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Supreme Court to Rule Today on Affirmative Action Case; First Congressional Hearing on the Attack in Libya; Romney's Bump: Will it Last?; Campaigns Downplay Skills, Praise Rivals; Mitt Romney Stumps in Ohio; Christie Introduced Romney; Romney Speech in Mount Vernon, Ohio
Aired October 10, 2012 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: As a parent to wonder what it's like if your kid's going to make it.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, because the two men have never gone head to head against each other, in this debate just like last week's, anything could happen.
Anderson Cooper, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": That's it for me. Thanks for watching.
She's no Don Lemon, but that's probably a good thing. Ashleigh Banfield picks it up from here.
Take it away, Ashleigh.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Don Lemon, awesome to see you. Thank you, my friend.
Hi, everybody, good to see you, too. It's 11:00 on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m., wake up, on the West Coast because we've got talking to do.
Right now in Washington, the ultimate judges of right and wrong in America are faced with a question that they and we and generations before us have been asking and answering in many different ways. How much does skin color matter?
If you think it's a closed book, well, Abigail Fisher may have thought so, too, until she got a rejection letter from the University of Texas in 2008. Race is one of several factors that UT considers in applicants who don't get in automatically based on their grades.
Abigail says her race may have cost her a Texas education and, today as we speak, the highest court in the land is hearing her very case.
It is the Supreme Court's first so-called "affirmative action" case in a full decade almost and the outcome of this case could reach far beyond college admissions.
CNN's senior legal analyst and an expert on the Supreme Court, Jeffrey Toobin, joins me this hour, live from San Francisco.
And, Jeff, before I tap into your extraordinary wealth of expertise on the Supreme Court and get your insight, I want to lay some groundwork and let our colleague, Joe Johns, come in first and tell everyone just more about how this case came to be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Abigail fisher dream of going to the University of Texas at Austin for most of her life. After applying, she didn't get in, attending Louisiana State University instead.
But the rejection from UT led Fisher to file a lawsuit against the school claiming she was squeezed out, unfairly denied admission because of her race. She's white.
She said in a statement, "There were people in my class with lower grades who weren't in all the activities I was in who were being accepted into UT and the only other difference between us was the color of our skin."
She declined an interview with CNN.
Edward Blum recruited Abigail Fisher to file the lawsuit.
EDWARD BLUM, PROJECT ON FAIR REPRESENTATION: The most important question is should a university judge a student by his or her skin color when it comes time for admission? And the answer is no.
JOHNS: Here's how the admissions process at UT works. The top 10 percent of each high school class statewide gets in automatically.
For those below the top 10 percent like Abigail Fisher who was in the 11th percent, the university uses what it calls a "holistic review" where race is one of many factors considered, one that university president Bill Powers says doesn't get much weight and didn't play a role in Fisher's rejection.
BILL POWERS, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN: We take ethnicity as one of many, many factors in a holistic review to make sure that the three-quarters coming in under automatic admission, that we add to that with a quarter coming in where we can look for these other characteristics, including diversity.
BRADLEY POOLE, PRESIDENT, UT BLACK STUDENT ALLIANCE: I think she's fighting the wrong fight.
JOHNS: Minority student leaders on campus like Bradley Poole agree with Powers that the process is fair despite Fisher's claims.
POOLE: Seeing as race is probably one of the least parts of the holistic review process, I feel like it's harping on the wrong -- on one of the things that -- on the easiest thing that she could have went against. JOHNS: Others take offense that the lawsuit implies some minority students are less deserving of admission than their white counterparts.
CATHERINE RODARTE, STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN: To hear people saying that some of us Latinos got in here easily and the only reason we got in here is because of our race, that's really disappointing. We work just as hard as anyone else did to get here to UT.
JOHNS: But conservative groups siding with Fisher argue it's not just about getting in. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission says that studies show that using racial preferences can hurt minorities by starting them out near the bottom of their classes.
GAIL HERIOT, U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHT: If they're towards the bottom of whatever class they go to, they are much more likely to give up on an ambition to major in science and engineering.
JOHNS: Almost a decade ago, then-Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote a majority opinion that said that the University of Michigan law school had a compelling interest in promoting class diversity and suggested affirmative action might still be needed for another 25 years.
O'Connor has since left the court, leading to speculation that the court's conservatives could now strike a blow to preferences.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Thank you, Joe Johns.
