Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan hit his key points on Medicare and the economy as Vice President Joe Biden smirked and laughed because he didn’t “have a whole lot to say,” Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina told Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview.
“If smirking and laughing is leadership, Joe Biden will be on Mount Rushmore,” South Carolina’s senior Republican senator said. “Anytime someone interrupts you and smirks and laughs it means they don't have a whole lot to say.”
But the pressure was on Ryan to build on Mitt Romney’s impressive performance last week in the first presidential debate, and, Graham said, Ryan’s performance Thursday night was done well.
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“On social issues he was very sincere,” said Graham. “He gave a great explanation of why he's pro-life and as a pro-life person, I was very proud of Paul.”
Graham said Ryan also was very effective on the economy.
“He just kept talking about Obama economics as a failure and offering another alternative,” said Graham.
Graham said Ryan gave a very strong showing on national defense in the debate, which was his first introduction to many voters.
“On national defense, it was a blessing to me to hear a young man speak to forcefully that we're going to do the right thing, not the political thing, so I was very pleased with him,” Graham remarked.
Biden criticized Ryan’s spending cuts and the Republican Medicare proposal, for setting up a voucher program for future retirees as being too extreme. But, Graham said, Ryan put Democrats’ accusations -- that he wants to push “granny over the cliff” -- to rest.
“He had guts on Social Security, Medicare, (in) talking about how to save these programs,” Graham said. “I think Paul explained why Medicare and Social Security were important to his family and the country as the whole, and that it's going to go bankrupt and the best way to save it is to reform it for young people and leave current seniors alone.
“He showed leadership. And I thought Paul did an excellent job of explaining how Medicare and Social Security are in jeopardy of going bankrupt and how we would fix it in a real sound way.”
Meanwhile, Graham said, Biden gave him no confidence that Obama won’t gut the military.
“The best thing I can say about the Obama administration is that they've been consistent,” Graham said. “One thing they wanted to cut is the military. They increased non-defense by 24 percent in their first two years, they're trying to use sequestration cuts in the military as a bargaining chip for the tax cuts that are about to expire, (and) that nauseates me.
“The commander-in-chief has had plenty of opportunity to sit down and fix sequestration. We've been begging him to do so but he done nothing. He hasn't lifted one finger. He wants sequestration to be used as a bargaining chip for tax policy and that's nauseating.”
Biden also did not defend the Obama administration from claims that an intelligence failure led to the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stephens and three other embassy personnel on Sept. 11 in Libya, Graham said.
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“It was stunning what the vice president said. He said no one asked for more security,” Graham said. “Well, they must not be sharing much information with Joe Biden. It was a complete convoluted explanation. He denied that the security footprint had not been asked to be increased. I think he has absolutely no idea about the security environment before the attack and it's clear to me that the reason they said it was a riot, not a terrorist attack is because they're trying to convince people that they have al Qaeda and terrorism on the run when in fact it's coming back strong.
“So, (he was) very unpersuasive on Libya and what he said absolutely doesn't add up. There was a request for additional security and the reason (U.N. Ambassador) Susan Rice said it was a riot five days after the attack is because that's the narrative they want to create, that terrorism is on the run.”
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