she did not want to be romney's running mate. >> what they wanted, dr. rice, is for you to be a v.p. and the real power of the position. >> well, they probably didn't want that, and especially me. >> and the mitt romney you don't know from his sons. >> he said he seems laid back, right? >> no, the hair is too perfect. >> this is "piers morgan" tonight. perfect. >> this is piers morgan tonight." >> good evening. i'm here at the cnn grill where the republican convention has been wrapping us. it's been a big week for the party. tonight we begin with faith, family and mitt romney. the candidates' sons are on a mission. today their dad more likable, more down to earth. they're the the young men who defend mitt romney. with their mother ann they just might be his secret weapons. >> ben, craig, tag, josh, matt. >> very good. >> can you do it without the ear piece in? >> no one was giving me information. i'm just trying to remember. now we're at the crucial stage of the campaign. your father is within breathing distance of the white house. big pressure. how are you guys coping as his sons with all the negativity that begins to pour down on what is your dad's head? what do you think? >> you know, you don't worry about the negativity. it comes with the territory. you knew it was coming before we got in. just kind of roll with it and keep moving and try to get your own message out there which is a positive vision for what my dad believes america can get back to. try to get the 23 million people out of work back to wompblwork. he and paul ryan will do all they can to break through all the negative stuff out there and deliver that message to the american people. >> when you see the attack ad like the obama super pac ad, accusing your father for being responsible for a woman's death. how do you really feel? >> some of these go too far, clearly. we find them -- the ones that are untruthful, they're hard to watch. we don't like it. it's not fun. but at the end of the day the reality is people who know my dad best, the people who spent their lives with him or worked with him at some point, are supporting him. the people who know him the least are the once who have the bad things to see. my brothers and my mother know what kind of person he is. we let it roll off the back. some ads take it too far. >> what sort of emotive issues around the republican race this year, the nominee race. you guys are all mormons, obviously. we all know about that faith. when you meet young people, they say the problem with the republican party today is they don't like the apparent intolerance over gay rights, over abortion, over these kind of issues. you're young guys. how do you feel? are you completely wedded and signed up to these positions that the party takes? >> you know, obviously we're not running for president so our positions don't really matter. but our dad is. one thing i can tell you about him and about us is our faith teaches us to love everybody, regardless of what their situation is, what the orientation is. that's really first and foremost. you love everybody. but as far as policies are concerned, we all believe that family is important. and my dad does as well. that's something worth fighting for. so how that exactly shakes out in the issues, that's up to him to decide. but we all believe the same things. >> i suppose what i'm getting at is some of the language used by some of the republicans, not leveling this at your father but some of the language can be very almost bordering on bigoted. and as you're younger guys it tends to be a bit generational that. do you wish sometimes that the language used by the republicans was less emotive? >> i think my dad's been very compassionate with his views. he believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman. but he also is very compassion at and understanding that people have other opinions. i think he's been very respectful of both sides in that argument. but this race i don't think is going to come down to social issues. we have 23 million americans who are out of work, an economy that's stalling. we've added $5 trillion in debt in the last 3 1/2 years or $7 trillion of debt in the last -- this is going to come down to who can turn the economy around, get things moving again. and people trust me dad on that a lot more than they do barack obama. >> and the mormon faith, we've heard a lot of negatives about mormonism. what are the positives from your point of view? what are the great assets of being a mormon that you would advocate? >> well, in a few brief sentences, i guess, for me at least it's taught me great values in my life, how to live my life, how to treat other people. just like a lot of faiths that are out there, there are a lot of great things about mormonism. how to live your life and treat your neighbor, love others. >> you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't take drugs, you don't womanize. >> yeah, i mean, these are all things that -- >> you're strapping young guys. do you ever feel like, dammit. i wish we hadn't been mormons. >> all these things have been great blessings in my life. living by that sort of of code has really been wonderful for me. >> do you think the ethos of family values is really important, craig? let's start with you. do you think it's a great as sunset. >> i hope so. it's something that's very important to us, the values we've been taught from a young age. and they are core principles of our faith. and obviously we're very proud of that. >> let's talk taxation. i know you've been chomping at the bit to get to this. a lot of people say, come on. the old man should just release more of his financial records to just clear up once and for all how much tax he's paid. >> you know, he's paid his taxes. and this is a gimmick by the obama campaign to take the message off the economy and onto my dad's personal taxes. at the end of the day, we have $16 trillion in debt, 23 million americans out of work. and obama continues to talk about my dad's personal taxes. these are not things that really matter in the grand scheme of things. they want to use the taxes as a gimmick to continue to hit him over the next few weeks to focus on my dad's taxes. the big issue is the economy. the economy is faltering, sputtering along. obama has had 3 1/2 years to get it turned around and he hasn't. that's the real issue. >> how hard is it to be the son of a guy running for president with all the scrutiny and he's stinking rich? which ever way you dress it up you're very rich people. how hard is that when you get people attacking him for his success and his wealth? >> you know, as tagg pointsed out earlier, this is a game of politics. we're prepared for that. but it is tough. it's tough to see that. we know that he did a great job of making that money. he worked very, very hard to do that. and nothing really -- we don't take anything for granted. we know that there are a lot of people out there that are really struggling. >> i think it's one of the great ironies in this elections that president obama is trying to make it a disqualifier to be succes successful. if you had a successful career in the private sector that disqualifies you from being president. president obama has not had a business career and hasn't had that opportunity but wants to point to my dad's success as being somehow disqualifying. >> knowing your father as you do, do you guarantee to the american people he's got nothing to hide about his finances? >> i know my dad, what he stands for, his value system. he is the most honest guy i know, complete integrity. he's got nothing to hide. he just really wants this to be about the economy, focus on the economy. let's not distract ourselves with all the peripheral issues. let's get down to the real issues. look at his vice-president pick. this is a guy who spent his time in congress really tackling the issues. whether or not you agree or disagree with him on the issues at least he's trying to make a difference. my dad's doing the same thing. he really wants to make the difference. >> are you concerned when your dad pick add running mate who looks like one of his sons? >> you know what? i think paul ryan was a brilliant pick. there are a lot of of political reasons to pick other people. my dad picked the person he thought would do the best job with him to tackle the debt and get the economy moving again. and to pick up the mantra for the republican party eight years from now when he's out of office. he didn't pick paul ryan for political reasons but he was the right person to pick. i think it says a lot about how my dad will govern. >> it was a bold move. i think people were taken aback by the fact it was audacious. >> you look at what he'll do in office. he's not going to worry about the day-to-day back and forth what's that person going to think. he's going to do what he thinks is the right thing to do and bring the american people along and have them get behind him and lead forward and fix the problems that we're facing right now. >> i want to end with all of you giving me one word which is a great description of your dad. if the one who's already gone before you has already said it you can't use the same word. >> frugal. >> qualified. >> generous. >> father. >> father. >> i said integrity on earlier episode. but i'll say loving as well. he's very loving. >> loving as well. that's a nice way to end. >> like father first. >> father can often be the one thing that is a great winner. a pleasure to meet you. good to see you. >> next i sit down with the keynote speaker, the irrepressible governor chris christie, who lively as you'll see occasionally a rather heated conversation. >> leadership delivers. leadership counts. leadership matters. here's the great news i came here tonight to bring you. we have this leader for america. we have a nominee who will tell us the truth and who will lead with conviction. now he has a running mate who will do the same. we have governor mitt romney and congressman paul ryan, and we need to make them the next president and vice-president of the united states. 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>> yeah. >> you do? >> sure. >> you don't think he misleads the american public. >> listen, i think his misleads people in political commercials but i don't think that's breaking new ground. i generally think he's an honest person. i also think he's dead wrong on policy. i think he's led this country in the wrong direction. and i also don't think he has the first idea about how to use executive power. but i don't think that means he's generally a dishonest person. >> has he been dead wrong about everything or can you find things to credit him with? >> with certain areas of education policy i agree with him, trying to empower charter schools and choice around the country. he's been right on that. not everything but some of it. >> foreign policy? >> i'm not going to go through like a checklist with you. >> one of the allegations against the romney-ryan ticket is their lack of foreign policy experience. people are a bit concerned that the romney-ryan ticket is lacking in experience. >> i think the president romney will surround himself with an excellent cabinet and excellent advisers. also a lot of foreign policy in my view, piers, is the willingness of the president to make tough choices. i think that mitt romney will make those tough choices, and he will not be confusing folks out there. he will stand with our friends and stand against our adversaries. he'll get people around him. the one great thing about mitt, one of the great things is that he's not stuck on being the martest guy in the room. he'll surround himself with extraordinary people to help make his government a success and our country a success. given that people have said why didn't chris christie talk more about mitt romney? given that's the criticism, clearly you didn't intend that from what you told me. what else would you say about the man? you know him better than many people now. >> sure. >> what are the qualities that maybe we're not aware of? >> this is a man with an extraordinarily good heart. i mean, i've watched him interact with my children. you've seen politicians interact with children, especially the ones that don't note first thing about it. it's an abomination. they're patting them on the head like this. not knowing how to deal with them. i've seen governor romney with my children, my 8-year-old and my 11-year-old. he's incredibly engaging with them, cares about them, makes them feel special when he's with them and wants to pay attention to them. this is a guy who's an engaged father, an engaged grandfather. that term tells you something about his heart. >> do you want to see more of that? his five sons for example, one of them said to me the trouble with daddy he's always a sceo i public. he can't remove the shack else he's had for so long. people don't see the real mitt romney thesee behind closed doors. >> i hope he does. if he does the american people are going to like him and trust him and make him the next president of the united states. i'm convinced of that. when it comes down to trust, this election could come down to the economy and who believes who most about the future for solving the economy. you have an interesting experience in new jersey. you've lowered taxes and balanced budgets. but unemployment has risen to the highest level since 1977. people which will say, look, that's a classic argument against the republican position, right? you've lowered taxes, balanced the budget but it's got you nowhere with unemployment. what do you say with that? >> first of all, the statistics that it's higher in 35 years is wrong. higher in october and november of 2009 than it is now. that's a bad statistic. secondly what we're doing in new jersey is lowering the number of people wok working for the government. we're making government smaller. that's going to help to unleash the private sector. you'll see the numbers go down over the course of time. >> who do you blame? yourself or barack obama? for unemployment? >> listen, for unemployment? >> in new jersey. >> the fact of the matter is that the national economy has a huge effect on what happens in new jersey. but also i just told you. we made a concerted effort to lower the number of public employees. our government had gotten too big and too bloated. and we needed to make it smaller. that's going to have an effect on those numbers. a short-term effect. but the long-term effect is going to be we're going to take more money out of the government back into the private sector. remember this. we grow 90,000 new private sector jobs since i was elected governor in last 12 months our fourth highest rate in america in the creation of new private sector jobs. the comeback in new jersey has begun. it's going to take us awhile digging out of a heck of a hole but we'll get there. >> people who heard your speech said this was entirely a pitch and play for him to be president. you. >> i don't understand that. >> you have literally no aspirations to be leader of the free world? >> listen. since last october i have traveled to 15 different states for mitt romney. i sat and allowed you to harass me in my office for an hour that somehow mitt romney was not going to win and rick santorum was going to be the nominee. i steadfastly stood by mitt romney because i believed he would be the nominee and i turned out to be right because i think he's the best person to be president of the united states. so anybody who reads that into it just hasn't watched what i've been doing for the last year which has been working as hard as any outsider for mitt romney and for his election as president. and i'm proud to have done it. >> governor, thank you for talking to me. you made a few things very clear. >> coming up, a man many thought could have been president himself. jed bush on why he believes the romney-ryan ticket is right for the country. >> mr. president, it is time to stop blaming your predecessor for your failed economic policies. 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