VP Debate: Biden, Ryan at each other in a moment

By Matthew Daly

Associated Press

Published: Thursday, Oct. 11 2012 7:25 p.m. MDT

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Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., shake hands before the start of the vice presidential debate, at Centre College in Danville, Ky., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Associated Press

Summary

At odds in an instant, Republican Paul Ryan cited the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya as evidence Thursday night that the administration's foreign policy is unraveling. Vice President Joe Biden shot back in campaign debate, "That is a bunch of malarkey."

DANVILLE, Ky. — At odds in an instant, Republican Paul Ryan cited the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya as evidence Thursday night that the administration's foreign policy is unraveling. Vice President Joe Biden shot back in campaign debate, "That is a bunch of malarkey."

"Not a single thing he said is accurate," Democrat Biden added in the opening moments of the only debate between the two vice presidential candidates in a national campaign with a little less than four weeks left to run.

Both men seemed primed for a showdown in their opening moments on stage.

Ryan said the administration had accorded insufficient security to Stevens, who was killed in a terrorist attack at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11

Biden said the budget that Ryan authored as chairman of the House Budget Committee had cut the Obama administration's funding request for diplomatic security by $300 million.

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