. >> martha wallace began by asking about the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. turns out this was not a demonstration that was hijacked by individual clusters of extremists. but it was a planned attack carried out by heavily armed individuals. there was a house hearing this week criticizing the state department for turning down requests for more help in securing the consulate. this used to be your field. if they ask for more security, why did they not get it? that is number one. no. 2, is there a cover-up here or an attempt to a cover-up? >> i have been in the position where i ask for something and did i get it from headquarters. i did during the cold war but the same kind of problem. this is the field headquarters issue that you have. obviously, that request had been granted. it came from the national security office. they should have followed up on the request. that is beyond the bells of the bureaucracy. but that is neither here nor there. >> what about the cover-up? >> i don't see a cover-up. sometimes, you should not jump up there and make the judgments wit

martha: chris wallace.his sunday high light the good and the bad of the presidential debate with debate coach brett o'connell is what he has coming up this weekend and an exclusive one-on-one with republican senator kelly ayotte from new hampshire. she has been very vocal throughout this and a mitt romney supporter. bill: economists are making the argument that the number is skewed if you look at the health of the american workforce. in 200766% of all eligible workers were actively in the workforce, and today that percentage has dropped to 63%. and it's been below 64% for nine conse consecutive months. that is the longest stretch since 1981. if the percentage of eligible workers in the economy did not fall we'd be looking at an unemployment rate of 11.1%. and when breaking down the number of americans unemployed as of the month of september, 4.84 million people have been out of work for six months or more. 3.45million out of work for more than a year or more. and the average number of weeks unemployed nearl

martha: chris wallace anchor of his own show. >> now that i've had a nice sleep i see things definitelyit's a fascinating calm par con to go back to george bush where he said, it's hard to be question he said there in the evening. what do you think president obama learned last night and what do you think we'll see differently next time around? >> i'm sure they prepared him at great length, but you've got to remember there is a bubble to being president and they don't get talked to that way in public, they don't get talked to that way in private, and i got to think that after four years, because ace say it reminded me of george w. bush in 2004, that they don't like somebody getting in their face, and mitt romney got in his face, and romney's command of the facts was really quite astonishing. his arguments as to the differences between obamacare and romney care, his indictment of the obama record on the economy, very impressive and there were points, and we've talked about body long, and i think we've talked too much about it where romney was always looking directly the a the president an

martha: we have another 18 days, there will be a lot to talk about. bill: chris wallaceed this time so they can't circle each other like sharks. martha: we are happy to see you . "happening now" starts right lieu. thanks for being with us. have a good one. jon: brand-new stories. jenna: brand-new reports the cia chief in libya told washington within 24 hours that the deadly attack on our consulate was done by militants not an angry mob. why the white house handled the aftermath the way it did. the candidates gearing up for the third and final debate, foreign policy is the hot topic. this is their final push in key swing states and with a key voting block. young and full of life, that's how the husband of a missing coffee shop barrista, the woman you see on your screen describes his wife. the very latest on the desperate

martha: for more on what to expect in the third and final presidential debate which happens monday night we welcome chris wallacef "fox news sunday" good to see you. >> good morning. martha: when you take a look at the two gentlemen i was fascinated to see them yuck it up in their white ties. what do you expect after having seen two debates will happen on monday night. >> i'm happy both will be seated. they aren't going to be at two different poed kwrupls but the dave podiums. but they will be seated at the table with a moderator. they may get to each other's grill but they won't be able to get in each other's face, which may be a good idea. martha: we had mike huckabee on a while ago and he said mitt romney needs to hold the president's feet to the fire so to speak on the narrative that unraveled from the white house with regard to libya. do you think we get more meat on the bones monday night. >> i'd be shocked if we didn't. the most important question is the question that the fella kerry latka asked which neither of them answered, his original question was, why didn't you do more, to the president, beforehand

martha: a mitt mitt romney in front of a big crowd. chris wallace joins us now.s a squeaker. when you look at the economy, it has been the forefront issue throughout the course of this campaign. we have gdp numbers this morning. one more jobs number into the mix next friday. how does this look to you? >> in terms of the jobs come i'm not sure people are going to sit there and say, oh, my god, it is 5%. that has been a very tepid number. i just saw something come across our internal newswire outfox. apparently there was a big spike in government spending in the third quarter. 9.6% increase in government spending. now, you can argue that that is spending be needed to get done. but maybe they wanted to get it done before we hit the fiscal cliff. maybe it is to boost economic output before the election. which is certainly what i suspect some republicans are going to say. i do not think this is a number that you can boost with the obama campaign, and it continues a sense that we are in a very slow and tepid recovery. martha: when you look at some of these polls out th

martha. >> thank you very much. >>> let's get more from our insiders right here, right now. nicolle wallaceyou were behind the scenes four years ago with sarah palin, donna brazile with vice president gore. and the polls show a split decision. one overnight poll, giving a small edge to ryan. another one, a bigger edge to joe biden. one thing was clear. joe biden did what democrats wanted him to do last night. >> no question, george. joe biden came prepared. he came prepared to argue. he came prepared to debate. and he came prepared to be joe biden. mularkey. i didn't know that word before. he took all of the issues that president obama left on the floor last week. and said, you know what? i'm going to take that straight to the romney/ryan ticket. he didn't hesitate to attack them on their so-called budget plan, their tax plan. he was also, at times, when i thought he would become defensive on foreign policy, joe biden showed once again, he has the experience and had the information. and details matter. and joe biden provided those, too. >> you saw the romney campaign zeroing in on the smile

martha: the white house response to the benghazi attack prompting a heated exchange on sunday between chris wallace and obama senior advisor david axelrod. this after axelrod suggested that the attack only become a big political issue because governor romney was trying to exploit it all for political reasons and then happened. watch. >> wait a minute. this is the first u.s. ambassador that has been killed since 1979. susan rice came on this show and five other and gave the american people a story that turned out not to be true and you're saying we shouldn't discuss this? that we should wait for the investigation to be completed? >> no, no. >> that's what you just said. >> that is, chris calm down. that is obviously not what i'm saying. i just -- >> you wait a minute. we should follow the lead of chris stevens -- >> i'm happy, i'm happy to discuss it with you. >> talking about what he said day after the attacks. nobody is criticizing him what is he saying now except except the obama campaign. >> well, i'm just telling you that from the beginning of this issue, before any facts were known he was crav

martha rad zat pushed very hard on that. when ed gillespie was on fox news on sunday, chris wallace was pushing him as well on that. i want to play a little bit of what he said to chris wallace. >> because there are a lot of questions from independent people, how do you pay for it, and he refused to say how you're going to pay for it. >> what we have said is that we're going to pay for it with these by eliminating deductions. six different studies have said this is -- >> those are very questionable. some of them are blogs. some of them are from the adi, which is an independent group. >> these are very credible sources. >> have a problem do you think that that topic's going to be if there are no specific answers, and if the campaign continues to go with six credible sources, which they said a lot, and you know, if, if, if fox news is saying listen, i think that's going to be a challenge for them. >> actually i think it's an opportunity. i think ryan missed a huge opportunity because the romney campaign rolled out about two weeks ago, what i think is a terrific idea on this, which is the notion of capping the basket

martha: fox news is america's headquarters. starting at 8:55 eastern. we'll have the pregame and post-game with megyn kelly, brit hume, chris wallace and bret baier. everybody is ready, right? bill: part of president obama's healthcare law is quieting kicking in for millions of seniors. what happens if medicare patients need to go back to the hospital for care. martha: can a recent spike on these horrible attacks in afghanistan force our troops to get out of afghanistan earlier? we'll talk to jack keane about that. we'll be right back. martha: 20 people have been hurt in california after a truck slammed into an amtrak train. most of the injuries are said to be minor. >> the train started going down. the noise was extra loud. and smoke -- we thought it was smoke about it was dust. >> my mother called hysterically that the strain overturned. and my niece and her newborn baby are on that train. martha: police say it did occur at a crossing equipped with gates to stop traffic. bill: millions of americans can be affected by a little known piece of the president's healthcare law. hospitals face big fines if medicare patients have to be readmitted within

martha raddatz did a very good job on this. she's sort of like you're not again going to give specifics. and chris wallace giving specifics as you're giving directions to congress. this is what ceos do. listen, as you design this, make sure that people making $200,000 will not have their tax burden lowered. but we're going to lower their marginal tax rate because that produces inseverives for them to create jobs. for people making less than $200,000, lower their tax rates that will be so pro-growth it will be made up in terms of economic growth. that's how you increase revenue to the federal government. the old-fashioned way. by growing your economy. that is what this president does not understand. he doesn't understand how the private sector works. so his -- his choice, and this is why this i such a stark contrast in this election, president obama had a choice to make when he came into this -- into the presidency. by the way, the recession had bottomed out. we weren't in free-fall. in the second quarter, we only gave up 0.7 gdp growth by the third quarter of his presidency we were already in recovery. it

the romney team told wallace, governor romney laid out the strategy and form and fashion for how he would carry things out. portman coming up. martha: left a lot of people in the twitter up verse suggesting lines all the time for comebacks, who felt he wasn't strong enough or missing opportunities that he could have used to really come back. we'll see if the strategy worked for him in the end. that is clearly what seems to have been at play here. we also heard from the undecided voter who touched off the firestorm from the last debate when he did ask president obama about the response in libya. his name is carey. remember him as a character in the play last go round from long island, new york. he told get at that van sus trom last night he -- greta van susteren. >> it is still the same question for me. i thought the president was great on the foreign policy tonight. i thought the governor did excellent on the economic situation. i ultimately this election will be won based on economics, not foreign policy. i'm still betwixt and between. martha: he still undecided. he falls into that very narrow category getting a ton of attention n

martha: you have the final presidential debate, sure to be rematch of what we're talking about here with regard to benghazi. both sides sharpening their knives for that fine as face up. we'll talk to chris wallacewhat are the stakes for monday night? we'll be right back. m bank of a. i choose the cash back deals in my mobile or online banking. i just use my bank of america debit or credit card when i pay. put in my account. this is cash back on top of other rewards we already get. and best of all, it's free. friends help friends get deals. pass it on. [ male announcer ] introducing bankamerideals, free for online banking customers. sign in to your online banking to choose your deals today. who doesn't like a good deal? thank you, mr. speaker, uh,ing to members of congress.day. in celebration of over 75 years of our government employees insurance company, or geico...as most of you know it. ...i propose savings for everyone! i'm talking hundreds here... and furthermore.. newcaster: breaking news. the gecko is demanding free pudding. and political parties that are actual parties! with cake! and presents! ah, that was good. too bad nobody could hear me. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen