way we're going to do this is we're going to elect leadership. at the 11th hour. cue the bells. you know what? that reminds me of one of my favorite figures in history. i have a bust of winston churchill in my office. churchill said -- the americans can be counted upon to do the right thing, but only after they've exhausted all the other possibility it is. i think that's kind ofhere we are right now. the good news is it's not too late. we can get people back to work. we can get people out of poverty. we can reignite prosperity. we can save medicare, and we can do this by electing leadership.

the man who will lead this comeback for america is the man standing next to me. his name is mitt romney, and he is going to be the next president of the united states of america. >> thank you, paul. what a treat to be here. thank you. what an honor. thank you so much. paul, you're terrific. thank you. and to frank and charlie, kelly, what a team here. only a catholic guy would be the guy to get the bells toll at the right time. father, you did that, i know. my goodness, so many friends here in it would save me some tax dollars, i think. you've been here for me on the

day i announced. you've been with me time and time again in town meetings. you voted for me when it counted most and got me the nomination in a lot of respects, and i owe a great deal to the people in new hampshire and appreciate your willingness to be here today. thank you so much. it is delightful to have a guy part of my team who has character and integrity, who has the capacity to take on tough issues, who is willing to take on tough issues. not just kick the ball down the field and hope someone else will deal with the challenges. i appreciate a man of integrity and strength, as paul ryan is. i appreciate the fact that he's learned how to work with people on the other side of the aisle. as you may appreciate, having served as governor of

massachusetts, you el did that or perished, because my legislature was 88% democrats. they were okay. that is all right. anybody here from massachusetts? yeah, my goodness, wow. i always comment there's a border security problem here. all right? thanks for letting me across the border this morning. he's been able to work with good democrats, find people to work beyond partisanship, find common ground, that's what we need to have happen. i'm planning to go to washington with paul ryan, and we're going to get this country on track for the-mile-an-hour people. i'm asked from time to time, why are you doing this, mitt? why did you get into this? you know the reason. you've heard me say this before, but you see, i want to make sure that everyone in america who

wants a job, can get a good job. i want to make sure everyone who is thinking about retirement or in retirement knows they have a secure retirement. i want people to know that if they get ill, they'll be able to get treated, they'll have health care that's affordable. i want every mom and dad to know their child will get the best education in the world. these are the things we have to provide for americans across the country. i know what it takes to get those things done. i've had the experience of working in the real world, if you will, the private sector, seeing how enterprises get started, how they change the arrives of people when they're successful, and the ways sometimes they're not successful. i st. i understand those things. i want to bring that understanding to make sure we can create good jobs for every american that wants a good job. we've got to do that.

i have a deep desire to make a difference for the people of american. this is a great land, and we owe our people a bright and prosperous future, and that's what we'll do with every ounce of our energy. that's what we'll bring to the american people. i've seen something about what it takes, and one of the fun things of this campaign over the last year and some odd months has been to get to know the people of america and see just how we tick, and actually how new hampshire ticks as well. i was at the madison lumberyard, and there are a couple guys there, jim smith, ken moore, international paper owned the lumber mill there. they decided lumber was not part of their future. they were going to close it down. these two guys got some investors and loans, they bought

the lumberyard lumber mill from international paper. they keep it in business and employ a lot of people. i respect the entrepreneurship of individuals, who step in, who take a risk and make things happen. i met a young woman at high point, north carolina, just a few days ago, and her name is melanie mcnamara, she's in the furniture-making business, and the chinese have killed one job after another for a and she had this idea. she's going to make furniture of a very specific nature, furniture that goes in the waiting rooms of hospitals. that's her niche. she does that well. the 27 people who work for her are happy to have a job, because she figured out how she could compete with the china's and win. and we're going to do that all over the country.