So Jeff Toobin, this is the question. Does this Texas case raise any new and distinctive questions about this, about affirmative action, or is this one of those second bites at the apple, merely another opportunity for a different Supreme Court with brand-new justices to kill what some people call reverse discrimination?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the court could do either of two things in this case. They could treat it as similar to the Grutter case, the case from the University of Michigan nine years ago, or they could simply just overrule Grutter.
What makes this case so important is that there was no conflict in the lower courts about these cases. The court really reached out and found this case which really indicates that they are interested in overturning what has been the law of the land for the past nine years.
BANFIELD: Well, that sounds surprising to a lot of people who don't know that that can happen. Most people think this is a vicious battle to the very end, the end being the Supreme Court, but you're saying this is a new statement as to where we are.
And you just heard Joe Johns talk about Sandra Day O'Connor, referring to 25 years being the possible battle ahead in order for affirmative action to effectuate what it means to effectuate.
My question is this. We're only around 10 years or so into what Sandra Day O'Connor thought would be a quarter-century effort. Is this the beginning of the conversation towards the end of the need for affirmative action?
TOOBIN: Well, it certainly seems to be, given the composition of the court. What matters at the Supreme Court is who is on the Supreme Court. Precedents can change. Rulings can change.
The replacement of O'Connor by Samuel Alito has changed the court in many ways. It is -- Alito is clearly a much more conservative justice. He has indicated in other cases much more skepticism, even hostility, to the idea of any sort of racial preferences. Chief Justice Roberts, also very uncomfortable with any sort of racial preferences.
This case seems to suggest that Anthony Kennedy will be the swing vote. We thought that about the health care case. We were wrong, or at least I was wrong about that.
But given the long records that all the justices have on racial and civil rights issues, it really does look like Kennedy will be in the middle of this case.
BANFIELD: So -- and that's fascinating. And we always ask, you know, where do each of these justices seem to stand from what they've done before?
I have a two-pronged question for you about that. Number one, precedent, you mentioned it, because we've been going for nine years on precedent that was established in the Michigan case.
With this case, though, we could end up with a very different decision because one justice can't be involved. Can you explain this?
BANFIELD: Well, Elena Kagan, President Obama's second appointee to the Supreme Court, she has recused herself. She apparently -- the justices don't explain why they recuse themselves, but it seems clear that she worked on this case while she was solicitor general of the United States.
So, that takes a liberal vote away, making the case even harder for the supporters of affirmative action to win in this case.
BANFIELD: What happens if we have 4-4, then, a tie? Does that change the way precedent actually is considered?
TOOBIN: Well, there's a weird rule at the Supreme Court about 4-4 cases. If a case is 4-4, the court does not issue an opinion. It simply affirms the lower court decision, but it doesn't establish a new precedent. It basically kicks the can down the road, a 4-4 decision.
In this case, the University of Texas won in the court of appeals, so it would preserve affirmative action for now, but a 4-4 vote would certainly suggest just how precarious the idea of affirmative action in admissions is.
BANFIELD: And would suggest that that can is going to land down the road with another challenge at the high court which means you and I will have another conversation potentially down the road.
TOOBIN: Sooner rather than later.
BANFIELD: Sooner rather than later.
Jeff Toobin, you are the best in the biz on this, live in San Francisco for us.
There's a reason he's in San Francisco, folks. He is talking about his brand-new book, "The Oath - The Obama White House and the Supreme Court." It's on the bookstands now. Jeff Toobin, thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: The deadly attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya, last month has become one of the most contentious issues in this current battle for the White House.
We've got some live pictures for you of Capitol Hill and it's important because the first congressional hearing on the attack and everything that surrounded it is about to get underway and that's about 47 minutes or so away from now.
Expected to testify at the hearing, two senior State Department officials in charge of embassy security, not just in Libya but around the world. And also expected to testify, other State Department and military officials as well.
Here's the critical question, though. Was there a breakdown in security and intelligence? And if there was, why was there a breakdown?
Arwa Damon, who arrived in Benghazi shortly after the attack, pieces together how it came down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Amid the ashes, soot and debris, remnants of the life that was. It's all that remained in the unguarded U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi when CNN arrived on the scene three days after the September 11th attack.
Eyewitnesses told us it was a complex assault. The compound's first line of defense easily breached.
According to one of the Libyan guards who was stationed at the gate, armed with only a radio, the assault happened simultaneously from three different directions.
He says that he initially heard chanting growing increasingly louder and then suddenly the gunfire, the rocket-propelled grenades and other heavy machine-gun fire all began attacking the compound. This is where Ambassador Chris Stevens slept, part of a small suite also meant to be a makeshift safe room. Here on the floor between the bed and the chair is where CNN found the ambassador's journal.
It is also the same room where the ambassador was located hours after the attack first began, separated by smoke from his security detail.
The U.S. initially said the assault was the result of a demonstration turned violent.
SUSAN RICE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Putting together the best information that we have available to us today, our current assessment is that what happened in Benghazi was, in fact, initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted, of course, by the video.
DAMON: That was not the case. The State Department is now saying that there was nothing unusual prior to the attack.
At 8:30 p.m., everything was calm and just over an hour later, armed men launched their assault.
Libyan officials say they warned the Americans on many occasions about the growing threat from extremists. The compound had already been attacked in June and there had been numerous attacks on other Western interests in Benghazi. And yet it remained a poorly fortified, soft target.
Documents recently obtained by CNN indicate that the State Department's top security official in Libya asked for extra security, but received no response from superiors.
Why? It's just one of many questions still to be answered.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And, again, that from our CNN senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon.
So, could this deadly attack in Benghazi have been prevented? That seems to be the $64,000 question and the congressional hearing that I mentioned before is just moments away, hoping to get some answers, but will they?
Our foreign affairs reporter Elise Labott joins me live now from Washington.
I think that's the question, Elise. Are we getting to answers with this, or is this a political stunt to highlight something this close to the election to suggest that the government didn't know what it was doing and could have saved the lives of those men?
ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, it depends who you ask. If you ask Democrats, it's the former. This is a political stunt to damage President Obama just weeks before the election.
But the Republican chair of the committee, Daniel Issa, is saying, listen, something went wrong here. We need to get to the bottom of this.
And indeed you're going to hear today from senior security officials that were posted in Benghazi in months leading up to the attack, not on the day of the attack, posted in Libya that say, look, we did send messages to the State Department asking for additional security, asking for security teams that were on the ground to be extended beyond their mandate over the summer.
And so these requests were apparently either denied or not responded to. And so you'll hear from these security officials, and you'll hear from Charlene Lamb, a deputy assistant secretary who a lot of these requests went to.
And I think a lot of people are wondering why she didn't respond to them, why, perhaps, she denied their requests.
And we're also going to hear from one of the top officials at the State Department, Patrick Kennedy, and who I think is going to argue that what the consulate -- what the diplomatic hosts faced that night could not have been predicted, was unprecedented in recent diplomatic history and no reasonable amount of security could have fended off the 40-some armed -- heavily-armed -- extremists that they found that night, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: But if that's the political answer -- I'm not suggesting that you'll have the answer to this question -- if the political answer is to release last night all of this information to the media, the tick-tock of what happens to Ambassador Stevens and the others, doesn't that still give ammunition to the opponents of President Obama by saying, you should have known better that the entire situation was this ugly and that, even if the security you were requesting wasn't enough for what you now say was unprecedented, well, that should have been a situation that no one should have been there in the first place, our men and our women in that mission shouldn't have been there?
LABOTT: Well, it's a good question and I think they'll also be investigating. We're not going to hear from anyone in the intelligence community. I think perhaps that might be down the line, but certainly there are a lot of people that say this was an intelligence failure.
There were warnings. The Libyans, as Arwa said in her piece, increasingly warning the U.S. about extremists in the area.
We know that the U.S. was very concerned about that. In fact, Ambassador Stevens, in his own diary found by CNN, mentioned a growing extremist presence in the area.
I think today it's going to be about security, it's going to be about whether there was enough and, at the end of the day, what senior officials were telling us in this conference call with reporters last night is, listen, we know that it's risky, but this is what diplomats do. Ambassadors do.
They have to be able to travel through the country and I think you might see a lot more calls for regulations for specific security requirements for ambassadors who travel, but certainly that's going to be one of the questions, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: Yeah, I'm just getting some quick last-minute notes here. Testimony from Allen Nordstrom, Elise, the original security officer who was based in Libya, in Tripoli, in fact, but left before this attack.
And, just quickly as I scan these quick notes, he says, "Well" -- he's going to say -- these are his prepared remarks -- "While I'd loved to have had a large, secured building and tons of security personnel in Benghazi, the fact is that the system we had in place was regularly tested and appeared to work as planned despite high turnover of D.S. agents on the ground."
