Exclusive 1-on-1 with Joe Biden

Click here for information about Biden's campaign stop in Martinsville

Posted 4:39 p.m. Wednesday

WARREN: Senator Biden thanks for taking some time to meet with us.

BIDEN: I'm delighted to be with you.

WARREN: I want to ask you about a statement you made a couple of days ago. Of the next president, you said: "Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. And he's gonna have to make some really tough" decisions." You went on to say, "He's gonna need help." Senator Obama was asked about that comment today and said it was one of your "rhetorical flourishes." Is he right?

BIDEN: That's not all what he said. No. He ended by saying that. He said what I was saying. The next president of the United States is going to be tested, whether it's John McCain or Barack Obama. The point I was making is that Barack Obama is absolutely ready to meet those challenges and John McCain is not.

WARREN: If you believe we are going to have a crisis, how has Obama been tested in the past to deal with it? I'm looking for specific examples of his experience to deal with a national security crisis?

BIDEN: Let's start off, John McCain has never been tested either. And when they've both been tested and state their opinion as senator, John McCain has been wrong. Barack Obama has been right. Barack Obama warned about the mistake in Iraq. He was right. John McCain said we'd be greeted as liberators. He was wrong.

BIDEN: John's been wrong about every major crisis we have had. His judgment has been wrong. Barack's has been right.

WARREN: He was right about the surge, though. Sen. Obama voted against the surge. Was he wrong on that vote?

BIDEN: No, he wasn't wrong on that vote. What was it was as John McCain pointed as, just like all the military and Petreaus pointed out, the surge is a consequence... The success is as much a consequence of not only the bravery of our soldiers, but I have been pushing the military to do under the Biden proposal is to give local control.

BIDEN: Part of the reason why this surge has worked is not merely the added numbers but is the fundamental change in the philosophy of how to deal with Iraq and that has been a credit to Petreaus, but also consistent with what Barack and I have been talking about.

WARREN: Sen. Biden, who paid for your suit?

BIDEN: I pay for my suits. I pay for all of my own clothing.

WARREN: I'm sure you've heard that the RNC has spent 150-thousand dollars on Governor Palin's wardrobe. Have the national news outlets asked who paid for your suits?

BIDEN: yeah they have. I've been doing these satellite interviews just like you just asked you. I pay for it.

WARREN: At the end of the day do you think you get the same scrutiny, the same critical eye that Gov. Palin gets from the media?

BIDEN: Absolutely. I have had 36 years for you to scrutinize me.

BIDEN: I'd argue that there is not any fundamental difference in the way that any of the four of us have been scrutinized.

WARREN: There's a new Mason Dixon poll out that has your team ahead in Virginia by three points. Is this race going to come down to the wire in Virginia?

BIDEN: I think it is. It is going to be very close. We can take nothing for granted. The biggest thing going for us is the ground operation we have there. We have over 40 offices in the state and will compete for every vote in every part of your state. I'm going to be in Danville and Martinsville on Friday at the Patrick Henry Community College. We're competing in your state and believe it will be very close.

WARREN: I think you just made news. We did not yet know that you'd be in the area on Friday. Thanks for the time and we look forward to seeing you. Thank you very much.