Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room 20121020 : compareme

Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room 20121020

Much of a difference between the two candidates when it comes to Foreign Policy. But the president is getting prepared in study hall this weekend out at camp david. I think when you talk to folks out there, most people believe the president does have an advantage going into this debate. We expect hell talk about getting Osama Bin Laden but no one here at the white house, no one with the campaign is under estimating governor romney. He won the first debate. He had a Strong Performance in debate number 2, and thats perhaps why you saw the president out on the campaign trail this week warming up, hitting mitt romney on Foreign Policy. The next debate on monday will be about Foreign Policy. It will be interesting to hear what governor romney has to say. He said, he thought it was tragic the way we ended the war in iraq. Said double down on this. Said we should still have troops in iraq. Just said this a couple weeks ago. I think that was a mistake. Reporter the president still remains vulnerable on libya, even as more information comes out about what the Intelligence Community knew shortly after those attacks. As you know there was this narrative that the controversial film may have been behind the attacks. So there are mounting questions about transparency here at the white house and libya no doubt will be a big issue at the debates. I assume not just libya, syria, iran, whats going on with u. S. Relations with russia, china, and of course the whole war on terror. Lots of questions on that t so is he going through all these issues, issues hes dealt with in the fast four years. Reporter he is going through all those issues and as you know the campaign has been second retive about specifics when it comes to preparation going into the debates but clearly they understand that mitt romney will come out swinging on all of those issues that you have just listed. Both not only the Romney Campaign and the republicans in general have been critical of this president not only on his domestic issues but hau he has been hand lilg all these issues overseas and the president preparing to counter that at the final debate. Thanks very much. Lets dig deeper and discuss the state of the race and look ahead to mondays final president ial debate. Were joined by Gloria Borger and ryan liza. Hes the new yorker mag zeens washington correspondent. Gloria, how important is this final debate to both of these candidates . Its very important to both of them because its the last time youre going to see them together talking to republicans though, theyre sort of scratching their heads about how it was that the Foreign Policy debate has been the last debate for mitt romney. In 2008 Foreign Policy was the first debate and when youre the chal edger you would rather not debate the commander in chief who has had a great deal of success, particularly killing Osama Bin Laden, as your last debate. So i think theres some head scratching among republicans. Because of course romney is at a disadvantage. But didnt both campaigns agree to the terms of these president ials debates. Yes, i said outside republicans. So they knew what they were getting themselves into. Right. Ryan, what are the strengths and weaknesses of both of these candidates on these Foreign Policy issues . Well, you know the strength of the challenger is you dont have to for romney is you dont have to be all that consistent. You dont have to live in the real world. And so it makes it easier to criticize and attack. So for instance on china, watching this debate on china with romney playing the china bashing role and obama trying to be more diplomatic about relations with china, it remind me of 92, it remind me of 2000. They use china as an issue, and they get in there and have a more accommodating view of china. In that sense it makes it easier for the challenger because romney doesnt have the responsibility of actually being the commander in chief right now. For obama, i think the big advantage is if you just look at the numbers, most voters are still his big advantage is Foreign Policy. So at the end of the campaign is about Foreign Policy, the numbers right now tell us that thats a strength for obama. So i think romney is going to try and look for some ways to bring it back to domestic issues, to find ways to use Foreign Policy, to talk about some of the pocketbook issues that a lot of americans seem more concerned with right now. And i think what romney is going to do is try to turn the issue of Foreign Policy into a question of leadership. His leadership numbers have really been coming up. He would like to turn the libya issue, for example, the question of what the white house knew, when it knew it, how it behaved, how it told the story to the american people, as a question of president ial leadership. Because thats an area they believe the president has a vulnerability. But as you saw at the last debate, the president did very well on the libya question. Theyre going to have to have a better way of handling it coming into this. Im sure that romney will try as often as he can to pivot some of these International Issues to domestic Economic Issues by pointing out if the u. S. Has a weak economy, has huge deficits and needs to borrow money from china its thats going to resonate for him as well. Hees had an advantage on him on who do you trust more to do something about the deficit and thats an issue hes been hammering and china