i -- i met a guy in southern illinois, jim leatode is his name jim graduated second in his class in high school, second from the bottom, that is. he decided that college was not in his future. and so he went to his dad and said, dad, can i borrow some money? i want to start a little bit. and they worked something out. they were going to serve food. he went out to buy one of these hamburger griddles, and the rollers that make hot dogs, and then this big hood to take out of the smoke and all that. by the time he costed it out, he found out he didn't begin to have enough money. the conclusion was all he could do is make sandwiches. he got some tables, went to a friend's garages, made

sandwiching, and delivered them to home. good sandwiches. now jimmy johns has 1,3500 restaurants and employs 60,000 people. isn't that amazing? it's just -- you see, it's just the way america works. it's individuals in their own ways pursuing their own dreams, who take a risk in some cases, who worked harder than they ever imagined they would, who use all their brainpower to come up with ideas to okay, we're going to make hospital furniture or find a way to make this lumberyard work, and we're going to start this little restaurant and it's going to grow and go all over the country. this is the way america works. i understand that. the founders understood that. you see, when they decided what america would look like, they had some extraordinary i'll call them inspirational thoughts.

one was this, that our rites do not come from the government. our rights came from the creator. and among -- [ cheers and applause ] and among our rights -- among our rights were life and liberty, and by the way, that includes religious liberty. we respect the right of religions to practice in a free and tolerant way. and number three, the pursuit of happiness. americans should be free to pursue happiness as they choose. see, the founders recognized that far more effective than guiding an economy, than having bureaucrats telling people what to make and how much to charge for it, instead we let free people decide what they want to

do, each person going off in their own way, building enterprises like making sandwiches or hospital furniture or cutting lumber. and this -- this would create, as you know, the most powerful economy in the history of the world. america's economy is driven by freedom. freedom is what makes america work. and the president -- the president says something and paul alluded to it a moment ago, but the president said something extraordinarily revealing about himself, and about how he thinks about the economy. you could see where he was coming from with what he did. you know the stimulus dollars, you know how much money he vetted in so-called green companies? $ 0 billion.

i guess he likes to picks winners and losers, in his case losers, and those businesses. he thinks in some respects that he and his people be picking businesses can do a better job than free people, consumers making the choice of what's better for them. it hasn't worked. it's the wrong approach. and what he said underscored his philosophy. he said this, and you heard it. he said -- if you have a business, you didn't build it, someone else did that. and i -- he -- he said, look, mitt, you're taking me out of context, that's really not what i meant. by the way, go on youtube and look at the context, all right? the context is worse than the quote, all right? he says if you're successful, it's because you think you're smart, but there are a lot of smart people. if you're successful, you may think it's because you work hard, about you there's a lot of

people that work hard. see, in america very value people who are smart, work hard, take risks and build things for others. and we -- we recognize we're in this together and we help one another, and americans coming together, by the way, out of many one, us coming together and uniting, that creates a stronger nation, but nonetheless we recognize and celebrate the success of each individual, and we acknowledge their success. we don't denigrate it, we don't divide americans based upon their level of success. we come together. the other day, you know, i thought about a kid that works hard to get the honor roll, and she works real hard. i know to get the honor roll she had to go on a school bus to get to school, but when she makes the honor roll, i credit the

kid, not the school bus driver. so as opposed to having a president who thinks that government creates our economy and allowing it to grow, i understand it's free people and freedom that drive our economy. i'm going to do five things when i'm in washington with paul ryan. five things we're going to do. number one, we're going to take advantage of our energy resources, our coal, our oil, our gas, our renewables, even nuclear. number one, energy. we have a lot of energy. low cost natural gas is going to bring manufacturing jobs back and keep our utility bills down. number two, i'm going to make sure our schools are second to none. we need our kids to have the skills to succeed. that's number two.

number three, i want trade that works for america. that means we'll open up new markets for our goods. we're going to crack down on cheater like china when they play on an unfair basis. number four, for people in this audience to take a risk to start a business or to invest with a friend who's got a good idea, or some big corporation overseas, for them to put money auld put it at risk in america, they have to know we're not on the road to greece. we're ing to have to do sothing soon, and that's show america this team can put america on track to a balanced budget and stop the deficit spending.

and there's one more. that's this -- i want to champion small business. i want to make it easier for interest preneuros and innovators, i want the small businesses you work in to find it easier to hold on to capital. the president wants to raise taxes on small business, i want them lower. i want to make sure that regulators and regulations are designed to make sure we encourage small business and i want to take off that big cloud hanging over a lot of small businesses. that is, i want to make sure we get obama care out of the way and replace it with something that will help encourage job growth in this country. you know how important this is. you know what a difference this will make for america, for the

