First Republican Primary Debate - Main Stage - August 6 2015 on Fox News

[0:00] their game plan back there you know we came we have our game plan yeah maybe [0:03] they're conferring with each other yeah come on out we're gonna begin gonna [0:08] shout out the names with Ohio governor Kasich, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, former Florida [0:28] governor Jeb Bush, businessman Donald Trump, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker [0:37] retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and New [0:48] Jersey governor Chris Christie and now all of the cameramen are taking their [0:55] pictures this is the picture you'll see on the front page of the papers tomorrow [0:59] all the candidates standing together we'll see who's talking to each other [1:03] who's not talking to each other well that's awkward well that was the whole [1:08] point don't stage the news they're not feeling it you guys nervous we're a [1:19] little nervous too that sounded like the buzzer we saved them from that buzzer [1:26] that's right we'll explain that we'll talk about the buzzer in just a minute [1:28] there was controversy it's good to see you gentlemen welcome and what do you [1:34] think of this crowd so basically in a moment just so the audience understands [1:51] and the candidates know they're gonna stand behind these lecterns and we're [1:54] gonna give you the rules which of course their campaigns have already been [1:57] informed of they know the rules but we'll go for them again just one more time [2:00] and the audience will be brought up to speed and then we'll get started with our [2:03] questions you know it's so interesting and I guess they all know this they've [2:07] been talking about each other a lot during the previous six months or so now [2:11] they're going to get an opportunity to talk to each other and obviously this is [2:15] all part of the process of the American people here in this hall and across the [2:19] nation trying to sort out who should be the Republican nominee for president in [2:24] 2016 so this is part of the great American process all right gentlemen thank you [2:29] please go to your podiums that was awkward enough let's get you it's [2:38] important to point out that this debate obviously is the top ten in polling they [2:44] were chosen by the position from top to bottom in the positioning on the stage and [2:50] remember we had another debate on this very stage from five to six that included [2:55] seven other candidates this is a huge field that's right but these guys are [3:00] glad that Carly Fiorina did not appear in the 9 p.m. hour because boy she she [3:05] unleashed a can if you know what I'm saying earlier well you know that's the [3:11] exciting thing because you know there's been a lot of question should it be [3:15] divided should it not be divided and yes there were two tiers there were the seven [3:19] lowest in the polls now we have the top ten in the polls but you know it's a [3:23] fluid process and it was certainly true four years ago some that were in the [3:27] lower tier are going to jump up and perhaps some that are here tonight are [3:30] going to slip down a little bit but there's a long time between now and the [3:35] snowy caucuses in February and Iowa we should point out our next debate is [3:40] right before the Iowa caucuses and it's going to be quite something this is I [3:45] think it'd be very meaningful it would have been tough to have 17 candidates up [3:47] here as great as it would have been to try to find a way to do it but it's [3:51] would have been like herding cats photogs I think that's it all right guys [3:56] all right so the audience knows we're going to restart at the top of the hour [4:00] because that is when the nation believes that this debate starts not at 8 50 [4:03] so we'll get it going at 9 o'clock and we'll have a clean start to the show and [4:08] we'll take it from there this audience has been great we're going to talk about [4:11] you know the excitement and how we're going to make this all come together [4:16] on the east coast and the moment of truth has arrived welcome to the first debate [4:36] tonight of the 2016 presidential campaign live from quicken loans arena [4:41] in Cleveland Ohio I'm Megan Kelly tonight tonight thousands of people here in the [4:57] queue along with millions of voters at home will get their very first chance to [5:01] see the candidates face off in a debate answering the questions you want answered [5:06] less than a year from now in this very arena one of these 10 candidates or one of the seven on the [5:14] previous debate tonight will accept the Republican Party's nomination tonight's candidates were [5:20] selected based on an average of five national polls just a few hours ago you heard from the [5:25] candidates ranked 11 through 17 and now the primetime event the top 10 also of note Fox News [5:34] is partnering for tonight's debate with Facebook for the past several weeks we've been asking you [5:40] for questions for the candidates on Facebook nearly 6 million of you 6 million viewed the debate videos [5:47] on our site and more than 40,000 of you submitted questions some of which you will hear us asking [5:54] the candidates tonight as for the candidates who will be answering those questions here they are [6:00] positioned on the stage by how they stand in the polls in the center of the stage tonight businessman [6:06] Donald Trump could be neurosurgeon dr. Ben Carson Texas senator Ted Cruz Florida senator Marco Rubio [6:39] the lucky senator Rand Paul New Jersey governor Chris Christie and your very own governor of Ohio [6:54] basic right I think you would call that a home field advantage it might be it might be we'll see [7:20] some objections coming it might be the rules for tonight are simple one minute for answers 30 seconds [7:27] for follow-ups and if a candidate runs over you'll hear this pleasant though we also have a big crowd [7:34] here with us tonight in the home of the Cavaliers as I mentioned and while we expect them we expect them [7:40] to be enthusiastic as you heard we don't want to take anything away from the valuable time for the [7:45] candidates so we're looking for somewhere between a reaction to a LeBron James dunk and the Cleveland [7:52] Public Library across the street somewhere there we'll find a balance tonight without further ado let's [7:59] begin gentlemen we know how much you love hand raising questions so we promise this is the only one tonight the [8:08] only one is there anyone on stage and can I see hands who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to [8:17] the eventual nominee of the Republican Party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that [8:25] person again we're looking for you to raise your hand now raise your hand now if you won't make that [8:31] pledge tonight Mr. Trump Mr. Trump to be clear you're standing on a Republican primary I fully understand the [8:46] place where the RNC will give the nominee the nod I fully understand and that experts say an independent run would [8:54] almost certainly hand the race over to Democrats and likely another Clinton you can't say tonight that you can make that [9:01] pledge I cannot say I have to respect the person that if it's not me the person that wins if I do win [9:07] and I'm leading by quite a bit that's what I want to do I can totally make that pledge if I'm the [9:13] nominee I will pledge I will not run as an independent but and I am discussing it with everybody but I'm [9:19] you know talking about a lot of leverage we want to win and we will win but I want to win as the [9:26] Republican I want to run as the Republican nominee so tonight you can't say if another one of these what's [9:32] wrong I mean this is what's wrong he buys and sells politicians of all stripes he's already [9:39] Dr. Paul hey look look he's already hedging his bet on the Clintons okay so if he doesn't run as a Republican [9:46] maybe he supports Clinton or maybe runs as an independent okay but I'd say that he's already hedging his bets [9:52] because he's used to buying politicians well I've given him plenty of money just to be clear you can't make [9:58] that we're going to we're going to move on you're not going to make the pledge I will not make the [10:01] pledge at this time okay round of questions is on the subject of electability in the general election [10:19] and we start tonight with you Dr. Carson you are a successful neurosurgeon but you admit that you have [10:25] had to study up when it comes to foreign policy saying there's a lot to learn your critics say that [10:30] your inexperience shows you suggested that the Baltic states are not a part of NATO and just months ago you [10:36] were unfamiliar with the major political parties and government in Israel and domestically you thought [10:42] Alan Greenspan had been Treasury Secretary instead of Federal Reserve Chair aren't these basic mistakes [10:48] and don't they raise legitimate questions about whether you are ready to be president well I could [10:54] take issue with with all of those things but we don't have time but I will say we have a debate here [11:00] tonight and we will have an opportunity to explore those areas and I'm looking very much forward to [11:06] demonstrating that in fact the thing that is probably most important is having a brain and to be able [11:13] to figure things out and learn things very rapidly so you know experience comes from a large number of [11:23] different arenas and America became a great nation early on not because it was flooded with politicians but [11:31] because it was flooded with people who understood the value of personal responsibility hard work [11:38] creativity innovation and that's what will get us on the right track now as well Senator Rubio when [11:49] Jeb Bush announced his candidacy for presidency he said this there's no passing off responsibility when [11:56] you're a governor no blending into the legislative crowd could you please address Governor Bush across [12:03] the stage here and explain to him why you someone who has never held executive office are better [12:08] prepared to be president than he is a man who you say did a great job running your state of Florida for [12:14] eight years well thank you for the question Chris and it's great to be here tonight let me begin by [12:18] saying this I'm not new to the political process I was making a contribution as the speaker of the third [12:22] largest and most diverse state in the country well before I even got into the Senate I would add to [12:27] that that this election cannot be a resume competition it's important to be qualified but if this [12:32] election is a resume competition then Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president because [12:36] she's been in office and in government longer than anybody else running here tonight here's what this [12:40] election better be about this election better be about the future not the past it better be about the [12:45] issues our nation and the world is facing today not simply the issues we once faced this country is facing an [12:51] economy that has been radically transformed you know the largest retailer in the country in the world [12:56] today Amazon doesn't even own a single store and these changes have been disruptive they have changed [13:01] people's lives the jobs that once sustained our middle class they either don't pay enough or they [13:06] are gone and we need someone that understands that is our nominee if I'm our nominee how was Hillary [13:10] Clinton going to lecture me about living paycheck to paycheck I was raised paycheck to paycheck how was she [13:17] going to lecture me how was she going to lecture me about student loans I owed over a hundred thousand [13:23] dollars just four years ago if I'm our nominee we will be the party of the future you have insisted [13:33] that your own your own man you say you have a life experience uniquely your own not your father's [13:40] not your brother's but there are several opponents on this stage who get big applause lines in early voting [13:47] states with this line quote the last thing the country needs is another Bush in the oval office [13:54] so do you understand the real concern in this country about dynastic politics absolutely I do and [14:00] I'm going to run hard run with heart and run to win I'm going to have to earn this maybe the barrier [14:05] the bar is even higher for me that's fine I've got a record in Florida I'm proud of my dad and I'm [14:11] certainly proud of my brother in Florida they call me Jeb because I earned it I cut taxes every year [14:17] totaling 19 billion dollars we were we had we balanced every budget we went from 1 billion dollars of [14:23] reserves to 9 billion dollars of reserves we were one of two states that went to triple-a bond rating [14:29] they keep they call me veto Corleone because I vetoed 2500 separate line items in the budget [14:35] I'm my own man I govern as a conservative and I govern effectively [14:40] and the net effect was during my eight years 1.3 million jobs were created we left the state better [14:46] off because I applied conservative principles in a purple state the right way and people rose up [14:57] Mr. Trump one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don't use a [15:03] politician's filter however that is not without its downsides in particular when it comes to women [15:10] you've called women you don't like fat pigs dogs slobs and disgusting animals your twitter account [15:18] only Rosie O'Donnell thank you for the record it was well beyond Rosie O'Donnell yes I'm sure your [15:38] twitter account has several disparaging comments about women's looks you once told a contestant [15:44] on celebrity apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees does that sound to you like [15:49] the temperament of a man we should elect as president and how will you answer the charge [15:54] from Hillary Clinton who is likely to be the democratic nominee that you are part of the war on women [16:00] I think the big problem this country [16:02] has is being politically correct I've been I've been challenged by so many people and I don't frankly [16:14] have time for total political correctness and to be honest with you this country doesn't have time [16:21] either this country is in big trouble we don't win anymore we lose to china we lose to mexico both in [16:28] trade and at the border we lose to everybody and frankly what I say and oftentimes it's fun [16:35] it's kidding we have a good time what I say is what I say and honestly Megan if you don't like it [16:42] I'm sorry I've been very nice to you although I could probably maybe not be based on the way you [16:47] have treated me but I wouldn't do that but you know what we we need strength we need energy we need [16:59] quickness and we need brain in this country to turn it around that I can tell you right now [17:08] Senator Cruz your colleague Senator Paul right there next to you said a few months ago he agrees [17:14] with you on a number of issues but he says you do nothing to grow the party he says you feed red meat [17:21] to the base but you don't reach out to minorities you have a toxic relationship with GOP leaders in [17:27] Congress you even called the Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell a liar recently how can you win [17:37] in 2016 when you're such a divisive figure Chris I believe the American people are looking for someone [17:46] to speak the truth if you're looking for someone to go to Washington to go along to get along to get it [17:57] to agree with the career politicians in both parties who get in bed with the lobbyists and special [18:06] interests then I ain't your guy there is a reason that we have 18 trillion dollars in debt because [18:17] as conservatives as Republicans we keep winning elections we got a Republican House we got a [18:23] Republican Senate and we don't have leaders who honor their commitments I will always tell the truth [18:29] and do what I said I would do Governor Christie you're not exactly the darling of conservatives you [18:41] tout your record as a Republican governor in a blue state on Facebook the most people talking about [18:47] you not surprisingly come from your state of New Jersey and one of the top issues they are talking [18:51] about is the economy this this may be why under your watch New Jersey has undergone nine credit [18:59] rating downgrades the state's 44th in private sector growth you face an employee pension crisis and the [19:07] garden state has the third highest foreclosure rate in the country so why should voters believe [19:13] that your management of the country's finances would be any different if you think it's bad [19:19] now you should have seen it when I got there the fact is fact is in the eight years before I became [19:27] governor taxes and fees were raised at the state level 115 times in the eight years before I became [19:33] governor spending was increased 56 percent and in the eight years before I became governor there was [19:39] zero net private sector job growth in New Jersey zero for eight years so what did we do we came in we [19:46] balanced an 11 billion dollar deficit on a 29 billion dollar budget by cutting over 800 programs in the [19:53] state budget we brought the budget into balance with no tax increases in fact we vetoed five income tax [19:59] increases during my time as governor we cut business taxes 2.3 billion dollars and we cut regulation [20:05] by one-third of what my predecessor put in place and what's happened since 192,000 new private sector [20:11] jobs in the five and a half years I've been governor we have a lot of work to do in New Jersey but I am [20:16] darn proud of how we've brought our state back you've consistently said that you want to make abortion [20:27] illegal even in cases of rape incest or to save the life of the mother you recently signed an abortion law [20:33] Wisconsin that does have an exception for the mother's life but you are on record as having [20:37] objected to it would you really let a mother die rather than have an abortion and with 83 percent of [20:44] the American public in favor of a life exception are you two out of the mainstream on this issue to win [20:50] the general election well I'm I'm pro-life I've always been pro-life and I've got a position I think [20:55] is consistent with many Americans out there in that in that I believe that that is an unborn child that's [21:01] a need of protection out there and I've said many a time that that unborn child can be protected and [21:06] there are many other alternatives that will also protect the life of that mother that's been [21:10] consistently proven unlike Hillary Clinton who has a radical position in terms of support for Planned [21:15] Parenthood I defunded Planned Parenthood more than four years ago long before any of these videos came [21:21] out I've got a position that's in line with everyday America Governor Huckabee like Governor Walker you [21:29] have staked out strong positions on social issues you favor a constitutional amendment banning same-sex [21:35] marriages you favor a constitutional amendment banning abortions except for the life of the mother [21:41] millions of people in this country agree with you but according to the polls and again this is an [21:46] electability question according to the polls more people don't so how do you persuade enough [21:52] independents and Democrats to get elected in 2016. Chris I disagree with the idea that the real issue [22:00] is a constitutional amendment that's a long and difficult process I've actually taken a position [22:06] that's bolder than that a lot of people are talking about defunding Planned Parenthood as if that's a huge [22:12] game changer I think it's time to do something even more bold I think the next president ought to invoke [22:18] the fifth and 14th amendments to the Constitution now that we clearly know that that baby inside the [22:26] mother's womb is a person at the moment of conception the reason we know that it is is because of the [22:31] DNA schedule that we now have clear scientific evidence on and this notion that we just continue [22:37] to ignore the personhood of the individual is a violation of that unborn child's fifth and 14th [22:45] amendment rights for due process and equal protection under the law it's time that we recognize the [22:50] supreme court is not the supreme being and we change the policy to be pro-life and protect children [22:56] instead of rip up their body parts and sell them like their parts to a Buick. Senator Paul you recently [23:06] blamed the rise of ISIS on Republican hawks now you later said that that statement you could have said [23:13] it better but the statement went on and you said quote everything they've talked about in foreign policy [23:21] they've been wrong for the last 20 years why are you so quick to blame your own party first of all only [23:29] ISIS is responsible for the terrorism only ISIS is responsible for the depravity but we do have to [23:36] examine how are we going to defeat ISIS I've got a proposal I'm the leading voice in America for not [23:44] arming the allies of ISIS I've been fighting amidst a lot of opposition from both Hillary Clinton as [23:53] well as some Republicans who wanted to send arms to the allies of ISIS ISIS rides around in a billion [24:02] dollars worth of U.S. Humvees it's a disgrace we have to stop it we shouldn't fund our enemies for [24:07] goodness sakes so we didn't create ISIS ISIS created themselves but we will stop them and one of the [24:15] ways we stop them is by not funding them and by not arming them Governor Kasich you chose to expand [24:26] Medicaid in your state unlike several other governors on this stage tonight and it is already over budget [24:31] by some estimates costing taxpayers an additional 1.4 billion dollars in just the first 18 months [24:38] you defended your Medicaid expansion by invoking God saying to skeptics that when they arrive in [24:43] heaven St. Peter isn't going to ask them how small they've kept government but what they have done for [24:48] the poor why should Republican voters who generally want to shrink government believe that you won't [24:54] use your St. Peter rationale to expand every government program well first of all first of all Megan you [25:00] should know that President Reagan expanded Medicaid three or four times secondly I had an opportunity to [25:05] bring resources back to Ohio to do what to treat the mentally ill 10,000 of them sit in our prisons [25:12] it cost 22,500 dollars a year to keep them in prison I'd rather get them their medication so they could [25:19] lead a decent life secondly we are rehabbing the drug addicted 80 percent of the people in our prisons [25:25] have addiction certain problems we now treat them in the prisons release them in the community and the [25:30] recidivism rate is 10 percent and everybody across this country knows that the tsunami of [25:36] drugs is is threatening their very families so we're treating them and getting them on their [25:40] feet and finally the working poor instead of them having come into the emergency rooms [25:45] where it costs more where they're sicker and we end up paying we brought a program in here to make [25:51] sure that people could get on their feet and you know what everybody has a right to their god-given [25:55] purpose and finally our Medicaid is growing at one of the lowest rates in the country and finally we [26:01] went from eight billion in the hole to two billion in the black we've cut five billion in taxes and [26:06] we've grown 350,000 jobs gentlemen we're turning to a new subject that all of you have been talking [26:19] about and some of you have been disagreeing about and that is the issue of immigration governor bush you [26:25] released a new plan this week on illegal immigration focusing on enforcement which some suggest is your [26:32] effort to show that you're not soft on that issue i want to ask you about a statement that you made [26:38] last year about illegal immigrants and here's what you said they broke the law but it's not a felony [26:45] it's an act of love it's an act of commitment to your family do you stand by that statement and do you stand [26:53] by your support for earned legal status i do i believe that the great majority of people coming here [27:00] illegally have no other option they want to provide for their family but we need to control our border [27:05] it's not it's our responsibility to pick and choose who comes in so i've written a book about this and [27:10] yes this week i did come up with a comprehensive strategy that really mirrored what we said in the book [27:16] which is that we need to deal with e-verify we need to deal with people that come with a legal visa and [27:21] overstay we need to be much more strategic on how we deal with border enforcement border security we need to [27:28] eliminate the sanctuary cities in this country it is ridiculous and tragic that people are dying [27:36] because of the fact that that local governments are not following the federal law there's much to [27:41] do and i think rather than talking about this as a wedge issue which barack obama's done now for six [27:46] long years the next president and i hope to be that president will fix this once and for all so [27:51] that we can turn this into a driver for high sustained economic growth and there should be a path to [27:56] earn legal status for those that are here uh not not amnesty earn legal status which means you pay a [28:02] fine and do many things over an extended period of time thank you sir mr trump uh it has not escaped [28:12] anybody's notice that you say that the mexican government the mexican government is sending [28:17] criminals rapists drug dealers across the border governor bush has called those remarks quote [28:24] extraordinarily ugly i'd like you you're right next to him tell us talk to him directly and say [28:31] how you respond to that and and you have repeatedly said that you have evidence that the mexican [28:39] government is doing this but that you have evidence you have refused or declined to share why not use [28:44] this first republican presidential debate to share your proof with the american people so if it weren't for me [28:52] you wouldn't even be talking about illegal immigration chris you wouldn't even be talking about it this was [29:00] not a subject that was on anybody's mind until i brought it up at my announcement and i said mexico [29:08] is sending except the reporters because they're a very dishonest lot generally speaking in the world of [29:14] politics they didn't cover my statement the way i said it the fact is since then many killings [29:22] murders crime drugs pouring across the border our money going out and the drugs coming in and i said [29:29] we need to build a wall and it has to be built quickly and i don't mind having a big beautiful [29:37] door in that wall so that people can come into this country legally but we need jeb to build a wall [29:46] we need to keep illegals out mr trump i'll give you 30 seconds i'll give you 30 seconds to answer my [29:57] question which was what evidence do you have specific evidence that the mexican government is sending [30:05] criminals across the border 30 seconds border patrol i was at the border last week border patrol people that [30:12] i deal with that i talk to they say this is what's happening because our leaders are stupid our [30:18] politicians are stupid and the mexican government is much smarter much sharper much more cunning and they [30:26] send the bad ones over because they don't want to pay for them they don't want to take care of them [30:31] why should they when the stupid leaders of the united states will do it for them and that's what's [30:36] happening whether you like it or not obviously there's a lot more to talk about this we're going to have [30:45] more questions for the candidates on illegal immigration plus other key topics including your [30:50] questions on facebook what would be your plan on making immigration easier for those that want to do [31:00] it legally what specific steps would you take to contain the growth of isis i'd like to know what [31:06] the candidates are going to do so that i feel safe in my own country again welcome back to fox news [31:21] facebook republican debate night we're going to continue the questions now on illegal immigration [31:27] we kind of ended with a cliffhanger there so let's continue the conversation governor casick i know [31:33] you don't like to talk about donald trump but i do want to ask you about the merit of what he just [31:40] said when you'd say that the american government is stupid that the mexican government is sending [31:47] criminals uh that we're being bamboozled is that an adequate response to the question of illegal immigration [31:54] chris first of all i was just saying to chris christie they say we're outspoken we need to take [31:58] lessons from donald trump if we're gonna if we're really gonna learn it here's the thing about donald [32:03] trump donald trump's hitting a nerve in this country he is he's hitting a nerve people are frustrated [32:10] they're fed up they don't think the government is working for them and for people that want to just [32:15] tune them out they're making a mistake now he's got his solutions some of us have other solutions you [32:22] know look i balanced the federal budget as one of the chief architects when i was in washington [32:26] hadn't been done since i was a military reformer i took the uh the state of ohio from an eight [32:33] billion dollar hole in a 350 000 job loss to a two billion dollar surplus and a gain of 350 000 jobs [32:41] respectfully can we talk about a legal but the point is is that we all have solutions mr trump [32:46] is touching a nerve because people want the wall to be built they want to see an end to illegal [32:51] immigration they want to see it we all do but we all have different ways of getting there and you're [32:56] going to hear from all of us tonight about what our ideas are all right well senator rubio let me see [33:02] if i can do better with you now is it as simple as our leaders are stupid their leaders are smart and all [33:09] of these illegals coming over are criminals well let me set the record straight on a couple things the [33:13] first is the evidence is now clear that the majority of people coming across the border are not from [33:17] mexico they're coming from guatemala el salvador honduras those countries are the source of the [33:22] people that are now coming in its majority i also believe we need a fence the problem is if el chapo [33:28] builds a tunnel under the fence we have to be able to deal with that too and that's why you need an [33:32] e-verify system and you need an entry exit tracking system and all sorts of other things to prevent [33:36] illegal immigration but i agree with a gunner case governor case just said people are frustrated this is [33:41] the most generous country in the world when it comes to immigration there are a million people a [33:45] year who legally immigrate to the united states and people feel like we're being taken advantage of [33:51] we feel like despite our generosity we are being taken advantage of and let me tell you who never [33:55] gets talked about in these debates the people that call my office who have been waiting for 15 years [34:00] to come to the united states and they paid their fees and they hired a lawyer and they can't get in [34:05] and they're wondering maybe they should come illegally and so these are important issues and we should address [34:10] it it's a serious problem that needs to be addressed and and otherwise we're going to keep [34:15] talking about this for the next 30 years like we have for the last 30 years governor walker [34:20] governor walker from 2002 till as recently as 2013 just two years ago you supported comprehensive [34:29] immigration reform including a path to citizenship now you say that was a quick reaction to [34:35] something you hadn't really thought about and that you've changed your mind other than politics could [34:41] you explain why in the last two years you've changed your position on a path to citizenship [34:47] and are there other past positions that we shouldn't hold you to yeah well chris i actually [34:51] said it out of your show earlier this year yes i don't said i acknowledge that i said i actually [34:55] listen to the american people and i think people across america want a leader who's actually going [34:59] to listen to them i talked to border state governors and other elected officials i looked at how this [35:03] president particularly through last november messed up the uh the immigration system this country most [35:08] importantly i listened to the people of america i believe we need to secure the border i've been to [35:12] the border with governor abbott and texas and others seeing the problems they have there there's [35:16] international criminal organizations penetrating our southern base borders and we need to do something [35:21] about it secure the border enforce the law no amnesty and go forward