the campaign season and hodding them up for a close examination. and, as always, we're in the taking political sides here. we're simply trying to figure out what is true and what is not. we begin tonight with the romney ad. >> in 1996, president clinton and a bipartisan congress helped welfare as we know it. but on july 12th, president obama quietly announced a program to gut welfare reform by gutting work requirements. you wouldn't have to work. they just send you your welfare check. >> and in a moment, you'll hear from newt gingrich who tries to defend that ad. it's pretty stunning about whether the ad he's speaking is true to the facts. i want to show you how mitt romney is campaigning on the claims made in that very ad. >> with a very careful executive action, he removed the requirement of work from welfare. it is wrong to make any change that would make america more of a nation of government depend si. we must restore it. i will restore work into welfare. >> now,istening to tnd watchinghe ad,ou would think that t whiteusesome manage undo all th your lekted representatives accomplished back i the late '90s in welfare reform. and in case you missed the implications, romney's surrogate, newt gingrich, today, spelled it all out. >> i think on the hard left, there is an unending desire to clean america. it's not just obama's a radical, the people he appoints are more radical. >> a string of fact checkers blasted the akt as false. the washington post-fat guy weighed in with four pinocchioes. what it's doing is giving more flexibility to their own states. these were questioned by the republicans in nevada. >> if president obama didn't want people to think that he was going weigh the central work requirement and welfare reform, his administration shouldn't have written a memo saying it was going to wave the work requirement in welfare reform. >> keeping them honest, . >> so the administration is incesting they aren't trying to wave the work requirement. they're, in fact, trying to make it resz bureaucratic aless bure. as we said, newt gingrich's definty ad goes beyond it. it makes a surprising admission. i spoke with the former presidential candidate just a short time ago. mr. speaker, this ad says under obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work. they just send you your welfare check. now, according to the fact checks, it's not true. they said, there's no plausible scenario under which this new policy constitutes any kind of serious attack on welfare reform. are they all wrong? >> well, robert rector of the heritage foundation who was the original developer of welfare reform worked with governor reagan and then president reagan. he was the first person toe come out aggressively and say, look, this one in the end got welfare reform. and his reasoning is pretty straight forward. this is why, by the way, the law itself does fot permit waivers. the president actually could t waive section 407. so he fudged and found a way to get around it, which i suspected will turn out to be illegal. the governor of virginia has come out and said that he thinks this is clearly gutting welfare reform. the two governors that the obama administration is hiding behind, the governor of utah and the governor of nevada have both come out and said this is not what they wanted. this is not the flexibility they asked for. >> this ad said under obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work. they just send you a welfare check. there's no evidence of that, at all. >> given that this is the administration which has maximized the number of people on food stamps, maximized the number of people to rely on the government. there's no longer evidence once the waiver system is in police station, that you can rely on this add hin straministration t work. according to governors themselves, that's not their intention. they say utah's request from a waiver stems from increased maximizing employment from utah's recipients. that's almost word-for-word what the hhs is saying. the act k assistant seblg tear of hhs said that this is all about trying to create innovative strategies, flexibility, policies and procedures designed to improve employment outcomes. they're basically saying the same things. >> the question you have to ask yourself is given the track record of this particular secretary of health department and human services, and remembering that part of what i think led to this strong reaction on the part of a lot of conservatives and a lot of republicans. this came out of the same 48 hour period as the president's famous speech that you didn't build it. that you aren't responsible as a small business owner 23r what you achieve. so it's almost as though he was psychologically attacking work in achievement at the same time as he was shifting the regulations. candidly, this was not the legislation that you were going to find any conservative give the benefit doubt to. >> i've got to find the wording of this ad. it's under obama's plan. you wouldn't have to work, you wouldn't have to train for a job. they just send you your welfare check. that's not saying we assume this or we think this or we worry about this. it's saying, as a fact, this will happen. and that's just not supported by evidence. >> i think if the ad makers had asked me, i would have said this makes it possible. >> so you think the wording of the ad is too straight forward? >> i think that the ad does assert -- but this is a political ad. in 30 seconds, you tend not to get all the various amendments and things. i'm here tonight supporting the idea. i believe, absolutely, that the obama administration is filled with people who do not believe in the work requirement. as you, yourself, pointed out, even when bill clinton decided to sign the bill, half the house, 101 representatives voted no. barack obama himself was opposed to it. so if you say to me do i think all of those people who opposed the bill would probably try to gut it if they get a chance? of course i do. >> but if you were running this ad, you would change the wording to say i at least worry about this? >> well, if i were running the ad, it would be a much tougher ad because i would start by saying as the leading food stamp person in american history more than anyone else in modern times. and a guy who has failed totally with child poverty. with the clinton-gingrich welfare plan, child poverty went down by 25 pnt, the largest decline was because we had a work requirement and people went to work and went to school and their lives got better. so mill ad would have been tougher than this ad in setting up the conditions you're looking for. and then it would have been a 60 second ad and i don't know if we could have afforded i. >> it did sound like you were saying earlier,and i want to gist try to clarify this. you wouldn't have to train for a job. they just send you a welfare check. that is not factually correct. >> we have no proof today. but i would say to you under obama's ideology, it's absolutely true that he would be comfortable sending a lot of people checks for doing nothing. >> speaker gingrich, i appreciate you being on. you can follow me on twitter or anderson cooper. we're not taking sides here. up next, a pro-obama ad that draws a clear line that confront one of the men behind this ad made by a pro-obama super pakt when they're keeping him on a special container. managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below 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reduce cholesterol. taking psyllium fiber won't make you a model, but you should feel a little more super. metamucil. down with cholesterol. we're focusing tonight on campaign ads not as the truth, but the plain, old-fashioned truth. we begin with a factually bogus romney ad. now a factually bogus ad created by the obama super pakt. >> a short time after that, my wife became ill. i don't know houpg shefgs sick. and i think maybe she didn't say anything because she knew we couldn't afford the insurance. and then one day, she became ill and i took her up to the jackson county hospital. and admitted her for pneumonia and that's when they found cancer. by then, it was stage four. there was nothing they could do for her. and she passed away in 22 days. >>. >> so obviously, a very sad story. keeping them honest, though, as heart wrenching and loss of a job and a spouse is, nothing fits either the timeline or the facts. mr. romney was still on the books as being ceo. he had left two years before to run the olympics. now, you can argue he was still listed as the ceo. but in the ad, he says his wife became ill of "short time" after romney and bain closed the plants and he lost his health care. turns out it was five years after that and 2006 that his wife unfortunately died. her primary insurance was for her own job. as with the romney ad we talked about before the break, the fact checkers are not there smiling. it's the same as romneys and four pinnochios. on just about every level, this stretches the bounds of common sense and decency. they're trying to distance themselves from the ad. jcarney saying i still haven't seen the ad. i don't speak for a third-party group, i speak for the president and administration. >> she went onto say we don't have any knowledge of the story, the family. keeping them honest, though, the family should have some knowledge of him and his family because they used him in one of their own campaign ads earlier. >> i was a steel worker for 30 years. we had a reputation for quality products. it was something that was american made. we weren't rich, but i was able to put my daughter through college. >> that was an earlier ad for the obama 2012 campaign. bill burton is a seen jor strategist. he joins us now. so, bill, let's talk about this. the washington post says on your ad, just about every level, it stretches the common sense and decency. they've echoed saying it's inaccurate. how can you imply that mitt romney and bain are somehow to blame for that poor woman dying of cancer. >> we don't and we would not. those fact checks presuppose that's what we were trying to do. that's not the point of the ad. the point ovt ad is to tell the story of the impact that mitt romney had on the lives of thousands of people. when he came to town, they lost their jobs, they lost their health care, they lost their pension benefits ch and that impact is felt today still in those communities. >> but you're a smart guy. you have a lot of smart ad people in the group that you're working with. half the ad is talking about him and his wife's demise. the implication is clearly that he is responsible or what the actions that he took led to his wife's death. >> the story is a very sad one. and the truth is that there are thousands of stories that are -- that happened as a result of mitt romney and his time at bane. but some of them are really tragic. we think it's important to tell the stories of these folks and how they were impacted by mitt romney. >> how is a woman dying dshl i mean, she had health insurance from her job after this man lost his job and then she got an injury years later and then lost her insurance. >> to say that presupposes that we're trying to link mitt romney with her tragedy. >> you really want people to believe you're not trying to link in anyway even just suddenly or not subtly, that there's some linkage between mitt romney, bain capital, the business decisions he made and her death? >> the point is that even today, it's completely out. people still don't have jobs in some cases. many folks still don't have health insurance. people who don't have jobs are getting paid much less. mitt romney's experience had a profound effect on the lives of thousands of people and that is still being felt. that's what this ad tells the story of. that's what all of our ads tell the story. >> i don't want to go back and forth with this, but if this ad tells us the very specific story, more than half of the ad is him talking very detailed with his wrief. and it is a very sad story. but it also jumps over -- i mean, it truncates time in a way that makes it seem like he got fired, she didn't have health insurance, which she did from her other job, her primary snurnls, in fact. >> she had health insurance for a very short time. >> right, because she lost her job. >> but when jo optic promised to him by a contract that mitt romney had helped to negotiate. he didn't have the health insurance. >> right. because under bankruptcy protection, they were able to do away with the promises they have made. >> they were able to avoid the contract. but they made plenty of money. all of those workers got screwed. >> rieblg right, you can make an ad all about that. i think any nonpartisan observer is looking and saying you are linking this. you would not put this in an ad. >> i think just the opposite. i think the rational thing to take away here is how on earth can you possibly involve that. it's totally disingenuous. >> well, i don't think that's true. >> thanks, bill. >> thanks, ander zone. >> up next, donald trump's actually incorrect birther claims. do surrogates and supporters on both sides help candidate on both ways on controversial topics. 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[ italian accent ] 50% more dough! what's in your wallet? begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye. a new hour on bogus campaign claims. mitt romney says he doesn't doubt that president obama was born in hawaii. but he's very publicly and we might add profitably for his campaign. despite report after report, investigation after investigation, there's nothing to the birth of the story, mr. trump is not backing down. either that or he's looking for attention. either way, the romney campaign hasn't backed away from mr. trump since this controversy erupted several months ago. >> nothing's changed my mind. and, by the way, you have a huge group of people. i walk down the street and people are screaming please, don't give that up. look, a publisher came out last week and had a statement about obama given to them by obama when he was doing a book as a young man a number of years ago, in the '90s, born in kenya and raised in indonesia. i mean, this was his statement. this was from obama. >> that's not true. the publisher says it was only a typo. and for the record, he has produced a long and short firm version who claimed to have been investigators in hawaii on the case. when we sent him to hawaii around the same time, he found plenty of evidence that the president was born there. i asked donald trump about it eight month ts ago. >> we've had a team in hawaii talking about everyone from the state health department to other families who were in the hospital the same time as when he was born. >> well, maybe they're not saying it. maybe they haven't contacted the same people, anderson. >> we've interviewed the republican who has actually seen the original birth certificate that you're talking about. she says she hasn't been contacted by her people. >> i've been told very recently, anderson, that the birth certificate is missing. i've been told that it's not there and it doesn't exist. if that's the case, that's a big problem. >> who told you that. >> i just heard that two days ago from someone. >> can you name at least one person? >> i don't want to do that. it's not appropriate. >> you can't name anybody? >> it's just not appropriate. >> he never revealed any names or investigators. as for the missing birth certificate, it was missing shortly there after. as for mitt romney, he says i don't agree with all the people who su port me and i they don't all agree with everything i believe in. hoe a he might personally donate millions more. he's also made robo calls for the campaign. this picture is uncle sam next to amounts you can donate for a contest. the winner gets flown to new york for dinner. the question is, though, could his support actually cost the romney campaign with votes? in any case, the governor has also said he needs to get 50.1% to support to win and he's happy to have the help of, quote, a lot of good people. now, back to those remarks at the top. he was talking tonight about president obama's lack of business experience. >> sometimes, i think he just doesn't know what it takes to help people. i was speaking with one of these business owners who owns a couple of restaurants in town. and he said, you no, i'd like to change the constitution. i'm not sure i can do it, he said. but i'd like to have a provision in the constitution that, in addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birthplace of the president being set by the constitution, i'd like it also to say that the president has to spend three years working in business before he can become president of the united states. >> joining me now is republican strategy. people are looking at those comments that the candidate made tonight and seeing that it was sort of a dog whistle. the fact that he would bring up the birth requirements in the constitution on a day where donald trump has talked about a job whistle on this issue. fair? >> i just don't agree with that. the governor was actually relaying a conversation that he had had with a voter. and i think that's what governor romney is finding as he engages voters all across the country. they're focused on the economy.