he smiled too much, I'll take that any day. My father enjoyed the opportunity to debate Congressman Ryan on very important issues.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
BERMAN: So we did not count smiles and interruptions but our expert team of producers, researchers and reporters, we have been busy all night figuring out whether the candidates were telling the truth in this debate. This hour we're going to focus on two big international issues.
Now, right after the bat, the candidates argued about the situation in Libya. The vice president made the claim that the administration did not know there were requests for more security in Benghazi.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: We weren't told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: That surprised a lot of people. One of the facts this -- just this week, two former officials stationed there said they had in fact asked for more security. We heard this at the House hearing on Wednesday. Our verdict here is unclear. It's not clear how high these requests for security got in the administration, but officials did testify the State Department was asked. Either Joe Biden didn't know this or he was flat out wrong.
Now, I want to move to Iran right now. Paul Ryan claimed that Iran's ability to make nuclear bombs has quintupled under President Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: We cannot allow Iran to gain a nuclear weapons capability. Now, let's take a look at where we've come from. When Barack Obama was elected, they had enough fissile material to make a nuclear bomb. Now they have enough for five.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So, the Institute for Science and National Security said when Obama took office the Iranians had enough material to make one nuclear bomb. Now they have enough uranium to make five if -- and this is a big if -- if they have the capability to enrich the uranium. And to our best knowledge right now the Iranians do not have the capability to enrich the uranium or the technology to build a bomb. So, our verdict here is partially true but misleading. Yes, they have more uranium, but this department says they do not believe Iran can yet make a bomb out of it.
You, of course, can watch the replay of the debate at noon Eastern Time on CNN and judge for yourself.
SAMBOLIN: How often do we say this is must-see television? It really is, right?
BERMAN: This is fantastic. I was watching the replay. The clips in Dana's piece, I'm like, wow, this was every bit as good as I remember from last night.
SAMBOLIN: Yes, it was very good.
All right. An aide to Paul Ryan says "TIME" magazine used poor judgment when it published pictures of the vice presidential nominee pumping iron just hours before last night's debate. Have you seen this? Take a look. Ryan does not appear presidential there.
These photos showed up on "TIME's" website yesterday. Ryan's aide says they were taken from the magazine's person of the year issue. He claims a promise was made that they would never be published. "TIME's" managing editor says no such promise was ever made.
BERMAN: All right. More rallies this morning in support of a 14- year-old anti-Taliban activist Malala Yousufzai. The Taliban targeted the 14-year-old for many a fierce critic of the militant network.
She also fiercely advocates education and girls and women's rights. About 100 people have been arrested for allegedly colluding with the attackers who tried to assassinate her. She is still in critical condition this morning.
SAMBOLIN: And new this morning, the U.S. has a new diplomatic leader in Libya. Lawrence Pope arrived in Tripoli yesterday. He'll take over diplomatic duties in the wake of the death of ambassador Chris Stevens. Pope came out of retirement to take this job. He has spent more than three decades in the diplomatic ranks.
BERMAN: All right. This just in to EARLY START. The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to -- drum roll -- the European Union.
The announcement was made moments ago in Norway. The European Union were cited for its advancement of democracy and reconciliation in Europe for six decades. That's interesting. The whole European Union gets the award, probably the most prestigious and most well known of the world prizes. So congratulations to them.
SAMBOLIN: All right. So, happening right now, the shuttle Endeavour is on the move. Endeavour embarking on its final mission, a 12-mile journey through the streets of Los Angeles.
It will travel from Los Angeles International Airport to its new home at the California Science Center. There will be plenty of time for photo ops. It's expected to take 46 hours to make that 12-mile trip. We're there with a live report for you.
BERMAN: All right. And if you were busy watching the debate and missed baseball. Man, there was some baseball last night.
The Detroit Tigers are headed back to the American League Championship series. They shut out the Oakland A's 6-0 behind their ace, and he was an ace last night, Justin Verlander. This was the decisive fifth game of the ALDS. You do not want to face Justin Verlander in a game like that.
The National League's San Francisco Giants completed an improbable comeback with a game five win over the Cincinnati Reds. The Giants lost first two games at home and went on to win the next three straight in Cincinnati. They will now play for the pennant.
Meantime, justice was done. The Baltimore Orioles forced a fifth and deciding game tonight in the Bronx, beating the Yankees 2-1.
SAMBOLIN: Go Yankees.
BERMAN: In 13 innings.
No, no, no, all for the Orioles here.
SAMBOLIN: No, we're not.
BERMAN: That's fact check true.
And finally a home run by Jayson Werth gave the Washington Nationals a walk-off win against the St. Louis Cardinals to set up yet another game five. So this will be one of those cases where all four of the division series have gone the distance.
I was in D.C. last night when Jayson Werth hit that home run, and man that place was bonkers. There was a scream everywhere. The city erupted in joy. It was worth it, you might say, with Jayson Werth hitting the home run.
SAMBOLIN: Ha, ha, ha. All right. Twelve minutes past the hour and from the "you can't make this stuff up" files, Michael Vick, the guy who went to jail for running dog fights, is up to something that will have you saying, seriously?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: We are back. Welcome back to EARLY START this morning. The first and only vice presidential debate was full of attacks from both sides about the economy as well as President Obama and Governor Romney's economic plan.
SAMBOLIN: And Christine is here with a fact check of some of those comments found by our team of producers, researchers and reporters on two claims. You have one from each candidate.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I want to talk first about this idea on taxes first. Let's talk about taxes here because Paul Ryan claimed last night you could have a 20 percent income tax rates across the board so lowering income tax rates by 20 percent across the board and keep the middle class tax deductions intact. Something that would not add to the deficit, they say.
Here's -- let's listen to Paul Ryan saying that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: You can cut tax rates by 20 percent and still preserve the important preferences for middle class taxpayers.
BIDEN: Not mathematically possible.
RYAN: It is mathematically possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: They have been arcing about this for months now. The non- partisan Tax Policy Center says given the information that is available from the Romney/Ryan campaign, it is not possible to cut tax rates as much as you'd like without eliminating deductions that may hurt the middle class. Specifically, you can't do this without changing rules on capital gains taxes, investment taxes, dividend taxes and the Romney campaign has said they will not do that.
So, first, you cannot cut taxes and keep the middle class deductions. You can't cut taxes and keep lower rates on capital gains.
Now, the Romney campaign has said, look, we would work with the Congress. We would -- we can't tell you what exactly it would look like because we'll work with the Congress, but the Tax Policy Center says it can't be done. Given what we know, it can't be done.
Now, the second claim, let's talk about the auto bailout. They have also been fight begun this on the campaign trail. Vice President Biden made the case that Romney would let Detroit go bankrupt. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: We knew we had to act for the middle class. We immediately went out and rescued General Motors. We went ahead and made sure that we cut taxes for the middle class, and in addition to that, when that occurred what, did Romney do? Romney said, no, let Detroit go bankrupt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And that he literally, let Detroit go bankrupt. On November 18th, 2008, Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed on Detroit. Romney never used the words in that piece and he argued for the managed bankruptcy. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. "In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers rather than seal their fate with a bailout check." And the Obama administration ultimately had a managed bankruptcy of the automakers so the Romney op-ed titled "Let Detroit go bankrupt," that was a "New York Times" headline. Romney wanted a managed bankruptcy, but -- but, John, you say he has actually said these words.
BERMAN: The Obama campaign sent me a video over night of him saying it in 2011, well after the bailout happened. He actually spoke the words let Detroit go bankrupt. He was actually quoting the headline from that. So they are trying to say the words came out of his mouth, albeit not before the bailout or not when he's advocating for it.
ROMANS: The difference here is Mitt Romney did not want a direct injection of taxpayer funds into the companies as they were, right?
BERMAN: That's exactly correct.