23 million americans out of workings for the 1 out of 6 out of poverty. we need these things to help those folks. we also need to help the coming generation. one more thing. american strength is critical not just for us in this country, but also for the world. i was fortunate enough ton in poland a couple weeks ago and had the chance to meet with lech walesa, a world hero. i had just met with the prime minister, so i came in and he said you must be tired, you came from overseas, sit down, i talk, you listen. so i did. he spoke for about 15 minutes, and he kept on hammering me with the same point -- we need american leadership. where is american leadership? look at the challenges in the world. look at what's happening in the middle east? look what's happening around the

world? we need america to lead. let me tell you, if this man is your vice president and i am your president, we will do everything in our power to keep america strong, to lead in the world with strong values, strong homes, strong principles. we'll lead with a strong economy, get this economy going again, so people have good jobs, so we can make sure we have a mill their that's second to none in the world. it's essential that america is strong. that's my commitment to you. we're going to get america back. we're going to make sure it remains strong. my request of you is that you also make a commitment. i would like you to find one person, one person who voted for baquerizo mcmillan who you can

convince to vote for paul ryan and me. you each know ones who voted for baquerizo mcmillan, and i know there are a lot of them out there that aren't quite sure what they are going to do. so i want you to meet with them, talk to them, i want you to tell them we're going to help get good jobs, we're going to make sure we restore strengths in our homes and schools. we'll get american economy so strong that we can afford the military that protects liberty for ourselves and preserves peace on the planet? if you do that job, we can make sure we win not only just in november november, but in new hampshire. with your help we're going to get america back! thank you so much! thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> now it's your turn. now it's your turn here. we're going to take some questions, and small audience back here. please.

just shout it out. i'm not sure you need a microphone, but. >> politicians often talk about you ending the national deficit, but that's not really the real problem. it's the national debt. i'm wondering what you can say to help us know that you will help end the national debt. not just the deficit, but the debt itself. >> as you know, we have about $16 trillion of debt, which is about the size of the total economy. passing on this debt to our kids -- oh, and by the way, not just the debt but also unfunded promises to coming generation and to our generation, that's about another $62 trillion on top of that. we're passing these burdens on every year. the folks as "usa today" calculate the amount of debt and unfunded promise per househow would, over $500,000 per

household. and the interest on that and most likely my generatio will be gone beforell that interest and dead is paid off. these are burdens for things we have purchased during my lifetime that will get paid for by my kids. in my view it's not just bad economics, it's immoral for us to pass these burdens on to coming generations. so what do i do? well, first you've got to end the deficit t. and then start accumulating, if you will, reserves and growing. that's what we did. most states figure out how to do this. they balance their budget. in my state we had about a $3 billion budget gap. we balanced the budget and began building a rainy day fund. it was over $2 billion when i left. three days i do, to one, get rid of the deficit, and how we're going to start pulling down the debt. three approaches. number one, we get rid of programs we don't need. my test is this, i look at every

program and say is this so critical as a program it's worth borrowing money from china to pay for it, and we'll get rid of some programs on that basis. number two, a lot of programs will be sent back to the states where they can be run more efficiently and with less fraud and abuse. and we're going to skinny down the workforce that remains. how do you actually gets to a balanced budget and start paying off the debt? there are three mathematical ways to do that. one, you can raise taxes. not going to do that. two, you can cut spending. i'm going to do that, but number three and most important, you can grow the economy. so twh democrats say just raise taxes, what they don't undetand is that raising taxes slows down growth. and it's like a dog chasing your tail, you never get to the balanced budget by raising

taxes. you have to encourage growth. that's why our policies focused on bringing down spending and encouraging growth. 6 we want to grow this economy and cut federal spending. you do tho two things, we get to a balanced budget, ultimately we get rid of this debt. thank you so much. i want to hear what he has to say on this topic. >> i can't really top that. that is the magic secret. pro-growth economics going from collecting unemployment check to creating and building businesses to having a paycheck. that brings in more revenues through economic growth. cut spending, reform government programs so they are paid for. the problem is we've had decades of politicians from both political parties making a lot of empty promises to voters to

