CNN's Chetry did not challenge McCain's false claim that Biden "said that Iraq had to be broken up into three different countries"

On the October 2 edition of CNN's American Morning, co-host Kiran Chetry did not challenge Sen. John McCain's false claim that Sen. Joe Biden "said that Iraq had to be broken up into three different countries." In fact, as Media Matters for America has previously noted, Biden introduced a "five-point plan" to "[m]aintain a unified Iraq by decentralizing it and giving Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis breathing room in their own regions." Biden's plan also stated that "[t]he Iraqi constitution already provides for federalism" and that "[t]he central government would be responsible for common interests, like border security and the distribution of oil revenues."

From the October 2 edition of CNN's American Morning:

CHETRY: You said that she's [Gov. Sarah Palin] comfortable in her own skin. Some of the criticism is -- have been -- has been that Sarah isn't allowed to be Sarah, that she's been tightly managed by the campaign, that she's been holed up, and maybe given too much information. What can we expect to see tonight as she debates Joe Biden?

McCAIN: Well, I'm sure that all of those critics that you're talking about were not there. Look, the fact is that she'll do fine tonight. She has experience. She has talent. She has leadership. She has great inner strength. She has an ability to lead that's been proven, taken on her own party. Joe Biden and [Sen.] Barack Obama have never taken on the leaders of their party on any issue. She's stood up for what's right for the people of Alaska, and she will stand up for what's right for America. Neither one of them --

CHETRY: Well, Joe Biden actually --

McCAIN: Neither one of them have.

CHETRY: Joe Biden did actually agree with you, though, in the primary campaigns that we can't leave Iraq and that you need to make sure that that war is funded, so he did, and he said he was willing to lose because of it.

McCAIN: Actually, Joe Biden said that Iraq had to be broken up into three different countries, one of the more cockamamie ideas that I've heard in a long, long time, and he has attacked the surge as not being a success. So we have very different positions on Iraq, just as we did when he voted against the first Gulf War and I supported it. He has a long record of wrong votes on national security issues.

CHETRY: I'd love to talk to you more, but we gotta let you go.

McCAIN: Of course.

CHETRY: Senator John McCain, thanks so much for joining us this morning.