ROMANS: In the end you didn't get a direct injection of taxpayer funds into the company, right, because the White House and the car czar was remaking these things through the bankruptcy.
BERMAN: There was a bailout and managed bankrupts net end.
SAMBOLIN: So the final verdict.
ROMANS: The final verdict on this one is that it is false, that it is false that -- that he just said let it go bankrupt. It's got more nuances to it.
SAMBOLIN: All right. Thank you, Christine.
BERMAN: It is official. Moving on to some other news right now.
Michael Vick owns a dog. This revelation comes three years after the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback finished serving a prison sentence on dog fighting charges. In a statement, Vick says the dog is well cared for, and he wants his children to develop a healthy relationship with animals, so that happened.
SAMBOLIN: There's no more information on that either. People are trying to figure out what kind of dog did he buy. He said this is really chance at redemption, figuring it all out and letting my kids to have this opportunity to have what most families have.
All right. Coming up, the Endeavour shuttle is almost at its new home. We have live pictures for you. Take a look at that. We're following the path through L.A. all morning. Is it moving? Look -- it is a very slow move, but they tell me it is moving through the streets of L.A. all morning. It's being towed.
Listen to this, by a truck, a Toyota Tundra truck. We're going to show that to you as well. How is that even possible? I don't know, but we're going to ask John Zarrella, all of these questions and so much more in a live report. That is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START.
Take a look at your screen. Put down a coffee. You're looking at a live picture of shuttle Endeavour on a slow roll through the streets of Los Angeles. It's en route to its home at the California Science Center. Endeavour is making the 12-mile journey from LAX at two miles an hour. So, it's a very slow roll.
It's giving L.A. commuters a new excuse for being late for work today, but it's an awesome one, a space shuttle jam.
CNN's John Zarrella is watching it all for us. He is live in Los Angeles.
So, John, I understand right now it's moving very, very slowly, and I understand at some point a Toyota Tundra is actually going to be moving this giant enormous shuttle. How is that even possible?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, we'll find out later tonight when they actually hook up across the street. The shuttle is just leaving Los Angeles International airport. (INAUDIBLE) They are dubbing this Mission 26.
The shuttle flew 25 times, (INAUDIBLE) International Space Station, through a Hubble space telescope servicing mission, recovered satellites in orbit, but this is certainly its shortest trip it will ever make, 12 miles, its slowest trip. It's going to take 46 hours over two days.
But, Zoraida, this is probably going to be the most fascinating journey any space shuttle has ever made. Right now, it is on top of a transporter which is self-powered, and they are pulling it through the streets here of leaning. They are coming up to McConnell Avenue where they will take a right turn on McConnell.
They are going to make several stops along the way as they reconfigure the shuttle. One point from a wider carrier, to a lighter carrier and over to a wider system to get over the bridge at the 405 where they were going to use a Toyota truck.
So, today, they are going to make a couple of stops. One for four or five hours and another stop overnight for seven or eight hours.
SAMBOLIN: Wow.
BERMAN: And authorities are asking people, look, we know you want to come out and see this. This is just an incredible, most incredible site, you know, that folks will ever have an opportunity to witness here, but tomorrow is the big day.
Tomorrow there are going to be ceremonies and festivities. One over at the old forum, another at an area shopping mall, before they actually get to the California science center. Right now, Zoraida, I'm looking at the back wing of the shuttle just passing me. Remember, this is 78 feet wide, over 100 feet long, and they had to take down power lines to move it, really delicate. SAMBOLIN: John, what is that comparable to when you talk about the size of this. Can you compare it to something to put it in perspective for all of us?
ZARRELLA: Like about a 737 jetliner, but it weighs -- the shuttle alone right now ways about 150,000 pounds.
Now, Tom, if you can cut back here, the back end of the shuttle, Zoraida there, you can see the nozzles there where the main engines would be. The main engines have been removed from the shuttle because NASA hopes at some point to re-use the three main engines, so behind those cones there are no main engines, so that reduces a little bit of weight. Some of the avionics has been taken out.
But beyond, that you know, it's absolutely, you know, identical. It is the space shuttle, as pristine as they could possibly deliver it to the museum. You know, Zoraida, a lot of people were saying why don't they take the wings off? That would make it easier.
Well, don't forget, underneath those wings there, thousands of thermal tiles. There's the leading edge skin on the top, the thermal blanketing for re-entry. They would have to cut through all of that, remove the tiles, and, you know, it's like humpty dumpty sat on the wall. There would be nobody that would be able to put it back together again if they ever attempted to just actually tear it apart
SAMBOLIN: You know, you mentioned something earlier, and that was they actually tore down trees and light poles in order to be able to allow this journey to happen.
ZARRELLA: Yes.
SAMBOLIN: Didn't some people get upset about that?
ZARRELLA: Oh, yes. There was somewhat of an outcry here, without question.
And the California Science Center has promised that for every one tree that they had to take down. Now the shuttle is stopped here. They are at this intersection at McConnell. But for every one tree they had to take down, and there were more than 250, that they are going to replant two trees, so that at least, you know, it was some consolation to the folks here.
And, yes, light poles had to come down. Street signs had to come down because, you know, the tail section of the shuttle is way higher than a lot of street intersections there. But, again, a very, very slow journey over the next 46 hours. A couple of stops today.
Now, you can see as they get to taint section, I know we're losing it behind the tree here, but you can see. It's tough to make these turns.
SAMBOLIN: Oh, my gosh, yes.
ZARRELLA: Even with these mobile transporters that are actually configured to do just this, to make these turns with these shuttles, because, you know, they have to move them when they get back to the Kennedy Space Center from the runway where they land back over to the orbiter processing facilities.
So this is the way they moved them when they get back to the Kennedy Space Center. But we know, Zoraida, Endeavour is not going back to the Kennedy Space Center.
SAMBOLIN: No.
ZARRELLA: Its home will be here at the California Science Center, a temporary facility for the next several years while they continue to fundraise and raise money because the permanent building is not ready yet -- Zoraida.
SAMBOLIN: So, you know what? That's why people need to come out and watch it. I was trying to take my kids to see the one that came through here that was on the Hudson. And they said it's not going to be ready for a while. So, I highly encourage people to go and see it because this is an opportunity of a lifetime. I can't wait until it gets lighter out. So, thank you for following this for us, John Zarrella. We appreciate it.
ZARRELLA: I know. Absolutely.
SAMBOLIN: We'll see it more and more. Thank you.
ZARRELLA: Sure.
SAMBOLIN: John, back to you.
BERMAN: All right. Half past the hour right now. And they went to bat for their running mates, Vice President Biden and Congressman Ryan tackled the issues in their one and only debate. We will look at the highlights next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RYAN: Mr. Vice President, I know you're under a lot of duress to make up lost ground.
(LAUGHTER)
RYAN: Jack Kennedy lower tax rates, increased growth. Ronald Reagan --
BIDEN: Oh, now, you're Jack Kennedy.
SAMBOLIN (voice-over): A battle of the minds. Congressman Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden go head-to-head in the first and only vice presidential decade. We dig into the facts and the fiction straight ahead.
BERMAN (voice-over): And malarkey complaining, laughing, shirtless, just a few of the top search items on Google during last night's debate. We have Google's election team live on the show this coming up this hour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN (on-camera): Shirtless?
BERMAN (on-camera): Shirtless.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: What could be better than that?
SAMBOLIN: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START. Thanks for being with us. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.
BERMAN: And John Berman. It is Friday, October 12th.
There was plenty of passion and Joe Biden and Paul Ryan each got in a zinger or two, but there was no knockout last night in the vice presidential debate. No one had a bad night and nobody was too polite, that's to be sure. Joe Biden was the aggressor and Paul Ryan looking like the calm, collected counterpuncher.
SAMBOLIN: And here's how America scored it. A CNN/ORC poll taken right after the debate shows 48 percent of the voters who watched thought Ryan won. Forty-four percent favored Biden. So, that is a statistical tie.
Senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, is live from Danville, Kentucky this morning. And Dana, this debate had a lot of heated exchanges, jabs back and forth. Let's take a look at one of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: You can cut tax rates by 20 percent and still preserve these important preferences for middle class taxpayers.
BIDEN: Not mathematically possible.
RYAN: It is mathematically possible. It's been done before. It's (INAUDIBLE)
BIDEN: It has never been done before.
RYAN: It's been done a couple of times.
BIDEN: It has never --
RYAN: Jack Kennedy lowered tax rates increase growth. Ronald Reagan --
BIDEN: Oh, now, you're Jack Kennedy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: So, it looks like Biden had a bit of a Lloyd Bentsen moment. Did his aggressive tone hurt or help him? BASH: Yes and yes.
(LAUGHTER)
SAMBOLIN: That's a good answer.
BASH: Let's start with the latter though, the helping him. His primary goal here was to get the Democratic base who were really deflated after the last debate, after the president didn't from their perspective, from most people's perspective come ready to play, to get them back up off their feet and ready to go to the polls and to work for the president and for Joe Biden.
When it comes to that goal, hey, he hit it out of the park. Hurting him, for those, you know, whatever it is, four, five percent of undecided voters who were watching this saying how do I feel about this ticket and they saw him grinning and grimacing and rolling his eyes and -- and, you know, sort of just physically making some people potentially uncomfortable, that could hurt him.
BERMAN: All right, Dana. Both candidates were asked about their stance on abortion. They gave very different answers, as you might imagine. Well, we know that Romney's position has long been that abortion should be legal in cases of incest and rape. Well, Ryan's past position on this become an issue in the campaign at all, do you think?
BASH: You know, certainly, Democrats try to, particularly, when the whole controversy with Todd Akin who's a Republican Senate candidate from Missouri exploded because Ryan in Congress had signed on to very, very strong anti-abortion language, legislation.
But when it came to the abortion question last night, I think what you were going to play was the fact that Ryan really towed the Romney line saying that the Romney/Ryan ticket believes that abortion should be illegal except in cases of rape and incest and the health of the mother. I think we have the sound bite, if we want to listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: I understand this is a difficult issue, and I respect people who don't agree with me on this, but the policy of a Romney administration will be to oppose abortion with the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.
BIDEN: Well, I guess he accepts Governor Romney's position now, because in the past, he has argued that there was -- there's rape and forcible rape. He's argued that in the case of rape or incest, it was still -- it would be a crime to engage in having an abortion. I just fundamentally disagree with my friend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right. Thank you, Dana Bash, down in Danville, Kentucky right now. They're cleaning up the remnants. They're sweeping up the ashes from the incredible debate last night. We want to get more analysis on what happened right there.
I want to bring in Ana Navarro, Republican strategist and CNN contributor and Richard Socarides, a Democratic analyst and former adviser to Bill Clinton. There was a lot of stuff back and forth last night, a lot of tense moments. Let's just replay some of the stuff that we -- that we liked the most here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: We able to overrule their objections and put them in spite of the administration. We can debate the timeline, whether it's that short of time. Thank heavens we had these sanctions in place in spite of their opposition. They've given 20 waivers.
BIDEN: That's not how it's going.
MARTHA RABBATZ, MODERATOR: This is his two-minute answer, please.
RYAN: Mitt Romney is a car guy. They keep misquoting him, but let me tell you about the Mitt Romney I know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right. So, the CNN/ORC poll immediately after the debate found it to be basically a tie, maybe Paul Ryan a slight edge, 48 percent to 44 percent. Ana, do you agree with those poll numbers or do you think there was a clear winner?
ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: You know, John, I'm a Republican pundit, so I'm supposed to tell you that I saw, you know, Paul Ryan crush Joe Biden, but I took some truth serum this morning. I saw a draw. I think they both did very well. I think they both did what they needed to do.