get reelected. what will happen if we have a debt crisis, those empty promises become broken promises. turn on your tv when you get home, look at europe. that's what happens. they made all the they empty promises, they have a debt crisis, now they're in recession and slashing health and retirement benefits for current seniors. young people don't have jobs. we need to prevent and preempt that. that's what this is designed to do, get people back to work, cut spending, reform government, prevent us from being europe, and then we'll be the port in the storm in the global economy. america will be the place you want to create jobs, you want to have your company. this is the engine of economic growth we've had before, we can turn it around. if we do that, then we'll get our debt under control and get it paid off and our kids and grandkids will have a debt-free nation. just like our parents, they took on the challenges in their generation, we do that and we revive the american idea and the

american legacy. >> governor romney, congressman, we haven't had a budget at the federal level for three years, and is the absence for a blueprint for our nation, there's an absence of rapport with the constituents and with congress, and that's the problem with our existing president. what are you two going to do when you're in the white house leading the nation to get a budget in place that will give confidence to the financial market and confidence to the business cmmunity and the world economy that you've just spoken about? >> sure, thank you. good question. >> paul? >> we're going to follow the law.

go figure. we have audget law. that law says that not only is april 15th tax day for all americans, it's budget day for congress and congress is supposed to pass a budget every year by april 15th, but where kelly works, because she's in the minority, the senate has chosen to ignore this law for three years. we haven't had a budget for three years because the united states senate hasn't passed a budget for three years. you guys ever heard of a guy named harry reid? okay. you have. i rest my case. >> apparently, yeah. >> yeah, i guess so. but the point is it takes leadership. president obama has given us four budgets, each and every one of these budgets ducked the

tough issues aung no solution in sight. he punted leadership, the senate hasn't led. we're still living under that obama budget from 2009 that paved the way for obama care and everything else. we're going to follow the law, lead, introduce a budget that solves this problem. we need kelly to have more help in the senate, and courageous people who serve in the senate, we're going to fix this mess before it gets out of our control. >> i'm going to underscore one thing. the role of leadership. i hope you have experienced that in your homes. you've seen it in your state here, there's time when there's strong leadership and you can

get things done. there's other times when you haven't seen the leadership you need. the president the other day was he said they know where my office is. you've got to be kidding, go meet and talk with them. he can't point at harry reid and say they can't get the job done there in the senate. he's got to go over and meet with them, talk to them. remember ronald reagan sitting down with tip o'neil, two more different guys i can't imagine, yet there were important things at that time, and there are important things today. you have to have a president after getting elected willing to sit down with people and lead america. we can't go on the way we're going on or we'll end up being greece. if i am there, i will fight and

lead abilities and we'll have a budget and it will ultimately get us to a place where we can pay back debt. >> thank you, governor. when bhi son's boss asked why he wanted the day off, he said i get a chance to see romney and ryan. he said, you mean that guy that wants to raise taxes. so what are you going to do to combat the lies that the leftists are telling about you? >> yeah, thank you. it seems that the first victim of an obama campaign is the tru truth. it has been sad and disappointing. frankly, you know, when i became the presumptive nominee, the president called me and congratulated me on becoming the prumptive nominee, and said that america deserves an honest debate about the future course of the country. i agreed. i'm waiting to hear him begin that, because all we've heard so

far is one attack after the other. frankly they're typically not honest. there may be one in there that is at the present time i keep looking for it, but it's been a disappointment. so, for instance, let me make this clear. i will not raise taxes on anybody. i don't want to raise taxes on the american people. this is a president who, by the way, has proposed raising the tax rates from 35% to 40%. and let me just point out, you realize the great majority of enterprises that we all work in, americans work in, are taxed as individuals. they pay that rate. they're called flow-through companies. when you raise taxes on small business, you will kill jobs. he put in place the obama care

tax. only 2% of revenues, not of profit, of revenues, so these businesses making misdemeanor devices and instruments, they have to pay taxes even if they're not making a profit. he's been raising taxes and proposing raising taxes. let met tell you, the heart of my tax proposal. i will not raise taxes on the american people. i will not raise taxes on middle-income taxes. that slows down growth and kills jobs. we're going to get this economy going, and mr. president stop saying something that's not the truth. thank you. a friendly crowd in manchester, massachusetts, where the romney/ryan team doing the tag-team approach on this campaign event. they're in new hampshire next door to massachusetts, talking about those who might need to actually come over the border. he himself, governor romney

saying maybe i should be here because i could get a tax advantage. you know that everything that is said on these campaign stumps is parsed and twisted and turned by the opposition as well. let me go to jim acosta who's on the stump and to get a wrapup. some of the questions pointed without question, but certainly not difficult for these two campaigners. >> reporter: well, actually sometimes the questions can be friendly at these town has. just a few moments ago, you heard a perfect example, but it did tee up some of the harshest rhetoric directed. a woman in the audience asked what do you do to combat the lies? you heard mitt romney say the first victim of the obama campaign is the truth. this super-heated rhetoric we have been hearing the last couple weeks from both campaigns is not letting up.

there is a distraction for the romney campaign today. they are holding this big event here in new hampshire with mitt romney and paul ryan both together, the first time in a week, but there is this controversy out in missouri, that issue of todd akin, who made those comments. obviously the democrats have pounced on this, republicans have as well. scott brown, the senator from massachusetts, has called on todd akin to drop out of that senate race in missouri. i had a few moments with a senior romney divorce a few moments ago, and he told me mitt romney has no such plans to call on todd akin to get out of that race. so a bit of news there. kevin madden did direct us to comments that the gop contender made to "national review" online earlier this morning. when he called those comments inexcusable. >> we'll talk about todd akin coming up in this program later. jim, i just want to ask, with this race as tight as it is,

this is a very effective team, but is it the best use of both politicians or should they spread the love, separate and cover more ground? >> reporter: that's what they did a week ago. we were there on the tarmac with them. i think it was wisconsin, i hope that's the state we were at when they went their supraways. but yes, that was the move at that time, but i think the romney campaign realized there's more energy, the crowds get bigger, they're a big louder when paul ryan is at his side. another adviser i talked to said they like the chemistry between the two politicians, so yes there is fretting over washington whether paul ryan was the best picks, but romney seems to be feeding off the energy and enthusiasm that paul ryan seems to whip up. he is a conservative hero, and i think mitt romney is feeding off some of that energy. jim acosta, thank you for

that. we appreciate it. he'll stay on it for us and bring us any news that comes out of that compare event. and our breaking news this morning comes courtesy the augusta national golf club. are you sitting down? legendary home of the masters tournament h just admitted its first women as members. and here they are. former secretary of state condoleezza rice, an avid golfers and south carolina finance year darla moore, presumably another avid golfer. of course uknow for years augusta national has been under pressure to break with the men-only tradition. now the chairman billy payne says this, a quote from him -- these accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf, and both e well known and realized by our membership. it will be a proud moment when we present condoleezza rice and

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right now they're taking one of those fabulously weightless walks today. the first thing i heard was they were going to be heading out to build some kind of deflection shield and my "star trek" mind was thinking there are -- >> it's micrometeoroids when they're traveling at 20,000 miles an hour, just a tiny rock in space can put a big damaging hogue in a space station. they're going to install that on one of the components, but right now they have not gone outside. they're well over an hou declared. there is a problem with a leak in a seal in between a couple of the compartments in the air lock. so we can see a live picture from nasa television right there

of the russian portion, but right now a delay. they're going to do that, then they're going to move a hand-operated crai ed crane. they're going ready for a new science lab that's going up there on the russian side in 2012. ashlei ashleigh, this is the 135th, when it takes place, space walk from the international space station over the last deck case, 15 years or so. >> i don't care, it never gets old, zarrella. >> no, it did not. >> they have nerves of steel. thing about what it would take to step on out into space, no matter their gear. my favorite space nerd, can i ask you about these incredible photographs, clear as though they were taken with your best nikon, from the mars curiosity. pardon the pun, they are out of this world. >> curiosity continues to be

your most terrific nasa story out there. there's no question about it. over the weekend, went a bit unheralded. they used their kem cam, and zapped a rock by the laser. they hit it about 30 times with the tiny laser shot, and the plasma emitted is photographed by a telescope. they can analyze that rock, which which i named coronation rock, there's another image, coronation rock. another one they released was called the promised land. that's mt. sharp in the distance. they want to ultimately get over to mt. sharp. i layered rock. they can look back into the history of mars when tiffs a wetter time, more like earth. >> it looks like arizona.

it's so awesome to see that. yeah, it's like the grand canyon. >> i'll bet it's a little warmer. >> reporter: no, it's a little warmer in arizona. it's about 15 below down there. >> never mind. you know what, i misspeak just like the candidates. i talk a lot. ed, thanks. >> bye, ash. >> you are my favorite space geek, no matter what. an american and japanese astronaut are scheduled to perform the second walk from this team on august 30th. at usaa, we believe honor is not

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welcome back. while surgery carries risk for anybody who is going under, it can have some particularly stronger risks perhaps for little kids. now a new study is suggesting children who have anesthesia before the age of 3 are at a higher risk for developmental delays later in life.

our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is with us. this sounds scary. >> i'm going to tell this story carefully, because i don't want to freak children out. as a mother of children who are surgery under the age of 3 -- >> i had one, too. >> it's a scary thing. this was a study in australia, about 2600 kids. they found those kids were about twice as likely to have developmental delays if they had the anesthesia before the age of 3. we're talking about listening, reasoning, those kinds of delays. and the reason why i want to tell it carefully is maybe these children, because they needed surgery, had some kind of condition to begin with, and maybe that's what we're seeing. maybe it was the anesthesia, maybe it was the surgery, we just don't know. >> or maybe it was the underlying condition. but ift was a trauma like a bike accident or something else, should parents be more concerned? >> i think the answer here is if

a doctor says your young child needs surgery, you want the same discussionsh be having anyhow. are we sure my child needs to be put under? are we sure. is there a local anesthetic we could use anyhow? have that discussion with your doctor no matter what. if your child needs surgery, they need it. i don't want parents to say no just because of this study. the surgery can be life-saving. >> that's the problem, of course we ask those questions, because there's already the risk of death. what else should get you asking these questions, but there are no other kinds. >> again, if your child niece surgery, they need surgery. kids shouldn't be having unnecessary surgeries anyhow, but can we wait or are there alternatives? have that discussion, but don't

be scared to have surgery if that's going to save your child's life. >> and remember, it is one study. >> there have been a couple studies that have shown similar things. what doctors need to do, they need to look at this and try to tease it out. was it the underlying country? the anesthesia? the surgery itself? this is on the doctors ease plates right now, not a lot of parents can do. ♪

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so here is it is an odd one. what exactly is legitimate rape? what exactly did a six-term member of congress mean when he suggested that, quote, the female body can block conception during unwanted sex, end quote. this is trouble. missouri congressman todd akin is running for the u.s. senate seat, a seat that belongs to democrat claire mccaskill which is why his comments to a st. louis interviewer set off a nationwide uproar. listen for yourself. >> it seems to me that first of all from what i understand from the doctors, that is really

rare. if it is a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down, but let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something, and i think that there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be in the rapist and not attacking the child. >> i didn't know where to beginment i'll say this though, that akin later said that he misspoke, but the long time social conservative and the member of the tea party caucus opposes abortion in every circumstance, and rape included. it is not still really clear which part he considers misspoken, and mccaskill is calling akin's comments ignorant and offensive. and she spoke this morning on msnbc. >> for me in this race, i want to make a moment that missourians can take a close look. he was elected by the republican primary voters, by a wide margin, and i know that there are people that are out of the mainstream that really support todd akin, but for most