So, I hope this is less about politics, more about information today ...
LABOTT: Absolutely.
BANFIELD: ... so we're watching it. Elise, thank you. Appreciate that.
And we're going to be monitoring that hearing for you, as it begins and like I said, we're about, say, 41 minutes or so away from the beginning or at least the expected beginning.
Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: A slew of brand-new polls, including polls from CNN, might just have the White House squirming and the Romney campaign doing some high fives. Maybe even popping some champagne corks. Or are they?
Let's take a trip down Memory Lane and look back over the last year or so when it comes to polls. Romney has lost the lead in the polls five times to fellow Republicans. Remember those primaries?
First, it was Michele Bachmann after Iowa. And, by the way, a lot of these poll swings came after debates. A year ago, it was Herman Cain and then it was Newt Gingrich out on top. And remember Rick Perry before his infamous "oops" comment, again, during a debate?
And then there's Romney's longest challenger, Rick Santorum, who sat at the top of the pole position for quite some time. And don't forget, there were 22 of these debates, so plenty of room for swing time.
So, Romney's been here before. This is not his first time at the rodeo, that behind-to-ahead rodeo that we see in the polls quite often.
CNN's political editor, Paul Steinhauser, is live for us in Danville, Kentucky, where the vice presidential debate is just one day away, getting underway tomorrow night.
So, latest polls, obviously, this is a good time for the Romney camp. It's nice to see a big bounce after the debate.
But -- and that's a big but -- polls are finicky things and they have to know in that camp that this is the precarious position, Paul.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Yeah, they're not taking anything for granted, Romney campaign officials saying that, listen, they see polls go up, they see polls go down. They're staying on -- staying with their same strategy.
Ashleigh, thank you for that trip down Memory Lane. I've been covering this race for a year and a half, so I appreciate those memories.
You know what, though? This is interesting. The polls were starting to tighten up even before last week's first debate. Take a look at this, though.
This is our CNN Poll of Polls. This averages the three national surveys of likely voters, live operator, nonpartisan surveys and look at that, Mitt Romney, 48 percent, President Obama, 47 percent.
You know, in the previous polls before the debate, the president had the slight advantage.
OK, that's national. What about the states because the race for the White House is a race for the states and their electoral votes?
Let's go to Ohio, a crucial battleground state, 18 electoral votes. There you go. Our CNN/ORC poll indicates the president with a four- point advantage. Ashleigh, that's within the sampling error. And guess what? The polls done before the first presidential debate had the president with much larger leads.
Let's go to Colorado. Here's an American Research Group poll. You can see Mitt Romney with a four-point advantage, again, within the sampling error, but you know what? You go back a few weeks, the president had the advantage in Colorado.
Similar with other polls in other states that have come out over the last 48 hours, so, yeah, it looks like Mitt Romney has gotten a bounce, but, hey, you've said it and I'll say it as well. Polls are a snapshot of how people feel now. The election is still 27 days away. Polls change all the time, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: Or the president would be up against Herman Cain right now. It's a perfect example, so, real quickly, Paul Steinhauser ...
STEINHAUSER: There you go. BANFIELD: Which would be so fun to cover, I just want to have that out there and I think that Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" rues the day that he dropped that pole position.
So, quickly, you mentioned Ohio and that that poll was closing. There's a great stump effort today with Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, who's so exciting on the trail.
I want your opinion as to whether that is a critical issue going into this debate or whether just the v.p. debate performance is what's critical going into Thursday's big-time in Kentucky?
STEINHAUSER: Yeah, the v.p. debates, you know, usually don't matter that much, but here's why this v.p. debate will matter so much right now because the momentum has shifted to Mitt Romney, so the Romney campaign doesn't want anything to deflect from that. They're hoping for a strong performance from Paul Ryan.
On the other side, of course, the Obama campaign is hoping for a breakout performance from Joe Biden to kind of blunt -- to possibly blunt this rise in the polls by Mitt Romney.
Ashleigh, check this out. "The Thrill in the 'Ville." This is what they're putting out here. And why? Because remember 12 years ago, there was another vice presidential debate right here at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. That was between Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman. Another trip down Memory Lane, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: Do they have anybody doing the voice-over? Let's get ready to thrill? That's really lame. That was my worst attempt at humor this year.
