The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Biden comes out swinging at debate, clashes with Ryan
- Biden and Ryan clash sharply on foreign policy, economy in debate
- U.S. border agent who died likely mistook colleague for smuggler
| Biden comes out swinging at debate, clashes with Ryan Posted: 11 Oct 2012 07:48 PM PDT DANVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and rival Republican Paul Ryan battled fiercely over foreign policy and the economy in a lively debate on Thursday, with Biden aggressively defending the administration's policies and dismissing Ryan's criticism.
Seeking to win back the momentum for the Democrats' campaign after a poor debate performance by President Barack Obama last week, Biden frequently went on the attack. "With all due respect, that is a bunch of malarkey," Biden said when Ryan accused the White House of projecting an image of American weakness to the world. But Wisconsin congressman Ryan, almost 30 years younger than his vastly experienced opponent, held his own in a series of testy exchanges. The Republican joked that the gaffe-prone Biden should understand that "sometimes the words don't always come out the right way." Biden took the offensive early, providing the emotion and passion that Obama was criticized for lacking in last week's debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Ryan stood his ground, and the vice presidential candidates for the November 6 election frequently interrupted each other and talked at the same time. In body language that might not go down well with undecided voters, Biden smiled and laughed sarcastically at points during the 90-minute debate in an apparent effort to dismiss Ryan comments. Ryan said Americans were seeing the "unravelling" of Obama's foreign policy, and Biden attacked Romney as "not presidential" for holding a news conference on Libya just after a U.S. diplomatic compound was attacked and the ambassador killed. Democrats were counting on a forceful performance from Biden to reclaim the momentum in the race for the White House after Obama's poor showing led to Romney taking the lead in polls with less than four weeks before the November 6 election. "Mr. Vice President, I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other," Ryan said at one point. "Well, don't take all the four minutes then," Biden responded. He later added: "I don't know what world this guy's living in." Ryan said the Obama administration had given confusing information about the killing last month of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. "It took the president two weeks to acknowledge that this was a terrorist attack," the Wisconsin congressman said. Biden vowed the administration would find the perpetrators of the attack and rectify mistakes in security at the diplomatic mission in Benghazi. HEAVY CONFLICT The two candidates sat across from each other at a table but the proximity did not lessen the conflict, as they aggressively went after each other. Ryan defended Romney's secretly recorded video condemning the "47 percent" of the electorate that he said was dependent on government and considered themselves victims, calling it a mistake. The 42-year-old Ryan, a seven-term congressman and chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, is popular with conservatives for a budget plan that would slash government spending and creating a "voucher" system for the popular Medicare healthcare program for seniors. Democrats say it would leave some retirees paying more of their medical costs. "We will not be part of any voucher plan, or the privatization of Social Security," Biden said. Biden, 69, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees, clearly was ready to point out the lack of international experience on the Romney-Ryan ticket. Obama set an aggressive tone before the Biden-Ryan debate, accusing Romney of shifting toward the political centre despite touting conservative credentials during the long Republican nomination contest. But he also has a reputation for gaffes, including a recent remark that the middle class has been "buried for the last four years" - almost the span of Obama's presidency - by a bad economy. (Editing by Alistair Bell and Christopher Wilson)
Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| Biden and Ryan clash sharply on foreign policy, economy in debate Posted: 11 Oct 2012 07:09 PM PDT DANVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden and rival Republican Paul Ryan clashed sharply over foreign policy in a high-stakes debate on Thursday, with Biden aggressively defending the Obama administration's policies and dismissing Ryan's criticism as "malarkey."
