and talk about who came out on top. and rick perry called it a ponzi scheme before. a big lie being told to the american people. so we ask you, the voters if you avee. your answer's ahead. and i'm carol costello. president obama steps up for his jobs bill but are republicans willing to compromise and are you willing to give up popular tax deductions to help pay for the plan on this "american morning." good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, september 13th. welcome to "american morning." >> more from ali on last night's debate just ahead, but first, two big breaking stories. it's 6:00 a.m. eastern. >> right. first to afghanistan where the u.s. embassy in kabul is under attack right now. it appears tackers enter a nearby building under construction and are now firing rocket propelled grenades at the embassy. suzanne malveaux is live at the capital there. what's happening there? >> i don't think we have her. >> reporter: we're about a mile and a half away. can you hear me now? can you hear me? >> yes, suzanne we hear you. >> reporter: can you hear me now? okay. they can hear me. we're about a mile and a half away from what is taking place. heard explosions and gunfire from where we are. essentially we are getting information from the afghan police and eyewitnesses saying it happened about 40, 45 minutes ago. the story is just unfolding. we thought perhaps it was a small situation. it has turned into a much bigger situation. a group of armed men in a vehicle that pulled up close to the u.s. embassy went into an abandoned building close to the embassy. began firing on the u.s. embassy using light weapons and grenades. rocked propelled grenades. we have spoken to in the u.s. embassy, a spokeswoman who is not able to give us much information but in a duck and cover mode. ordered to essentially take cover inside of the embassy. we nope the police, the afghan police as well as the army are involved in this kind of back and forth that is taking place outside of the embassy that was under attack. we have heard some explosions. we know there were -- there was gunfire and explosions earlier. we know from an eyewitness that he saw this group of men run out of the vehicle and run into that abandoned building across from the embassy. we also know from a cnn producer who that reached a spokesman for the taliban, they have taken responsibility for this attack. they have released a statement. they have told us in their words, we attacked kabul city. our target, the u.s. embassy, governmental organizations and other organizations. we are prepared with heavy and light weapons such as grenades and rocket pra pelled grenades. coming directly from the taliban spokesman. what is taking place now is difficult to say, just what is taking place. we do know that there is a private contractor, security contractor, that is responsible for outside protect the u.s. embassy. overseen by the u.s. military. a very heavy international and military presence around the embassy. there just two days ago for the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. is a fortified structure. there is lots of security. it is difficult to get inside, but clearly, this is an insurgent, a taliban attack against the u.s. embassy. if we have more information on casualties, on fay fatalities w will certainly let you know. >> thank you, suzanne malveaux. we'll check in as news warrants. thanks. >> imagine being inside that embassy, duck and cover. get under tables and chairs and hope for the best. >> a massive structure with lots of security. one hopes they're prepared for this type of thing and it's an attack that will be repelled. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad will release two american hikers with two days. shane bauer and josh fattal sentenced back in august to eight years in prison. their attorney says they will be released as soon as $500,000 bail is paid for each of them. >> now to the candidates. the candidates who faced off at last night's debate. ali velshi is live where it all happened in tampa, florida. good morning, ali. >> good morning, carol and christine. a lot of news this morning, that this is the third story in the news, but for a lot of people, a very, very important night last night. we're live at the florida state fairgrounds in tampa. last night the tea party had its turn at the gop presidential candidates. texas governor rick perry found out what it is like to be the clear front-runner. jim acosta has been following this for us very closely. jim, give us a sense of what happened last night. >> this started as a heavyweight fight between mitt romney and rick perry. then after a while, some of the other contenders found ways to climb in and in the end it was perry taking most of the punches. >> how will we convince senior citizens that social security and medicare need to be changed and get their vote? >> reporter: the first question may have been on social security but it was really about rick perry who once called the program is ponzi scheme. >> it has been called a ponzi scheme by many people long before me, but no one's had the courage to stand up and say, here is how we're going to reform it -- >> reporter: but as perry tried to turn down the heat, mitt romney cranked it up. >> the question is, do you still believe social security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out or return to the states? do you want to retreat -- >> we'll need to have a conversation. >> let's finish it right now. >> the one-liner of the night. >> i'm not particularly worried about governor perry and governor romney scares the american people when president obama scares them every day. >> reporter: that wasn't the only flashpoint. take the economy. as to whether the lone star governor was responsible for jobbed created in the lone star state, romney said texas deserved the credit, not perry. >> tell him how much credit he deserves. >> look, you know, i think governor perry would agree with me if you are dealt four aces that doesn't make it necessarily a great poker player. >> i was going to say, mitt, doing pretty good until you started talking about poker. >> reporter: and michele bachmann a winning hand. schoolgirls receive manneder to vaccinations. >> little girls who have a n negative reaction to this potentially dangerous drug don't get a mulligan. they don't get a do-over. >> reporter: then suggested perry was interested in doing more than saving lives. >> i just wanted to add that we cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there was a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate. we can't deny that. >> you've got to respond to that. >> yes, sir. the company was merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that i had received from them. i raise about $30 million. and if you're saying that i can be bought for $5,000, i'm offended. >> reporter: and perry found himself on the wrong side of the tea party when he defended support for in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants. >> a policy that got boos from the crowd. >> that is not the american way. >> reporter: well, in the end, perry was hit hard but stayed on his feet, which is why he will continue on. as the front-runner in the race, tomorrow he heads to virginia, not a very important state to republican primary voters, but the trick for the rest of the field, convince governor perry this race is not over yet. >> they're all experienced in some fashion. have all been on the public stage before and all in good fighting form last night. in the moment you're talking about when everybody piled on rick perry, it started to show a little bit. he looked a little frustrated. a little like, what's going on here. they were all jumping on him at the same time. >> reporter: absolutely. some getting under his skin. you could see his body language. when mitt romney was talking, tensed up, smiling, looking away, saying, what's with this guy over here? the question is, did anything change last night, because rick perry lives to fight another day. >> we'll be talking about that. 7:30 eastern, congresswoman michele bachmann will join us with her standing in the polls slipping. did she regain some of the spotlight last night? did she start to claw back? much more debate coverage from tampa ahead when "american morning" continues. ♪ ♪ ♪ when the things that you need ♪ ♪ come at just the right speed, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ freight for you, box for me box that keeps you healthy, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ saving time, cutting stress, when you use ups ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ i've been waiting ♪ for a snack like you ♪ to come into my life [ female announcer ] try our delicious spinach artichoke dip with warm pita. new from lean cuisine®. whether it can be done safely and responsibly. at exxonmobil we know the answer is yes. when we design any well, the groundwater's protected by multiple layers of steel and cement. most wells are over a mile and a half deep so there's a tremendous amount of protective rock between the fracking operation and the groundwater. natural gas is critical to our future. at exxonmobil we recognize the challenges and how important it is to do this right. welcome back to a special "american morning," live in tampa. breaking down last night's big cnn tea party debate. the candidates putting front-runner rick perry on defense, especially on an issue they watch closely in florida. social security. so who came up on top? joining me now, cnn contributor dana lash, the founder of the st. louis tea party, and cnn political contributor alex castionos. ut there like so many watching closely. dana, started with you. any knockout moments, anything maybe be great strides last night and anybody really falter? >> i think bachmann came back strong and did exactly what she needed to do. i had reservations especially about an hour through the debate. seemed hesitant to go after perry or romney. had a couple golden opportunities. finally, when the gardasil question came up, relentless and continued to stay after perry the rest of the debate. that was important. >> a key moment. this is rick perry talking about a decision he had made, sort of an executive order that was going to see young girls in texas inoculated with merck's gardasil, preventing the transition of hpv and thought to prevent cancer in young girls. >> at the end of the day, this was about trying to stop a cancer and giving the parental option to opt out of that, and at the end of the day, you may criticize me about the way that i went about it, but at the end of the day, i am always going o err on the side of life. >> thousands of donations to the governor. this is flat out wrong. the question is, was it about life or about millions of dollars? >> the company was merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that i had received from them. i raise about $30 million, and if you're saying that i can be bought for $5,000, i'm offended. >> i'm offended for all the little girls and the parents that didn't have a choice. that's what i'm offended for. >> really, she got the applause on that one, alex. a very interesting debate, because, you know, rick santorum on the side said parents should have been given the option to opt in, not opt out. this debate was about executive orders, about not going through the legislature and michele bachmann made it about a political donation. dp she score points or was this punching in the dark? >> oh i think she gained set match there to michele bachmann. one of her better moments in the debate and in the whole campaign so far. because it is about big government authority taking parents' rights away and making them fight to get it back. it's not about the gardasil vaccine. a lot of parents think it's a great idea, but forcing -- or the government forcing parents to be in a position where they'd have to act to protect their family if they didn't really want that, that's not a conservative position. you know, rick perry is still the heavyweight champ here, still number one, but what happened last night is the champ got cut and now you're going to see all the other fighters punch perry. we're