STEINHAUSER: Very nice.
BANFIELD: All right, Paul Steinhauser, thank you. Nice to see you, live in Danville, Kentucky, getting ready for the big night on Thursday.
And you can watch Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan tackling the issues, the big thrill. It's the vice presidential debate, our live coverage begins at 7:00 Eastern tomorrow evening right here at CNN.
And, if you don't have the chance to be in front of a TV, get out your iPad, your laptop, CNN.com has all the action, live, as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALYSSA RIEBER, LYNDON B. JOHNSON GENERAL HOSPITAL, (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
RIEBER: Great. Fantastic.
I think I always wanted to be a doctor. My dad was a physician. So I would always se him going to work. And I was 6 and 7. He was always helping people. And so that was my inspiration.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just three months into her studies, Dr. Alyssa Rieber says her life changed dramatically. Suddenly something she was learning about seemed to apply to her.
RIEBER: I had a big tumor in my chest.
GUPTA: The diagnosis, Hodgkin's lymphoma. That's a cancer of the immune system.
RIEBER: So I then became a patient. It will be 15 years next month. And your world just stops. As a young person who's getting to live my dream of being a doctor, that was very tough.
GUPTA: She knew her prognosis was good, and she was prepared for chemotherapy and radiation, also the inevitable hair loss. With the help of her family and her friends and fellow students as well as her faith, she fought that cancer and was able to stay in medical school. She came to M.D. Anderson in Houston as a fellow. She joined the faculty where she began treating patients at the local county hospital. It provides oncology care to the underserved and indigent.
RIEBER: I'm so happy for you.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
GUPTA: The patients who came to see Rieber are not only seeing a doctor but also a survivor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What made me feel a whole lot better the first time I was here.
RIEBER: And lived through it, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
RIEBER: And I'm fine.
GUPTA: Rieber not only runs a survivorship program, last year, she became the director of this cancer program.
RIEBER: What have you been able to do?
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: The low expectations game continues on the campaign trail. You might remember before last week's big presidential debate, both of the sides of that debate were downplaying their own debating skills. Expectations. And at the same time, they were pointing out their rival's strengths. Expectations. And now ahead of tomorrow's vice presidential debate, same old, same old. Mitt Romney is setting the bar low for his running mate, Paul Ryan.
Governor Romney sat down for an exclusive interview with our Wolf Blitzer yesterday, and he's live with me now.
Before we talk about that, I want to listen specifically to what the governor had to say about expectations, Wolf. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are you confident, Governor, that Paul Ryan will take on Joe Biden Thursday night the way you took on the president?
MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I don't know how Paul will deal with this debate. Obviously, the vice president has done, I don't know, 15 or 20 debates during his lifetime. Experienced debater. This is, I think, Paul's first debate. I may be wrong. He may have done something in high school, I don't know. But it will be a new experience for Paul. But I'm sure he'll do fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So Wolf, here's my question. Does anybody at this stage of the game, one week later, think that setting low expectations actually helped Mitt Romney in his win over President Obama, or was it all about performance on that stage?
BLITZER: There's no doubt that Mitt Romney did a very good job in the debate against the president. We were expecting -- I think everyone, especially the president's own supporters, his advisors, his friends, they were supporting, he would do a much better job. The expectations for the president, you know, he won a tough campaign four years ago, including against Hillary Clinton. Then he won against John McCain. He did fine in those debates. And now he's been president of the United States for four years. So they were expecting he would do an excellent job. Obviously, he did not do an excellent job.
Right now, looking ahead to the debate tomorrow night, Ashleigh, I think these are both really qualified, smart guys. Joe Biden's got a ton of experience. But let's not forget, Paul Ryan, he's only in his early 40s, but he's been around in Washington for 20 years, going back to when he worked for Jack Kemp, when he worked for Bill Bennett in power of America. He's got a ton of Washington experience as well. And when it comes to domestic economic issues, budget-related issues, he's really at the top of his game. Where he is vulnerable, in my opinion, will be on some of the national security issues. This is an area where Biden really knows his stuff. He was a former chairman of the foreign relations committee, obviously. He's been vice president of the United States for these past four years. So we'll see how they do on the national security foreign policy issues. But on domestic issues, that will be a strong match.
BANFIELD: So, Wolf, is the Obama camp looking to Joe Biden at this point to try to pick up some of this lost ground at least in the polls anyway? And if so, are they using the expectations game the same way that we saw Mitt Romney using the expectations game? Are they trying to suggest that Joe Biden might not do that well?
BLITZER: No, they're pretty confident in Joe Biden. They think he'll do well. I don't think they believe, and it's probably unrealistic to think that the Biden/Ryan debate will turn things around all that dramatically unless one of these guys makes a major, major flub, it probably won't. What could turn things around, once again, just as the first debate turned things in Romney's favor, what could turn things around is the second presidential debate which is going to be taking place next week, that town hall format. Candy Crowley, of CNN, being the moderator for that debate. that could turn things around if the president comes out and does a really great job and Romney has an off day, let's say. But, you know, let's get through this vice presidential debate first and see how these two guys do.
BANFIELD: I know, I'm excited. I'm as excited for this one as I was for the first Sarah Palin debate.
BLITZER: That excited, wow.
BANFIELD: Isn't that crazy?
BLITZER: Yes.
BANFIELD: I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to this stuff, as you are, I know.
Big tease ahead, Wolf, because Wolf Blitzer and all of our colleagues will be very busy. Live coverage begins tomorrow evening, 7:00 p.m. eastern right here, CNN, and also CNN.com.
Thanks, Wolf.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Mitt Romney battling for votes in the all-important state of Ohio today. You hear everybody talk about Ohio, and there are some new polls that show the gap between the candidates is closing in Ohio, that critical state. Governor Romney is in Mount Vernon, Ohio, where he's holding a town hall meeting set to start literally seconds from now. He's in the building with Governor Chris Christie from New Jersey. The two of them are set to take the stage together. So it should be fun to watch. That's for sure.
Jim Acosta is there live. He's been following the governor.
So I heard they're in the building. They're still doing some glad- handing, meeting people in the crowd. Set the stage of the people and that particular location before they begin to speak live.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Ashleigh, and we got a sneak preview of the message from these two politicians last night at a joint event that they had in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in the northern part of the state. Right now we're just north of Columbus, Ohio. And we heard Chris Christie warming up the crowd. He was a runner-up in the vice presidential selection process for Romney, but he is a popular trail buddy, if you will, out on the campaign trail for Mitt Romney. And we heard Chris Christie say last night at that event in Cuyahoga Falls -- and going back to a line that President Obama used at an event recently when he said he couldn't change Washington from the inside, that it has to be changed from the outside. And Chris Christie said last night at that event that, well, President Obama should go ahead and take that trip back to Chicago if he can't change Washington from the inside. So we may hear that line again from Chris Christie. But it's going to be interesting to watch this event here in the next few moments, Ashleigh. This will be a town hall event. So Mitt Romney and Chris Christie presumably will be taking questions from the audience here. One of the questions that's been raise in the last 24 hours is about the issue of abortion. Mitt Romney in an editorial board meeting with "The Des Moines Register" yesterday talked about how he would not pursue legislation that would restrict abortion rights in this country. So it will be interesting to see if that question comes up. These kinds of questions don't typically come up, but it could.
BANFIELD: I want to just jump in because he's a terrific orator, and I want to hear some of the comments live from Chris Christie. Let's listen in for a moment.
CHRIS CHRISTIE, (D), GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY: -- the truth about these problems and that some of the solutions aren't going to be easy, and they may hurt. But we know the answers. And what we're missing now more than anything else, in my opinion, is someone to grab us all by the hand and lead us there, to say, I know the way, and so do you. And I will take the shots that are necessary. I will take the hits that are necessary. I will take the criticism that will come from those who want to pursue the easier path because that's what you're hiring me to do. And that's what this election's really about in my opinion, everybody. It's who's going to do that. And if you look at the two choices we have, there's no doubt in my mind that the man who understands how to make success happen in this country, the man who understands the true power of the American people, the person who understands that government is not the solution to these problems.
And Karen said this -- and she said I might say it this way, so I'm going to say it, Karen. We've got to get government the hell out of the way and let you succeed.
(APPLAUSE)
CHRISTIE: I'll end with this. I watched the Democratic National Convention a few weeks ago. I did it as a sacrifice and a service to my nation.
(LAUGHTER)
I made sure my son, Patrick, brought me a big bottle of water so I could remain hydrated at all times. I did not want to lose consciousness.
