At the top of Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie
teased an upcoming interview with Paul Ryan by slamming the Republican
vice presidential candidate: "Paul Ryan joins us to talk about where he
thinks the presidential race is headed and criticism that he's played fast and loose with the truth." [Listen to the audio [1]]
Beginning the interview with Ryan minutes later, fellow co-host Matt Lauer parroted Guthrie's attack: "There
are some people who are claiming that you played a little fast and
loose with the truth on certain key elements. And I'm not just talking
about Democratic analysts, I'm talking about some independent fact
checkers. Would you concede that while many of the things you said were effective, some were not completely accurate?"
Ryan dismantled Lauer's baseless claim:
No, not in the least, actually. What they're trying to suggest is that I said that Barack Obama was responsible for our plant shutdown in Janesville. That is not what I was saying. Read the speech. What I was saying is the President ought to be held to account for his broken promises. After our plant was shut down he said that he would lead an effort to retool plants like the Janesville plant to get people back to work. It's still idle, people are still not working there.
Those supposed "independent fact checkers" actually left out several key facts [2], and yet, the media continue to run with the dishonest attack [3] on Ryan's accurate statements.
On Tuesday, Lauer insisted: "I not only read the speech, but I listened
to it as well. And in my opinion, it seemed like you were unmistakably
trying to link the President's promise with the closing of that plant,
which you know obviously, closed before he became president."
Ryan shot back:
The promise was that he was going to open the plant. The promise was he was going to lead an effort to retool the plant so that people go back to work and it would be open for another hundred years, he said. So the point is, he filled people with all this hope as he traveled around the country running for president, making grandiose statements and promises, which are just not true.
Lauer again tried to portray Ryan as dishonest in another part of the
speech: "Let's talk about the example using the Simpson-Bowles
recommendations....you voted against sending those recommendations to
the Senate, basically killing any further action on them. Didn't you owe
it to the people in that room to say that as well?"
Ryan refuted: "But if you read the next paragraph, I said Republicans
offered alternatives....The President didn't do that. The President
didn't offer a budget to fix the problem. The Senate hasn't passed a
budget in three years."
After having his attacks repeatedly rebuffed by Ryan, later on the show, Lauer turned to the left-wing Today's Professional
panel to launch yet another amazingly petty assault on Ryan's honesty:
"From the 'you can't handle the truth' department. [Paul Ryan] got in a
little bit of hot water when he fudged his results from a marathon that
he ran several years ago, he said he ran it in the low threes, or under
three, meaning two hours plus....he ran it in over four hours."
Only advertising executive Donny Deutsch dismissed the supposed
controversy: "I think that if you tape recorded every human being 24/7
for a number of years, without knowing it, there might be a slip of the
tongue."
Lauer quickly argued: "But he's running for vice president." Attorney
Star Jones agreed: "He's running for vice president, okay? No, you don't
get a pass on that."
Deutsch attempted to explain the absurdity of the accusation: "He's not
lying about policy....there's no motive." Jones continued to rant: "But
why lie?...But why lie? Donny, why lie?"
Lauer encouraged the "lie" label: "Do you think he didn't remember or
you think he fudged it?...by the way, just about everybody who's ever
run a marathon can tell you exactly what time they ran...They can tell
you exactly."
Here is a full transcript of Lauer's September 4 interview with Ryan:
7:00AM ET TEASE:
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan joins
us to talk about where he thinks the presidential race is headed and
criticism that he's played fast and loose with the truth.
7:05AM ET SEGMENT:
MATT LAUER: Paul Ryan is the vice presidential candidate on the
Republican ticket. Congressman Ryan, it's nice to have you on the show.
Good morning.
PAUL RYAN: Hey, good to be with you, Matt.
LAUER:
Thank you very much. You know, your speech last Wednesday night at the
convention is still getting a lot of attention. There are some people
who are claiming that you played a little fast and loose with the truth
on certain key elements. And I'm not just talking about Democratic
analysts, I'm talking about some independent fact checkers. Would you
concede that while many of the things you said were effective, some were
not completely accurate?
