Paul Ryan: “I just don’t understand” bayonet debate remark (VIDEO)
Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan speaks at the Republican National Convention (RNC) August 29, 2012 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. The RNC will culminate on August 30th with the formal nomination of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as the GOP presidential and vice presidential candidates in the US presidential election.
Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, defended running mate Mitt Romney's position on military spending at the final debate but seemed to get himself into more hot water.
"To compare modern American battleships and Navy with bayonets – I just don't understand that comparison," Ryan told "CBS This Morning."
At Monday's debate, President Barack Obama went on the offensive, painting Romney as out of touch and his views on military spending arcane.
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"You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916," Obama said. "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. The question is not a game of Battleship, where we're counting ships."
"Look. We have to have a strong Navy to keep peace and prosperity and sea lanes open," Ryan responded. "The president's, all these defense cuts, if all these defense cuts go through, our Navy will be smaller than it was before World War I. That's not acceptable. And, yes, the … the ocean hasn't shrunk."
The Daily Beast mocked the remark, writing "As vice president, we imagine Paul Ryan has a solution to continental drift, which is slowly shrinking the Pacific."
Here is the an except from the CBS News interview: