Palin: There is 'no moral compass' in Obama administration
Former governor Sarah Palin sounds off on the final presidential debate between Mitt Romney and President Obama and new information on the terror attack on the US consulate in Benghazi
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," October 23, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And now to the election, only 14 days and it is electrifying, the candidates hitting the swing states right after taking swings at each other.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA INGRAHAM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: In the end, Mitt Romney was appealing to those people, that very small slice of America, still undecided, people that are kind of in the middle maybe or a little weary of war, and they want to make sure that Mitt Romney is not some saber-rattling -- excuse me, bayonet-waving warmonger.
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Half the time, I didn't know whether Governor Romney was there to debate Barack Obama or endorse Barack Obama.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: I mean, it was hard to tell! But I have a message for the good governor. Governor, you can't run from the truth. You can't run from your record. You can't run from your policies.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: By the way, this line about horses and swords or whatever it was -- I mean, that's just snarky. That's just snarky. I never did that to the community organizer about his experience back in 2008. The point is that his ridicule of Mitt Romney is -- was both unpresidential, and frankly, in my view, unacceptable.
MITT ROMNEY, GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The truth is that attacks on me are not an agenda. We've gone through four debates with the vice presidential debate and my debates, and we haven't heard an agenda from the president! And that's why his campaign is taking on water and our campaign is full speed ahead!
BARBARA WALTERS, "THE VIEW": Before these debates, the general impression of Romney was that he wasn't too smart and that he was very stiff and that if he happened to be elected president, it would be a disaster. What you have after these three debates is that people feel, whether they want to vote for him or not, that this is qualified man, this is an intelligent man, and this is a man who we now don't describe as stiff and totally out of touch.
REP. PAUL RYAN, GOP VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: President Obama has decided that his path to reelection is to distort, is to try and distract, to see if he can win this election by default!
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you come down with a case of Romnesia, if you can't seem to remember the policies on your Web site, if you can't even remember what you said last week, don't worry! ObamaCare covers preexisting conditions. We can fix you up! We can cure this disease!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: We saw Obama the community organizer last night. We saw a panicked, I think, Barack Obama. We saw a guy who I think knows he's in trouble in Ohio, an Obama who appeared to be the challenger, not the leader and not the incumbent. Romney owned that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: And tonight, Governor Romney taking a big lead in a new swing state poll. According to the Rasmussen poll of 11 swing states, Governor Romney now leading President Obama 50 percent to 45 percent. Now, that is biggest lead either candidate has held in three weeks. The poll, though, was completed before the end of last night's debate.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin joins us. Good evening, Governor.
SARAH PALIN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR/FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Hi, Greta. How are you?
VAN SUSTEREN: Very well. Your thoughts about last night's debate, now that you've had about 24 hours to think about it?
PALIN: Well, watching the debate in real time, of course, it was a bit frustrating, trying to, I guess, vicariously answer live through Romney and answer some of those false charges, the many, many false charges leveled against him by our president, Obama. And Romney I think just couldn't keep up with all the lies and the spin of Barack Obama, the mocking, the criticism, arrogance, the petulant attitude of our president.
It's so refreshing, though, to watch these debates and know that, finally, American voters can see minus the filter of the mainstream media - - they can see and they can hear what Mitt Romney actually stands for and they can have faith that we have a good choice that is in contrast to the failed policies, the failed administration of Barack Obama.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, many people in the Republican Party, though -- they were burning up my email account last night during the debate and also during our late show. They were complaining that President -- that Governor Romney didn't challenge President Obama on the Libya situation. It was rather -- it was rather sort of a gentle passing, and everybody moved on. Your thought about that?
PALIN: Well, I think now, 24 hours after this debate, now hearing your breaking news about what happened in real time, the information that was provided to the State Department, to the White House via these emails on the Benghazi attack, I think that Mitt Romney perhaps would have a different approach to the answers in the debate last night.
Why is it, Greta, that it's you, it's Fox News that has to break this news that on September 11 those weeks ago, that our State Department did know in real time, 300 to 400 Obama administration officials knew that this Benghazi attack was a terrorist attack? And yet they went out there and they lied to the American people for weeks on end!
Now, these 300 to 400 people in the Obama administration who received these emails in real time, knowing that this was an attack -- they're friends with people in the mainstream media. They party with these people in the mainstream media. And it's not the mainstream media who's busting out the story, the truth on this? They protected Barack Obama and his people in this administration, allowing this lie to be perpetuated, to continue for all these weeks that this attack was due to some benign video that no one really has seen, a trailer of a video on YouTube? It's ridiculous! And I'm proud of Fox News for busting this story out anyway.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, I should give credit. It was my colleague, Chad Pergram, who is a Capitol Hill producer, who sent this -- who just got these emails very late tonight and immediately e-mailed them to all of us. So Chad -- Chad's the one who got them for us.
You know, it is sort of -- you know, it is sort of curious, though, that, you know, this video story -- I mean, I'm -- I hate to be so hung up on something, but I really don't understand, you know -- I mean, you know, why didn't he just say, We don't know? Why did he try to sort of deflect it and misdirect us to it? I just -- you know, for the life of me, when something is -- you know, is so important as to what happened on our property at the consulate on September 11, when they were actually -- they were watching it by the drones overhead.
They knew the crisis was going on. And they come up with this video story, when they knew right then and there that night in real time that a group they declared as terrorists on their own Web sites linked to al Qaeda -- and they talk about this video and they try to tell us that.
PALIN: Exactly, Greta. And keep investigating. Keep trying to find what the purpose would be in this cover-up and why the mainstream media in protecting Obama would perpetuate this cover-up. It's atrocious. It's appalling. And yet it's not surprising.
There is no moral compass there in this administration! There isn't a moral compass in our mainstream media. It is a corrupt mainstream media! What breaks my heart about all this, besides the loss of four brave Americans through this tragedy, is that we have our troops, we have our sons and daughters overseas fighting for that freedom of the press in America! And yet there is abuse of that freedom of the press, where the press gets out there and they think that they're free to lie to the American people about what's going on!
In the meantime, we have 6,000 of our troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan in these recent years fighting to protect the freedoms here in America, our 1st Amendment rights! And it just -- it absolutely breaks my heart!
Perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask to comment on such an issue when I have loved ones over there in war zones. And Greta, I just think it's absolutely appalling! This more than anything else in the Obama administration, that they tried to pull the wool over the American public's eyes until these e-mails came out tonight, trying to pretend trying to pretend like it was something other than what the facts show that it actually was in Benghazi!
VAN SUSTEREN: You know, I wish the president would address the nation on this because maybe I have it all wrong. I -- I mean, it -- I don't see it any other way. And I hate to think of our government lying to us. And it's, like -- because I can't figure this one -- I can't figure out this video thing. And yet the evidence -- I mean, I just -- I can't -- I can't set it down! I mean, the -- an email in real time -- I mean, you know, it is what it is.
And if there's an explanation, I'd really like to hear from the president. I know the president was in the Oval Office that night. The vice president was there, the secretary of defense, and they're watching in real time. They've got drones over -- and they've got phone calls. And we have four Americans who are literally trapped over there and either shot to death or burned to death as we're watching! And you know, this whole video story just simply is beyond me!
PALIN: But Greta, don't be surprised that this administration is capable of lying. Look at what Barack Obama even said last night. I mean, tip of the iceberg, the lies that he was throwing out there at Romney! He tried to claim that sequestration was just a proposal. It's a law! He says that sequestration ain't going to happen. Is he going to ignore the law that he signed? Is he going to ignore the Constitution and the people...
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Bob Woodward says the sequestration was his administration's idea.
PALIN: It was...
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: They started it! They're the ones who came up with the idea! They're the ones who sold it to Congress! And now they're trying to push it off on Congress!
PALIN: And "they" is Barack Obama as an individual told the American people last night that it was just a proposal of Congress's and it wasn't going to happen. It's a law. He signed it.
He has no respect for the different branches of government, for the Constitution that mandates that he, as the executive, will fulfill the will of the people via Congress. And last night, you know, one thing after another with the false charges and false claims. Romney could not keep up with all the untruths, with the lies. So don't be surprised on this Libya attack, too, that things aren't as they had appeared for those weeks.
VAN SUSTEREN: Governor, thank you.
PALIN: Thank you so much, Greta.
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