Joe Biden did a lot better than President Obama, and that's what he was being compared to. And I think Paul Ryan held his own against a very seasoned, one of the most veteran politicians in America today. They went toe-to-toe, and I think the American people won. We saw a very good energetic debate where we saw two very clearly defined positions on practically every issue.
BERMAN: So, Richard, you're a Democrat. Did you also drink some of that truth serum with Ana?
(LAUGHTER)
RICHARD SOCARIDES, DEMOCRATIC ANALYST: I missed the truth serum this morning. Listen, I think that Joe Biden gets an A-plus from Democrats, certainly, for last night. He did everything he had to do. All that smiling, all those facial expressions did exactly what he needed to do after we saw, you know, a relatively flat President Obama last week.
I do think that Representative Ryan did OK. I mean, I think under very difficult circumstances, you know, he looked like someone who knew, you know, a little bit about what he was talking about, but I think when some of the stuff he says today gets fact checked, it will not hold up as well, and I think Joe Biden was fantastic.
BERMAN: One of the most important sentences you said there was Democrats are happy. Democrats are energized. And one of the things we have seen in this election, so far, is turning somewhat a base election, which side wants to turn out for their side more. Do you think, and I'll ask both of you this, do you think this was enough to get Democrats back in the game mentally and emotionally?
SOCARIDES: I think it was exactly enough, exactly what was required, and the interesting thing is going to be that if Barack Obama can pull this out and get re-elected, he's going to owe this election to two old-line Democrats. He's going to owe it to Joe Biden and Bill Clinton.
NAVARRO: I think he did what he had to do, he stopped the bleeding. If we saw the way the polls were trending, if we saw the effects of the debate from, you know, the first presidential debate, things were going real bad real quick for President Obama and his camp. Yesterday, Joe Biden stopped the bleeding.
Now, it's entirely on Obama's and Romney's court. It's up to Obama to reverse the trend, but Joe Biden yesterday did stop the bleeding. Had Joe Biden lost yesterday, today, we would be giving his political (INAUDIBLE). Today, we would be saying it was the final nail in that coffin, but he didn't. We've still got a race on our hands.
SAMBOLIN: All right. So, let's go back to some of those moments from last night. Joe Biden did a lot of smiling. I want to play some of these moments and then talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: What we're saying is deny those loopholes and deductions.
BIDEN: -- detected my frustration with their attitude about the American people. My friend says that 30 percent of the American people are takers. Romney points out 47 percent of the people won't take responsibility. He's talking about my mother and father. He's talking about the places I grew up in, my neighbors in Scranton and Claymont.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So, guys, a lot of smiling there.
(CROSSTALK)
SOCARIDES: So much smiling in that clip.
(CROSSTALK)
NAVARRO: This is when I start interrupting you like Joe Biden did yesterday with Paul Ryan, hardly can get through a sentence. And I could -- we could smile and -- you know, see how that goes early in the morning. SOCARIDES: That was the one time he wasn't smiling, right? That was the one time in the whole debate he wasn't smiling in that clip you showed. But, I think he had to do that because Obama was -- President Obama was so flat last week. You know, President Obama just sort of sat there and took these punches.
Biden had to do something to show how incredulous he was, and that's why you saw all the smiling. I mean, he smiles anyway, but that's why I think it was so effective. It may have turned some people off, but the people he was talking to, people he was addressing, needed to see that.
NAVARRO: But you and I know Joe Biden, and it's hard to get a word in edge-wise with Joe Biden. I think we saw some of that last night, and Joe Biden does smile a lot and does show a lot of emotion.
The problem was, last night, a lot of that emotion was fake emotion, and he was, you know, doing gesturing and facial expressions that were overly dramatized and were intended to be faked, and I think it came across that way. I would have liked my friend, Joe, to take this thing seriously and do a little less of the drama.
SOCARIDES: Can I tell you? I think he took it deadly seriously, and I think that what you saw was real emotion. You saw the -- you saw the outrage that -- he shared the outrage of many Democrats like myself who thought to themselves what was President Obama doing, you know, doing nothing last week, and that's why you saw such emotion. That was real emotion.
BERMAN: All right. In the tradition of Joe Biden, I'm going to have to interrupt you both, and in the tradition of both the candidates, I'll say my friend, Richard Socarides, my friend, Ana Navarro, thank you for being here.
SAMBOLIN: And I'll say our friends.
(CROSSTALK)
SAMBOLIN: We'll invite you back in the next hour. You can continue talking.
All right. Fact versus fiction. Vice president Biden and Paul Ryan threw out a lot of claims about Medicare last night, but was it actually factually true? We're going to break it down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: It is 47 minutes past the hour. After last night's vice presidential debate, many Americans must still be wondering which party will better preserve Medicare. Both candidates claim their opponent's plan will leave millions of seniors down a slippery slope.
So, what exactly are the plans, and which one is better? Time for a Medicare fact check. Here's Tom Foreman.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John, Zoraida. Medicare, as you know, is a government health insurance program for people mostly over the age of 65. About 50 million Americans depend on this program, and its long-term financial future is pretty shaky, but here's the really scary part. Each campaign says the other side's plans for dealing with it are terrible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: Obamacare takes $716 billion from Medicare to spend on Obamacare.
BIDEN: All you seniors out there, have you been denied choices? Have you lost Medicare advantage?
RYAN: They haven't put a credible solution on the table.
BIDEN: Their ideas are old, and their ideas are bad, and they eliminate the guarantee of Medicare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOREMAN: This is their essential claim that my opponent will destroy Medicare, but is that really true? Let's take a look at some of the facts and consider it. I'll bring in some tools here and look at the White House plan to begin with. This is the landscape they're dealing with. The cost of Medicare is going to generally increase over the next ten years until it reaches about a trillion dollars annually.
They want to reduce that by about 10 percent. That's the orange part here. That's the part they're cutting out. Now, their opponents look at that and say that's real care for real people that you're getting rid of, and you just can't do that, but the White House says hold on, no, it's not. That's a reduction in the amount of money that we're paying to the administrative costs of hospitals and to insurance programs. In a word, they say, that is waste. We can get rid of it, and we should get rid of it. That's the White House take on things. Now, if you bring in the Romney/Ryan plan, you'll see the landscape is just the same, they have same increase. They also want to reduce it by about 10 percent, but they want to rely on the private sector, not government, to get that done.
In a word, they're going for vouchers. Now, they don't like calling it vouchers, but that's really what it is. Right now, if you're on Medicare, what happens is the government pays Medicare. Medicare pays the hospital. The hospital takes care of you. Under this plan, the government would pay you, and you would decide if you wanted to buy into Medicare or into private insurance.
That will create competition between the two, and their theory, and that is how you get at that very same waste that the White House wants to get at. These are two very complicated, huge programs. There are critics on both sides who say this plan won't work or that plan won't work, or this plan will leave people stranded or that plan will leave people stranded.
But the truth is, it is complicated. It's hard to deal wit all of that. So, if you go to this basic claim that both sides raise here that somehow this is all about destroying Medicare, that is simply false. That is a scare tactic no matter which side is saying it. So, why are they saying it so much? All you have to do is look at the map, and you know.
Across the country, the baby boomers are getting older. They're becoming a bigger percentage of the voting population fast. All those dark states is where the percentage is highest. And look at Florida down here, battle ground state, more than 17 percent of the population there is over the age of 65. These are engaged voters.
They are voters who show up when it's time to vote, and, they're very concerned about Medicare, even though both sides say neither plan is going to affect people over the age of 65 right now. They're engaged on this issue, and whichever side wins the Medicare debate will probably win a lot of senior votes.
BERMAN: All right. Our thanks to Tom Foreman with some very cool graphics there.
