On Thursday's CBS This Morning, co-hosts Charlie Rose and
Norah O'Donnell waited until the fifth interview question to press Obama
adviser David Axelrod about the fiasco in Libya. The question wasn't
even a tough one, basically asking for the administration's spin.
"David, the consequences of what happened in the death of the
Ambassador in Libya has caused some scrutiny in those incidents in the
security there, and people are writing in editorials this morning that
perhaps there was some pressure on Ambassador Rice to say what she
said," Rose brought up the charges against the administration. "What is
the response of the President to these questions and charges?" he asked.
"Well
first of all, that's absolute nonsense," the Obama adviser predictably
answered. This was part of the only exchange with Axelrod about Libya,
the day after a congressional hearing on the events there.
CBS's Margaret Brennan narrated a tough segment on the hearings after
the Axelrod interview, which scrutinized the State Department's handling
of embassy security in Libya and the administration's reaction to the
terrorist attacks. However, Axelrod saw only one question on Libya.
Instead, the first four questions for Axelrod were horserace questions
about the debate. Three of them were softballs about Vice President
Biden's debate prep. "How is his preparation different than the
preparation for the President?" asked Rose.
"Paul Ryan says he expects Joe Biden to come at him like a cannon ball.
Is that the strategy?" asked Norah O'Donnell. This question came before
the brief exchange about Libya.
A transcript of the interview, which aired on CBS This Morning on October 11 at 7:06 a.m. EDT, is as follows:
DAVID AXELROD: Well, I mean obviously he's debating a different person.
They're debating the same issues, the same vision. But you have to
prepare for the person you're debating. But in any case, it's a great
opportunity again to drive the distinctions between the two candidates
and talk about distinct approaches to the future. Right now, the Romney
campaign is running away from some of their positions like unwanted
stepchildren. But we're going to hold them to them and explain to the
country exactly what the differences are here, because the choice is
very stark.
ROSE: Will he be more aggressive than he has been with, say, Sarah
Palin in other debates, because there's a feeling within the campaign
that there is a momentum for the President, I mean for Governor Romney,
and this debate may play a role in stopping it if you're successful.
AXELROD: Well I think that the big challenge for him is going to be to
pin Congressman Ryan down. You know, he was on television a couple of
weeks ago, and he was asked to explain Governor Romney's tax plan, and
he said well I don't have enough time to explain it, it's too
complicated to explain. Well he's got 90 minutes tonight, so hopefully
he'll have enough time to explain it, and explain how they're not going
to explode the deficits and put a big new burden on the middle class.
NORAH O'DONNELL: David, we see a number of battleground state polls out
this morning, including those by CBS News (Inaudible) the contest in
several of these states. Can Joe Biden tonight stop the slide in the
polls for President Obama?
Well Norah, I don't think there's a slide in the polls. I think there
was a bump after the debate. I think it was mostly last weekend. As you
know, these polls that you conducted don't measure the days since the
debate, they measure what happened from before the debate to after. So I
don't think there's big momentum, but there's no doubt that Governor
Romney (Inaudible) mostly of Republican-leaning independents as a result
of the last debate. What I think the Vice President can do is really
drive home the fact that one candidate, the President, has a vision that
has squarely in it the interest of the middle class and the notion that
you build the economy through the middle class and through a strong
middle class. And the other side has this same trickle-down theory that
Congressman Ryan voted for all through the last decade, big tax breaks
for the wealthy, de-regulation (Inaudible), and we know how that story
ends.
O'DONNELL: Paul Ryan says he expects Joe Biden to come at him like a cannon ball. Is that the strategy?
AXELROD: I think (Inaudible) if he says he's going to hold him to
account for the positions that Governor Romney has taken in this
campaign, their collective records, their approach to issues. Well, then
maybe so. But Harry Truman said I don't give them hell, I just tell it
like it is and they feel like they're in hell. So maybe Congressman
Ryan's feeling the pressure of their own positions.
ROSE: David, the consequences of what happened in the death of the
Ambassador in Libya has caused some scrutiny in those incidents in the
security there, and people are writing in editorials this morning that
perhaps there was some pressure on Ambassador Rice to say what she said.
The Wall Street Journal points to David Plouffe. What is the response
of the President to these questions and charges?
AXLEROD: Well first of all, that's absolute nonsense. Ambassador Rice
went out and she reported what she was told, and what the intelligence
community initially reported. And we got facts, we reported them. No one
has any greater interest than the President to get to the bottom of
this. He feels a sense of responsibility for every diplomat we send
overseas, and so of course we want to get to the bottom of it, and we
want to bring to justice those people who are responsible for the
assassination of this Ambassador, and that's what we are going to do.