Thursday night brought us the one and only Vice Presidential debate of the 2012 cycle between Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan. The debate took place at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. The moderator was Martha Raddatz, ABC’s Chief Foreign Correspondent.
Watch the complete 90 minute video:
Transcript: Full VP Debate Transcript (Updated link to CPD transcript)
Original Air Date: Thursday, October 11, 2012
Report from Fox News:
Paul Ryan opened the vice presidential debate Thursday with tough criticism of the Obama administration over its handling of the Libya terror attack, suggesting it was “projecting weakness” with its response.
“What we are watching on our TV screens is the unraveling of the Obama foreign policy,” Ryan said on the debate stage in Kentucky.Biden was quick to retort: “With all due respect, that’s just a bunch of malarkey,” he said. “This talk about this weakness, I don’t understand what my friend’s talking about.”
After President Obama’s lackluster debate last week, the pressure was on Biden to recapture the momentum – while equally on Ryan to prevent the Obama ticket from blunting Romney’s surge.
With the moderator, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, opening the debate with a question about the Libya strike, which happened a month ago Thursday, Ryan criticized the administration for waiting more than a week after the strike to call it a coordinated terror attack.
“This is becoming more troubling by the day. They first blamed the YouTube video. Now they’re trying to blame the Romney/Ryan ticket for making this an issue,” he said. Ryan was referring to a claim by an Obama aide earlier Thursday that the only reason the attack had entered the political debate was because of Romney’s criticism – a claim Romney rejected.
Vice President Biden was indeed aggressive as the Obama campaign had predicted ahead of time. Congressman Ryan seemed to take the first 10 to 15 minutes to gain his footing but settled in and became a bit more aggressive in response.
The next Presidential Debate between President Obama and Governor Romney is on Tuesday, October 16.