5:51 right now. Malarkey, conflating, shirtless, that's just a few of the top search terms on Google during last night's debate. We have Google's election team coming up live, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Welcome back, everyone. Fifty-four minutes after the hour. So, move over, Big Bird. The latest online debate trending buzzword is "malarkey".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: So, what else was burning up the internet during last night's vice presidential debate? Abbi Tatton closely monitored the online trends during and immediately after the debate with the Google election team. As many of you recall, Tatton is a former CNN internet reporter. Nice to have you. So, we know that malarkey trended. What other breakout terms did you see last night?
ABBI TATTON, GOOGLE.COM/ELECTIONS: Well, I think hen people are looking at the Google searches happening in real-time around this debate, one of the main things was people were trying to figure out what is the vice president talking about, because it was malarkey, but it was also the word conflating which Biden used in the first hour, and I think people were really trying to figure out.
You could see people asking on social networks, is that a word? Maybe it wasn't one they heard before. So, people using Google as a dictionary a little bit. And the other thing that we see throughout the debates is people want to know what other people think about who is winning. So, who is winning the debate is another one of the breakout searches last night. BERMAN: One of the things I also like that you did so interesting is you combine -- you find out what they searched with in conjunction to the candidate's names.
TATTON: Exactly. When you're searching on Google, you're not always just putting in somebody's name, right? You're putting it with bio or issue or whatever it might be. So, both the candidates last night as they were talking, there were two things. People wanted to know about the other person in the debate.
People wanted to know the ages of these two candidates, very different ages there on stage. But then, looking at the differences between the two searches were pretty interesting. For Vice President Joe Biden, people wanted to know about him laughing. He did that a few times during the hour and a half last night, also about Jill Biden, Dr. Jill Biden.
Very different for Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan shirtless, Paul Ryan workout. These are search terms that Paul Ryan cannot shake. As soon as he was mentioned as the running mate, shirtless ha been one of the leading related searches.
BERMAN: During the debate, people are saying Paul Ryan shirtless?
TATTON: Well, they're talking about Afghanistan, Iran, the ayatollahs and people are searching for what does he look like without his shirt on.
SAMBOLIN: Well, because it's such a big deal everybody is talking about it. I got to tell you, I must admit that I also Googled it because everybody -- this was early on, though. Anyway, so how did these terms compare to last week?
TATTON: Well, they were -- there's been a lot of interest, and I think it's just building and building. I think one thing that was interesting about last night taking a step back and not just looking at the debate but searches in general around the country, how they compared to pop culture and entertainment, the vice presidential debate last night was more search than things like Miley Cyrus and baseball. So, people are really getting interested in this election at this point.
SAMBOLIN: Wow!
BERMAN: All right. Abbi Tatton from Google, it's great to see you, an old friend. Very nice to see you here. Thanks very much.
And we will be right back with something awesome. Count on it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: Good morning. After the vice presidential debate and there's a lot of talk about Paul Ryan pumping iron. It's our late night laughs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": This is a big -- today, "Time" magazine published a bunch of pictures of Paul Ryan working out. Have you guys seen these?
Take a look at this one here. Yes! Right there. This is one that really got me. I like this one. Next vice president of the United States! Looks like screech from saved by the bell, doesn't it? Backwards hat, come to the debate. Stay for the gun show.
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Pages taken as part of a shoot that would have been published if Ryan was picked as "Time's" person of the year last year. Why would he make this his person of the year photo?
Looks like the after shot on a billboard for lap band surgery and why would he pose like this? I would honestly rather have a sex tape released than these -- that picture, he looks like a backup dancer for 'n sync there.
A guy who guards the keg at a frat party. I love the backdrop here. Because it looks like he's working out in a sears portrait studio or something. This one is the best. This is the poster -- this is a poster Rush Limbaugh has hanging over his bed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: All right, the intense fascination is because he works out to P-95x, which is really an intense workout. But that's --
BERMAN: That's why you're Googling him shirtless.
SAMBOLIN: I did it for my job.
BERMAN: EARLY START continues right now.
