Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain charged in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV that moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC News should have stopped Vice President Joe Biden from interrupting GOP candidate Paul Ryan during their debate.
“What she didn’t do was basically remind Vice President Biden that his constant interruptions were not supposed to be a part of this whole thing,” Cain told Newmax after the vice presidential debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky. “He got two minutes. He should’ve given Rep. Ryan two minutes. That’s where I think that she failed.
Watch the exclusive interview here.
“I don’t think she necessarily showed any bias one way or another, but she didn’t do her job as a moderator,” Cain added. “She should have basically told the vice president: ‘These constant interruptions are not acceptable. Please wait. You will have your two minutes to rebut.’
“If she had done that, I think that the American people would have had to opportunity to learn more than they did from this distraction.”
Because of Biden’s steady interruptions – Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus claimed he cut Ryan off 82 times during their 90-minute debate – Cain said the meeting “was not a debate, it was a distraction. Vice President Biden went in to this debate with the intention of interruption and confusion.
“He used those two tactics, of interruption and confusion, to suppress the content and the explanation that Rep. Ryan would have delivered. Even though I was pulling for Rep. Ryan, this was not a win for either one.”
Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, said Ryan made the stronger argument about how he and presidential candidate Mitt Romney would improve the economy – despite Biden’s distractions.
“Ryan won the discussion about jobs and the economy because, even though he wasn’t given an opportunity to speak without interruption, he explained why and how we have to cut taxes to increase the base and get this economy growing. That’s what we need to do.
“Vice President Biden didn’t say anything about how they were going to create jobs other than to attack Romney, to attack Ryan, and to attack the expiring tax cuts,” Cain added. “Joe Biden did not achieve what he tried to achieve, which has been the class warfare line that they’ve been using for months.
“Ryan very calmly explained, ‘This is our plan and this is why it will work.’”
The Wisconsin congressman far excelled Biden on foreign policy, too.
“He was much more articulate and clearer than Vice President Biden in explaining the situation in the Middle East and the situation with Syria and Iran,” Cain said. “The situation – in terms of how the sanctions have worked, bringing up the fact that if it wasn’t for the insistence of the U.S. Congress, these sanctions would not have passed. He excelled when he talked about foreign policy.”
On the debate overall, Cain said: “Vice President Biden took advantage of the fact that he was the vice president, and Paul Ryan was very careful not to come across as disrespectful.”
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