missourians, i hope that this is one of the gut check moments when they real ize this is not somebody we want speaking for us, and our values. >> i want to bring in cnn's wolf blitzer who is live in washington, d.c. i think that the question right off of the bat, is this a game-change in this particular race? >> potentially, it is. it is great news for claire mccaskill who was in deep, deep trouble and the republicans were assuming that akin would win that seat in missouri, and now it is assuming he stays in, and that is an assumption, because i assume that he will stay in the race, but assuming he does, this is a much closer race than a lot of people thought. he has embarrass ed the republicans not only in missouri, but across the country with these comments. that is why we see everyone from romney and ryan on down distancing themselves as quickly as they did. he has until 5:00 p.m. local time on tuesday to withdraw without penalty to the republicans in the state, and i

know behind the scenes there are some republicans and one for example scott brown, the republican senator from massachusetts, already calling on him to step downing because of the embarrassing comments that he made. this is a potential game-changer in that senate race in missouri, ashley, to be sure. >> and regardless of how you feel about the abortion and the case of rape or incest, but there is this issue of how women can stop a pregnancy during and/or after rape which is so disconcerting. i want to mention here that it really didn't take very long, wolf, for the romney/ryan ticket to put mr. akin at arm's length. let me read their statement. governor romney and congressman ryan disagree with mr. akin's statement, and a romney/ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape. that last line really stuck out, because isn't that a change for congressman ryan this is. >> yes. congressman ryan over the years has said that there should be no

exception for rape as far as abortion rights for women are concerned and it is not a change for romney, but as you know, romney is at the top of the ticket, and ryan is number two, and he has to forget about the old positions, because he supports what romney says right now, and romney says there should be exceptions in the case of incest and rape and life of the mother and all that what i should say, and so he is opposed to abortion for rape and insist and now ryan has to go with mitt romney's position which is con sis nent recent years that there should be no abortion unless incest, rape, or life of the mothe mother. >> this is a total head scratcher, wolf. thank you. we invit the viewers to tune into your show, "the situation room," beginning at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon. thank you, wolf. i want to go back to the alleged

comments of this congressman and the female's body to resist p g pregnancy is unusual. let me bring in olivia masters to talk about this, because there are facts here that are critical in this debate. she is a sexual assault victim herself and advocate and author. ms. masters, first, let's get to the facts. the congressman suggested that rarely, originally he suggested before he said that he misspoke, rarely do rapes result in pregnancies. what are the real numbers? >> the real numbers are astounding and i'm not sure where he gets the information that your body rejects pregnancy, i don't understand. i was pregnant at 13, and the only way i didn't get pregnant is my going to emergency room

and the doctors doing the emergency contraception, and stopping any kind of pregnancy or diseases that could have occurred after that, but for him to go with these figures, i'm unsure where he got the figures and what the current figures are myself, but to just blatantly say something and you don't know the facts, it is not a wise decision to do. >> i dug up a couple of figures, because i was looking for what i could find on this, and it is difficult. i will be honest with you, it is difficult to find the figures, but we did find approximately three different studies that suggest that the numbers are around 6%, and swone is from th rape and abuse and national network as well as planned parenthood and medical university of south carolina, a and they all came up with around the me percentage 6%, but that does not take into account all of the women who are raped who do not come forward or take into account the women who are rape and are on birth control, but

let me ask you this, when it come t comes to the issue, the notion that somehow a woman can top conception during or after a rape, and biologically i have never learned that anywhere. have you heard it or read it anywhere? >> that is ludicrous to say, and it is amazing that he would make a statement like that, and i don't want to say that i am picking sides or mudslinging, as a survivor of someone who suffered a sexual assault, it sets me back to make me think that i could have stopped something from happening from me and if i did not come forward and what would i do at 13 years old with a baby even if i didn't have the option of abortion to try to raise a child and put more burden on my family, and who is going to help to support and feed that child? some things we have to think about them before we, or process them before they come out of our

mouths. >> h thank you is much profusely for joining us, and thank you for your perspective on this comment. >> thank you. and we have to scoot away, but "cnn international" is coming up right after the break. thank you for watching. at usaa, we believe honor is not exclusive to the military, and commitment is not limited to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. with our award winning apps that allow you to transfer funds, pay bills or manage your finances anywhere, anytime. so that wherever your duty takes you, usaa bank goes with you. visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different.