Beau Biden on 'This Week'

Now we turn to the vice president's son, delaware attorney general bo biden. Bo, thank you for joining us. Great to be with you, jake. I hate to put you in the awkward position of having to defend... See More

Now we turn to the vice president's son, delaware attorney general bo biden. Bo, thank you for joining us. Great to be with you, jake. I hate to put you in the awkward position of having to defend your father. I wouldn't want to have to do that as much as I love my father. But he is the vice president and you are here on this , so i have to start with a criticism of your father's style the other night. Many out there were saying his eye rolls, laughter, smile, were too much and overshadowed the substance of what he was saying. The romney/ryan ticket has a new tv ad. Did they come in and inherit a tough situation? Absolutely. We're going in the wrong direction. Look at where we are. The economy is barely limping along. Don't raise taxes on small businesses. They're our job creators. Smiling and laughing while congressman ryan was talking about serious issues. Was his body language at all, his facial expressions counterproductive? Not at all. I'm happy to defend my dad. I don't think he needs defending. Anytime folks on the far right are going after my father for smiling too much, that's a victory. My father spoke clearly to the american people about the facts. He did that for 90 minutes straight. This is not about how much my father smiled or how many gallons of water the congressman drank nervously on the stage. It's about talking directly to the american people about very important facts. What you say from my father was him articulating the vision that he and the president have and continuing to build the middle class out and take the country forward. I was struck by paul ryan on a number of fronts. Especially the position on afghanistan. I feel very strongly about that. I want to get to that -- go ahead, I'm sorry. Yeah, sure. Well, look. I mean, you had him suggest, if not open the door, to put additional troops in afghanistan. It is a remarkable position to take. Wasn't he making the point that pulling troops out of afghanistan, especially in regional command east, where i have been, where your father has been many times, isn't it accurate to say that generals prefer to pull out the troops after the fighting season has ended, not during? Wasn't that the larger strategic point he was making? I'm not sure if he knows what the strategic point he was making was. The point that I heard and the american people heard -- we heard my father articulate we wouldn't have forces in afghanistan by 2014. And you heard the congressman equivocate on that. Not be willing to guarantee the american people that we wouldn't have forces in afghanistan, which will then be the nation's longest war. Your father raised eyebrows when asked about requests for more security on the ground in libya. Here's what he said. We were not told they wanted more security. We did not know that wanted more security. We weren't told. The white house now says that when the vice president said we, he meant him and the president, not the obama administration at large. Obviously, the state department was told they wanted more security. Isn't that a copout? You're speaking in front of 50 million americans and you're saying, we weren't told, when people in the state department were, in fact, told. Not at all. He was speaking for himself and the president. As you heard frothe briefing room the other day. This is a tragedy when we lose an ambassador and three other personnel. The president is going to make sure that we investigate what happened. The president is going to do what he did with osama bin laden and al qaeda. He's going to find these people and bring them to justice. And fourthly, jake, you know, this is not a moment in time we should be politicizing these issues. I have served with and know and personal friends who are in the foreign service as we speak. The idea that romney and ryan are suggesting that the president of the united states doesn't take seriously the security of our diplomats and foreign service officers around the world, I find outrageous, especially outrageous coming from the congressman who, in his budget, proposed to cut diplomatic security by $200 million to $300 million. This is a group of folks not ready for prime time. Governor romney goes to london, offends our closest ally, walks corps he just met with intelligence. These are people that seem to want to pound their chests, not worry about national security. Bo biden. That's all the time we have, regrettably. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.