(LAUGHTER)
I wanted to hear all of it. And the biggest difference in this election is not some of the things that Governor Romney is saying. Because I'm an old prosecutor, and when you're winning as a prosecutor, what you do is you don't use your own words. You use the words of the person that you're making the case against.
So remember this. At that convention, the president's people, his party, said this is what they stand for, "Government is the only thing that we all belong to." Now, I want you to listen to that phrase really carefully now one more time. "Government is the only thing we all belong to." Well, see, I come from New Jersey. And there's a lot more Democrats than Republicans in New Jersey. Take my word for it. I'm an endangered species there.
(LAUGHTER)
But even in New Jersey, they taught me this simple truth. We don't belong to government. The government belongs to us.
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CHRISTIE: And I am proud to be here today with a man who understands that to his very core, who understands that the true power and majesty of this country is in its people and their ingenuity, their integrity and their work ethic, all of which is displayed here at this company, ingenuity, integrity and a great work ethic. He will unleash your power to remake America again. He is my friend, and I will guarantee this, everybody. You're about to hear from the next president of the United States of America, Mitt Romney.
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ROMNEY: Thank you. Thank you.
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ROMNEY: Congressman, Chris, thank you. Thank you so much.
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ROMNEY: Thank you. Very generous. Thank you.
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ROMNEY: Thank you.
Thank you so much. Jim, thank you.
Thank you, Chris, for those words and that generous introduction.
Good to have Governor Christie here. I'm sorry to take him away from New Jersey for the day, but he's on the bus with me and your great Senator, Rob Portman.
Thank you, Senator Portman, also for being here with us and getting us started today.
(APPLAUSE) ROMNEY: Thank you, Congressman Gibbs for getting us started as well. You're going to get re-elected. We need you in Washington. I look forward to that, Congressman.
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ROMNEY: And special thanks also to Karen and Jim. Jim, who got this going, who figured out how to design a pump that the world now considers the world's standard.
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ROMNEY: Thank you, Jim, for your great work.
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ROMNEY: Stand up so people know who you are. Stand up. Oh, everyone else is standing up. They can't --
(LAUGHTER)
Thank you.
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ROMNEY: For those that are -- now, I'm hardly an expert on compressors, but for those who don't know what Jim did, he designed -- he didn't just manufacture these pumps from someone else's drawings, he designed the technology, made the technology work that creates the pumps that are still that is are still being used today and that are that world standard and built this enterprise.
And, in fact, Jim, you and your family and these people who are sitting around us, you did build it. This was not, not by government. Thank you, Jim.
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ROMNEY: Now, Karen is around here somewhere. Where did she go? Right there in the center. She's running the operation now. Learned from her mom and dad and is running this business masterfully well. Congratulations. I appreciate your comments and your words, and Chris Christie stealing your limelight. That's simply not fair. I'm glad he blurted it out. That was very helpful.
Let me also tell you how appreciative I am of something we share. Karen and my wife are both breast cancer survivors.
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ROMNEY: Champions. Champions. Thank you, Karen.
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Karen was kind to remind me this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And gave me this pin, which I'm wearing this morning, in her honor and the honor of my wife and the honor of all the women across America who have battled this terrible disease and know of our commitment to defeat it and to provide long lives to our fellow citizens.
This is an important time for America. And I appreciate your willingness to stop production for a few hours, hopefully, not too long here, and to let me have a chance to speak to you. I'm going to turn to you for questions in just a few moments and let you ask any questions you would like. I'll answer some. And if they're real tough, I'll have Chris answer them.
(LAUGHTER)
So you can think of those questions.
A few words before we get going. We had a debate last week, actually about a week ago, and that was a good experience. I enjoyed that.
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ROMNEY: We spoke about important things. I think the president and I were each able to describe a vision of where we'd take the country. And our views were quite different. The president would install Obama-care. And it's been shown that the cost of Obama-care per family is about $2,500 more. I would instead appeal Obama-care and replace Obama-care with real reforms that bring down the cost of health care and save people money.
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The president indicated that you're going to see higher taxes under his administration. You already have under Obama-care, but that will continue. Actually, the vice president blurted out the truth by saying that he's going to add about a trillion dollars in taxes. And taxes, by the way, do not create jobs. Raising taxes on people make it harder for enterprises to grow and hire people. I will not raise taxes on small business. I'll not raise tax on business. I'll not raise taxes on middle income people. I won't raise taxes at all on the American people. It's a very different approach.
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ROMNEY: When the president was running as a candidate four years ago, he looked at the deficits under President Bush and found them to be excessive and un-American. They're about half as large as the ones he has put in place over each of the last four years. He said he was going to cut the deficit in half. He doubled it. There's no question if he was going to be re-elect, we would see trillion dollar deficits again and again and again. Our national debt now is almost the same as our total economy, our GDP. This slows down the economy. It makes it harder for businesses to grow and hire more people and to raise wages. So unlike the president, when I finally get this shot, I will cap federal spending. I will cut federal spending and get us on track to a balanced budget.
(APPLAUSE) ROMNEY: There are other differences as well. The president is planning on, through Obama-care, cutting Medicare for our current retirees by $716 billion. I think that's wrong. I think we must honor the promise made to our seniors. I will restore that funding and make sure we protect Medicare and Social Security.
One more thing I'll mention. The president's budget calls for shrinking our military by hundreds of billions of dollars and then the sequestration idea the White House came up with cuts it another few hundred billion. The secretary of defense has called those kinds of cuts devastating to our national security. I will not cut our military. I'll restore that funding and keep our military second to none in the world.
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ROMNEY: Now, there's one more place where you saw a distinction between the two of us. We were asked about how we would get the economy going and create jobs. I hope you listened carefully to the president's response because what he said was reminiscent of what he said four years ago with stem husband and hiring more government workers and raising taxes. Those things don't create jobs. Those don't help the private sector employ more people and expand. Those don't encourage entrepreneurs to start new businesses. His plans do not create jobs for the American people or rising incomes. I actually have a plan that will create 12 million new jobs and get rising incomes again.
By the way, the median income of an American family over the last four years has gone down $4,300 a family. That's even as gasoline, as you know, has doubled in price, food costs are up, health care premiums are up $2,500 a person. These have been tough times for middle income families. So my plan, one, creates more jobs and, two, gets rising take-home pay again.
How do I do it? I've got five things I'll do to get this economy going. Number one, we're going to take full advantage of our oil, our gas, our coal, our nuclear, and our renewables.
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ROMNEY: What you have seen over the last four years, as you know, is additional exploration and production coming from private lands, from private lands, on government land, on government land. And in government waters the production is not up. As a matter of fact, oil production on government land is down I think 11 percent last year. Gas production down. I think it's 16 percent. But both are down. That's the wrong direction. If I'm president, I will double the number of permits and licenses on federal lands and in federal waters, and we're going to get the federal lands and federal waters to produce more energy just like the private sector is doing now on private lands.
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ROMNEY: Number two, we're going to have more trade. We're going to open up more trade in Latin America. We're going to crack down on cheaters. China has cheated in trade over the years. We can't have unfair trade practices. Number two, we're going to make trade work for us.
Number three, we're going to have great training programs, so people who lose employment opportunities will find new ones in real jobs, and we're going to fix our schools by making sure we put our kids and their parents and the teachers first. We'll put the interest of the teachers union behind. We want to make our kids first when it comes to education.
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BANFIELD: You're watching Mitt Romney who is addressing a friendly crowd in Mount Vernon, Ohio. And you heard him reference at the top of his comments that he is at a manufacturing plant that manufactures gas compressors. These are the comments that speak well to this particular crowd being introduced by Governor Chris Christie, of New Jersey, who has that terrific line, "Government needs to get the H.E. double hockey sticks out of the way so businesses can let you succeed."
Also want to bring up something as well that was brought up by Chris Christie, and that is the issue of the Democratic National Convention. He made a great joke about it. But he also said that in the video at the Democratic National Convention, it was said a government is the only thing that we all belong to. Now, via "Politico," the Obama administration, the campaign has come out before, against that campaign on the trail that, said the video that was played was actually produced by the city of Charlotte, and it has nothing to do with the Obama for America Campaign or the Democratic National Committee. That came from the city of Charlotte, regardless of what you feel. The speech continues, as does our coverage. We have a lot more ahead.
NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL is getting ready to get underway with its coverage of what's going on around the world. Suzanne Malveaux, usually that is her program, but today we have the fantastic Fredricka Whitfield standing in for Suzanne.
In the meantime, thanks for being with us. See you tomorrow.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, Ashleigh.
Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. We're taking you around the world in 60 minutes.
Here's what's going on right now. It starts right now on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are demanding answer about that attack at the U.S. consulate in Libya that left the ambassador and three other Americans dead.