RYAN: No, not in the least, actually. What they're trying to suggest is
that I said that Barack Obama was responsible for our plant shutdown in
Janesville. That is not what I was saying. Read the speech. What I was
saying is the President ought to be held to account for his broken
promises. After our plant was shut down he said that he would lead an
effort to retool plants like the Janesville plant to get people back to
work. It's still idle, people are still not working there. Lots of
people I grew up with who lost their jobs there still don't have those
jobs there. So my point was not to lay blame on the plant shutdown, it
was, this is yet another example of the President's broken promises. In
2008, he traveled all around the country making promises that he broke,
just like the one in Janesville.
LAUER: I not only read the speech, but I listened to it as well. And in
my opinion, it seemed like you were unmistakably trying to link the
President's promise with the closing of that plant, which you know
obviously, closed before he became president.
RYAN: The promise was that he was going to open the plant. The promise
was he was going to lead an effort to retool the plant so that people go
back to work and it would be open for another hundred years, he said.
So the point is, he filled people with all this hope as he traveled
around the country running for president, making grandiose statements
and promises, which are just not true. Look, he said he'd cut the
deficit in half in four years, he didn't do that. He said that if we
passed the stimulus, unemployment would never get above 8%, it's been
above 8% for 42 months. And so, I know they don't like the fact that we
point these facts out that they made a lot of promises that did not
materialize. Janesville was just yet one more example of that.
LAUER: Let's talk about the example using the Simpson-Bowles
recommendations. You said on Wednesday night in that speech, quote,
"President Obama created a new bipartisan debt commission. They came
back with an urgent report. He thanks them, sent them on their way, and
then did exactly nothing," end quote. But you were one of the seven
members of that panel, and you voted against sending those
recommendations to the Senate, basically killing any further action on
them. Didn't you owe it to the people in that room to say that as well?
RYAN: But if you read the next paragraph, I said Republicans offered
alternatives. So here's my point. Just because I didn't like that
report, because I don't think it solved the problem, I didn't think it
actually fixed the problem of runaway health care entitlement spending, I
authored and passed through the House an alternative. What we did was
we took the things we liked in Simpson-Bowles, added new reform ideas,
and we passed alternatives, that's my point.
The President didn't do that. The President didn't offer a budget to
fix the problem. The Senate hasn't passed a budget in three years. So on
Simpson-Bowles, it's not that whether that was a good or a bad plan,
it's that if you don't like that plan, then you owe the country an
alternative, which is what we did, which is not what President Obama
did. Matt, we're going to have a debt crisis soon if we don't fix this
mess and the President has not shown us the leadership...
LAUER: Let me ask you-
RYAN: ...he needs to, to prevent that from happening.
LAUER: Let me ask about something that was – that was not mentioned in
your speech or Governor Romney's speech last week at the convention, and
that's Afghanistan. This is a war that's consumed much of our time and
attention and money and the sacrifices of so many men and women over the
last 11 years. You didn't mention it once, neither did Governor Romney.
He's asking Americans to make him the next commander in chief. How can
you not mention that war?
RYAN: Well, I think you have to remember the day before his speech,
Mitt Romney went to the American Legion and gave a lengthy speech on the
topic. He was invited by the American Legion, he did that, and he gave a
lengthy speech on the topic just the day before.
LAUER: Let me end on a more personal note. You know that over the next
couple of months you and your family are going to face enormous
scrutiny. You've got a wife and three young children. Are you at all
worried about the impact this race and this process will have on your
family?
RYAN: Janna and I discussed that quite a bit. You know, months ago when
I agreed to go through the vetting process, we talked about it, we
prayed about it. And we just came to the conclusion that this is such a
unique time in our country's history that we really have a chance to get
this country on the right track. We're on the wrong track. People are
not better off than they were four years ago. And because of the
enormity of the challenges facing the country and the leadership that
I've tried to provide, we just think that it's such a unique moment that
we should serve in this capacity. And so sure, you always worry about
your children. You always worry about your wife and your family. But we
care so deeply about this country, about getting people back to work,
about turning things around, that we're willing to do this.
LAUER: Congressman Paul Ryan, the vice presidential candidate on the
Republican side. Congressman, it's nice of you to spend time with us
this morning.
RYAN: Yeah, thanks, Matt, take care.
LAUER: Alright, thank you.