going see over the next few weeks whether he holds up. debates are so important, not only in themselves, in the next few week, the coverage of the debates, these moments you're seeing now more people will see them than actually saw the debate. his is a moment that will help michele bachmann over the next few weeks and hurt perry. >> we talked about perry ganged up on, michele bachmann ducomin out flying. where did romney fare in this thing? >> took some hits. off his game, he seemed, last night. i enjoyed watching that but it took away from the opportunities how they would do something instead of taking jabs back and forth. you did this, you did that. they didn't get into the specifics how they would help the economy, how they would do this or that. that hurt both of them. answering the questions, having a good solid debate, bachmann walked away with it, but pet rer is the perceived front-runner and it's on how everyone ganged up on him. ied up on him last night. >> and bachmann's success is a gain for romney. if she gains a couple of points, it probably comes out of perry. >> talk about gingrich, cain, santorum? anybody there make big strides? and ron paul. i don't know where to put ron paul. he polls higher and stays relatively consistent. >> cain had good answers on jobs. i appreciate wab herman cain. he knows how to get the sound fwhit will get the headline for the next day. he's great at that and very good ef time he gave an answer he brought it back to his specific plan. brought it back to jobs -- >> his 999 as he called it. >> terrific. something romney and perry didn't do. he thinks on his feet. quit witted in that way. ron paul i thought, we head paul rudman's column nor 9/11 and i don't know how you can come back after justifying 9/11. everyone in, around me, watching this was shocked when he said that. >> interesting. >> alex, your take on the other candidates? >> on the other candidates? i don't know that anything changed last night, except that perhaps perry came down a little bit. bachmann came back up. romney came i think left, the way he came in. that means the field's still open. somebody else could still from the bottom tier could make an impact in this race. i doubt it will be ron paul, because i think last night he did himself mortal harm. >> yeah. okay. good to talk to you guys. alex and dana. send it back to new york. carol? >> interesting stuff. thank you, ali velshi. now it's your turn to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. today's question -- should president obama's jobs plan be funded by limiting tax deductions? you know, the jobs plan the president wants congress to pass, like, right now? like it doesn't look good. yes, republicans like parts of the plan, but they don't like how the president wants to tax the rich to pay for it. yes, mr. obama wants to end tax loopholes for oil and gas companies, hedge fund managers and he wants to let the bush tax cuts expire. but the biggest chunk, $400 billion, will come from limiting tax deductions on americans making more than $ 200,000 a year. >> we've got to decide what our priorities are. do we keep tax loopholes for all companies or put teachers back to work? keep tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, or invest in education and technology and infrastructure? all the things that are going to help us out innovate, out educate and out build other countries. >> all over again, as is the republican response. this from senator jon kyl. >> who is it, mr. president, that are the first to hire coming out of a recession? it's small business. so the very people that we are asking to hire more americans, to put them back to work, are the people who would be impacted by the taxes that the president talked about the other night. >> so the "talk back" question for you this morning, should obama's jobs plan be funded by limited tax deductions? fa facebook.com/american morning. i'll read your answers later on in the hour. talking about tax deductions and how the president wants to limit them more throughout the afternoon. >> making $200,000 a year, every $100, capped at $28 off your tax bill instead of $39, the highest end. it would really change. for charitable donations, for also how much you're deducting from -- >> i don't think they'll be much argument for people at the way, way high-end of the scale. maybe more than $1 million. for those people making $200,000, that will hurt. >> yeah. and those people, you tell them they're really rich, especially in high tax days, they're not rich, but they are in the top 1%. >> depends where you live. ahead on "american morning," hundreds of thousands subarus recalled for a possible fire hazard. find out which model it's as are list.na kin clearing makeup has our proven blemish fighting formula so it clears your breakouts. now that's beautiful. neutrogena®. while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. were back. "minding your business." u.s. stock futures trading slightly lower on concerns about the exposure of french banks to a worsening debt crisis in the region. today president obama here starts his swing state tour pushing the american jobs act in ohio. the white house has an uphill battle to get this plan passed through congress in its entirety. details delivered to congress yesterday especially how to pay for it with tax increases on the rich. republicans on capitol hill immediately opposed it. analysts say we could see more layoffs this fall from other big banks. this after bank of america announced yesterday it plans to cut 30,000 jobs over the next few years. so far this year, the big banks announced more than 60,000 job cuts. complaints against airlines up 17% in july, from the same time a year ago. this despite improvements in flight delays. this according to new data from the department of transportation. and subaru recalling 200,000 of its outback and legacy cars due to a windshield wiper defect. in the 2010 and 2011 models the motor may overheat and create fire hazard. "american morning" will be right back after this short break. 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