Biden took the offensive early, providing the emotion and passion that President Barack Obama was criticized for lacking in last week's debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Ryan accused the Obama administration of projecting an image of American weakness to the world. "With all due respect, that is a bunch of malarkey," Biden retorted, attacking Romney as "not presidential" for holding a news conference on Libya just after a U.S. diplomatic compound was attacked and the ambassador killed. Democrats were counting on an aggressive performance from Biden to reclaim the momentum in the race for the White House after Obama's poor showing led to Romney taking the lead in polls with less than four weeks before the November 6 election. Ryan said the Obama administration had given confusing information about the killing last month of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. "It took the president two weeks to acknowledge that this was a terrorist attack," the Wisconsin congressman said. Biden vowed the administration would find the perpetrators of the attack and rectify mistakes in security at the diplomatic mission in Benghazi. The two candidates sat across from each other at a table but the proximity did not lessen the conflict, as both candidates aggressively went after each other. SMIRKING, INTERRUPTIONS The atmosphere was tense. Biden interrupted his opponent frequently and laughed at many of Ryan's answers, while the Republican smirked as Biden spoke. Ryan defended Romney's secretly recorded video condemning the "47 percent" of the electorate that he said was dependent on government and considered themselves victims, calling it a mistake. He said the gaffe-prone Biden should understand that "sometimes the words don't always come out the right way." Biden smiled but shot back: "I always say what I mean." The 42-year-old Ryan, a seven-term congressman and chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, is popular with conservatives for a budget plan that would slash government spending and creating a "voucher" system for the popular Medicare healthcare program for seniors. Democrats say it would leave some retirees paying more of their medical costs. "We will not be part of any voucher plan, or the privatization of Social Security," Biden said. Biden, 69, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees, clearly was ready to point out the lack of international experience on the Romney-Ryan ticket. Obama set an aggressive tone before the Biden-Ryan debate, accusing Romney of shifting toward the political centre despite touting conservative credentials during the long Republican nomination contest. Biden was a strong performer in the Democratic primary debates during his failed 2008 run for the White House and fared well against Republican Sarah Palin in that year's vice presidential debate. But he also has a reputation for gaffes, including a recent remark that the middle class has been "buried for the last four years" - almost the span of Obama's presidency - by a bad economy. (Editing by Alistair Bell and Christopher Wilson)
Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| U.S. border agent who died likely mistook colleague for smuggler Posted: 11 Oct 2012 06:51 PM PDT PHOENIX (Reuters) - A U.S. Border Patrol agent killed in an apparent friendly fire incident in Arizona may have shot and wounded a colleague after mistaking him for a drug smuggler in the dark, sparking return fire, a lawyer for the wounded agent said on Thursday. Nicholas Ivie, 30, was killed last week while responding to a tripped ground sensor in a well-known smuggling corridor near the U.S. border with Mexico. A second agent was wounded in the incident and a third was unharmed. The FBI has said there were strong preliminary indications that Ivie's death was the result of friendly fire in an accidental shooting in which only Border Patrol agents were involved. It has released scant details on the circumstances. A Tucson attorney who said he was representing the wounded agent, who has not been publicly identified, said his client returned fire only after being hit first in the ankle and buttocks. "What probably happened is that Ivie confused my client for being a drug smuggler and fired on him," the attorney, Sean Chapman, said. "My client could only see a muzzle flash because it was dark. He did not return fire until he was struck in the ankle and the flank." Chapman, who said he did not know if the return fire was responsible for Ivie's death, also raised the possibility that there were others on the scene in addition to the border agents. He cited "strong evidence" there were drug smugglers in the area at the time and said people were heard speaking Spanish after the shots were fired. He declined to elaborate. Chapman said he did not expect the agent, now on leave recovering from wounds, to face disciplinary measures. BURIAL IN UTAH Ivie, who was buried on Thursday in Utah, was the fourth Border Patrol agent to die in violent circumstances in less than two years in Arizona. His death heightened concern about border security in a state at the forefront of the national immigration debate in a presidential election year. George McCubbin, president of the 17,000-member National Border Patrol Council told Reuters Ivie had been approaching the area where the trip-wire was triggered from the north as two other agents approached from the south. "At 1 or 2 in the morning the visibility is bad. You add that brush and it makes it really difficult to see," he said, adding that it was not clear if anyone else had fired at Ivie, causing him to react with deadly force. "The bottom line is that is that this is a very unfortunate incident. It's just horrible," he said. There was no mention of the investigation during emotional funeral and graveside services in Utah, where Ivie's brother and fellow border patrol agent, Joel Ivie, remembered him as a man dedicated to his job and family. Ivie loved his job on the horse patrol and proudly rode a feisty mustang named Mouse, whose ears were rounded from frostbite suffered while living in the wild, Joel Ivie said. Ivie's toddler daughters, wearing matching black and white dresses and sucking on pacifiers, stayed close to their mother, Christy, as border agents paid tribute at Ivie's grave about 55 miles south of Salt Lake City. His youngest, 22-month-old Presley, burst into tears with the blast of a 21-gun salute and Christy Ivie clutched a folded American flag and dissolved into tears as agent Ted Stanley led a riderless Mouse behind Nicholas Ivie's casket. (Additional reporting by Jennifer Dobner in Utah; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Bill Trott) Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
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