is directly related to that so i suspect hell talk about that a lot. One thing i hope theyll talk about, i think the big defining issue for obama is how hes dealt with the arab spring and theres a debate on both sides about the classic tension about supporting democracy and supporting our extra teeblg i can interests in the region. Theres a big debate in the republican part on this issue. Other folks who say no, we should have prevented in egypt the Muslim Brotherhood for coming to power. So ill be interested to see where romney comes down on that question. Does he criticize the president for some of his decisions during the arab spring. Lets look at some of the Battle Ground states. The most recent polling results coming in, florida, likely voters, choice for president , romney 49 , obama 48 . Thats a tie, obviously. If you look at iowa, 51 , 43 romney. The wisconsin poll, also the nbc poll, 51 obama, 45 romney. These are the key states, a lot of these are eight, nine, ten states that will determine who the next president is. Yes. And the romney people would like to see their numbers a little better in florida. They really believe that theyve got a really good shot at winning the state of florida. If they lose ohio, wolf, and you look at iowa and wisconsin, theyve got to win one of those states and so far theyre behind it. And whats behind it is the gender gap which so far is really not working in romneys favor. Women, in iowa and wisconsin by double digits. And thats mitt romneys problem. Youve been doing some reporting x ryan, on nevada right now. Unemployment has gone down slightly but its still above the national average. What do you see there . I went there to try to figure out why in a state with 12 unemployment has obama led every poll this year. Its just a demographic story there. The democrats say the adult latino citizen population has grown 39 since 2008 and theyve worked for the last four years to really register those voters and get them to turn out for the democrats. So that it could be a firewall if romney runs the table with florida, north carolina, virginia, colorado and new hampshire, then obama has to hold wisconsin and ohio and win either nevada or iowa. So that to me looks like the sort of division right now. Those first states i mentioned, those are the states where romney has really done well since the first debate. So you could see nevada as a firewall if obama keeps his lead in wisconsin and ohio. Thanks very much. Dont forget, 7 00 p. M. Eastern monday night, our coverage begins, the third and final president ial debate. Stay with cnn for that. Septembers deadly attack on the u. S. Consulate in benghazi has become a major issue. Were going to go over what really happened. train horn vo wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. 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One more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze one of the most dramatic moments of the second president ial debate was when the candidates attacked over the attack on benghazi. That happened last month. With revelations still coming in, we can expect libya certainly to be front and center during monday nights president ial debate. Our Senior International correspondent arwa damon is joining us now from beirut. You were there in benghazi. You spoke to eyewitnesss, did they appreciate right away or did it take time for them to realize this was a terror plot rather than some spontaneous demonstration resulting from that antimuslim video . Reporter well, wolf, all of the eyewitnesss that we spoke to at the scene at the consult them self all they said theyre a crowd whose chants were louder and louder and suddenly the attack began from three different directions. Most certainly they were all saying that this seemed like it was coordinated because it did come from three different directions. They said they used both light and heavy weapons. Rocket propelled grenades and other forms of artillery as well. That is what we know. We also do know when it comes to this attack. It was the location, the consulate in and of itself that had been torthed in the past. We do know of the extreme elements that do exist in benghazi, elements that the u. S. Itself had been monitoring, and had been systematically targeting them over the few months before the attack on the consulate itself. Wolf. So it sounds like there was a plot there, they were anxious to go there and do damage to the United States, kill american diplomats but make they just used the excuse of the video to launch the attack . Is that what im hearing, arwa . That is one theory that is out there, wolf. And we really dont know what the exact motive was for the timing of the particular attack that did take place. Was it in fact using the excuse of the video to go ahead and target this location . Was it the fact that it was 9 11, that of course greatly symbolic in and of itself or was it that they saw this was the perfect window of opportunity for them to launch this sort of attack. We do know these types of groups are always looking for weaknesses for vulnerabilities. Tragically the way the security was set up there did provide them with a vulnerable target. The Libyan Government very shortly after the acan ta, again when we spoke to the head of the General National Congress on the scene, said that he believed this was some sort of premeditated assault that was carried out with the intent of wreaking maximum havoc. The libyans themselves, other military officials that we had been talking to had been saying that they had been warning the americans that quite simply their position, their stance in benghazi especially was increasingly vulnerable. So it seems unfortunately all of the factors were in place to allow this kind of an attack to take place. Unfortunately indeed. All right, thanks very much. Stand by for some shocking video. Video shows workers to United States security contractor in afghanistan allegedly partying it up, apparently drunk and drugged. [ male announcer ] youve been years in the making. And there are many years ahead. Join the millions of members whove chosen an aarp Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Go long. Insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Perform, compete and grow. And people are driving this change. Thats the power of Human Resources. The society. For Human Resource management and its members know. How to harness that power, because we help develop it. From the next economy, to the next generation, we help get. The most out of business, by getting the best out of people. Shrm. Leading people, leading organizations. Bp has paid overthe people of bp twentythreeitment to the gulf. Billion dollars to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. Today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. And bps also committed to america. We support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. Were working to fuel america for generations to come. Our commitment has never been stronger. Im right here. Bring it to me. The video is shocking. Persons working for a top u. S. Security contractor in afghanistan allegedly so drugged or intoxicated, they could hardly function. Our brian todd is working the story for us. Brian . Reporter wolf, this is a security Contracting Firm thats received almost 900 million worth of krars. One Watchdog Group says the behavior of the em ploes undermines the mission in afghanistan. Staggering around half naked, seemingly drunk. Wrestling. Shouting at the man videotaping them. This is a. M. Mature video from earlier this year of people working for an American Security contractor in kabul, afghanistan. This man identified as the security manager for the Contracting Firm george scientific. It reminded me many times i visited my friends in college that were in fra ternties. Reporter john is one of two former employees filing a seven figure lawsuit against the firm for allegedly committing frud on the u. S. Government. They say they were harassed for trying to blow the whistle. The Company Denies that. The plaintiff alleges ambulate event drinking, the misuse of firearms which they say prevented the firm from carriying out its assigned duty. The video was shot on a cell phone. How often did you observe this behavior . The misbehavior was actually almost every other night. Several times a week. It was just at any time you could see get together tonight and walk outside. Typically at the end of the evening, some time late afternoon. Smith says he and nelson tried to stop the behavior. Taking it to the top levels of the company. He says they were told it would be addressed. In this section of the video, a man identified as the security firms medic, appears in coherent. Theres a syringe on the floor. The plaintiffs claim hed injected a horse tranquil lieser called ketamine. How can the medic be doing his job or the security contractors be able to protect those that are training the Afghanistan Police . Then you have the fact that theyre having this behavior in the middle of kabul. So theyre blowing up a. M. Mu initial in bonfires. Thats a reference to this video. Contacted by cnn, george scientific issued a statement saying it took Decisive Action to correct unacceptable behavior of a limited number of employees. It says it implemented a nodrinking policy. But they deny committing fraud. They say the men in these scenes did not have top security roles. That they had administrative and support jobs, sometimes driving. I asked the mr. s lawyer about that. The people representing the company say these guys had no security detail. That they were just administrative support. Thats a gross undersnament of what these individuals did. These individuals are the security manager for the facility and the Operations Manager of security for the entire country of afghanistan for the company. They were supposed to protect their own people as whel as the local afghanistans. George scientific disputes that reiterating those men did not have a protective role for local afghans. The Company Representatives say no one involved with the video is still with them and that the company is conducting its own investigation. The u. S. Military is supposed to oversea these contractors. Contacted by cnn, the officials from the nato command say they take these allegations seriously and that the u. S. Armys criminal Investigation Division is looking into the allegations. We made attempts to reach the two men in the video aside from that medic and were unable to. Wolf . Brian todd reporting for us. Thank you. Meanwhile a massive show of military power between the United States and israel. Up next, the message these war games could be sending to iran. Wooohooo. Hahaahahaha oh. There you go. Wooohooo. Hahaahahaha im gonna stand up to her no youre not. I know. You know ronny folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. How happy are they jimmy . Happier than a witch in a broom factory. Get happy. Get geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. [ male announcer ] jill and her mou

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