with a legal immigration [35:26] system that gives priority to american working families and wages senator crew some 1400 people [35:36] submitted questions on this very hot topic of illegal immigration on facebook and a number of [35:42] them were about the murder of kate steinley in san francisco allegedly shot down by an illegal doug [35:51] bettencourt sent this question will you support kate steinley's law which would impose a mandatory [35:56] five-year prison term for an illegal who's deported and then returns to this country and will you defund [36:02] sanctuary cities for violating federal law chris absolutely yes and not only will i support it [36:10] i have authored kate's law in the united states senate and filed that legislation i tried to get [36:17] the senate to vote to pass kate's law on the floor of the senate just one week ago and the leader of our [36:23] own party blocked a vote on kate's law you know there was reference made to our leaders being stupid [36:31] it's not a question of stupidity it's that they don't want to enforce the immigration laws that [36:39] there are far too many in the washington cartel that support amnesty president obama's talked about [36:44] fundamentally transforming this country there's seven billion people across the face of the globe [36:50] many of whom want to come to this country if they come legally great but if they come illegally and [36:56] they get amnesty that is how we fundamentally change this country and it really is striking a [37:03] majority of the candidates on this stage have supported amnesty i have never supported amnesty [37:08] and i led the fight against chuck schumer's gang evade amnesty legislation in the senate all right [37:17] gentlemen we're going to switch topics now and talk a bit about terror and national security governor [37:22] christie you've said that senator paul's opposition to the nsa's collection of phone records has made the [37:27] united states weaker and more vulnerable even going so far as to say that he should be called before [37:33] congress to answer for it if we should be hit by another terrorist attack do you really believe [37:38] you can assign blame to senator paul just for opposing the bulk collection of people's phone records [37:45] in the event of a terrorist attack yes i do and i'll tell you why because i'm the only person on this [37:51] stage who's actually filed applications under the patriot act who have gone before the federal uh the [37:57] foreign intelligence service court who has prosecuted and investigated and jailed terrorists in this [38:03] country after september 11th i was appointed u.s attorney by president bush on september 10th [38:08] 2001 and the world changed enormously the next day and it happened in my state this is not [38:14] theoretical to me i went to the funerals we lost friends of ours in the trade center that day my own [38:20] wife was two blocks from the trade center that day at her office having gone through it that morning [38:24] when you actually have to be responsible for doing this you can do it and we did it for seven years in [38:30] my office respecting civil liberties and protecting the homeland and i will make no apologies ever for [38:36] protecting the lives and the safety of the american people we have to give more tools to our folks to [38:42] be able to do that not fewer and then trust those people and oversee them to do it the right way as [38:47] president that is exactly what i'll do megan may i respond go ahead sir i want to collect more records [38:58] from terrorists but less records from innocent americans the fourth amendment was what we fought the [39:06] revolution over john adams said it was the spark that led to our war for independence and i'm proud of [39:13] standing for the bill of rights and i will continue to stand for the bill of rights and and megan megan [39:20] that's a that you know that's a completely ridiculous answer i want to collect more records [39:26] from terrorists but less records from other people how are you supposed to know megan what are you [39:31] supposed to how are you supposed to use the fourth amendment no i'll tell you how you get a warrant let [39:35] me tell you something you don't judge decide when you you know senator go ahead governor christie make [39:39] your point listen senator you know when you're sitting in a subcommittee just blowing hot air about this [39:44] you can say things like that when you're responsible for protecting the lives of the american people [39:49] then what you need to do is to make sure is to make sure that you use the system the way it's supposed [39:54] to work here's the problem governor you fundamentally misunderstand the bill of rights [39:59] every time you did a case you got a warrant from a judge i'm talking about searches without [40:06] warrants indiscriminately of all americans records and that's what i fought to end i don't trust [40:12] president obama with our records i know you gave him a big hug and if you want to give him a big hug again [40:17] go right ahead and you know you know senator paul senator paul you know the hugs that i remember [40:28] are the hugs that i gave to the families who lost their people on september 11th [40:32] those are the hugs i remember and those had nothing to do and those had nothing to do with politics [40:37] unlike what you're doing by cutting speeches on the floor of the senate then putting them on the [40:41] internet within a half an hour to raise money for your campaign and while still putting our country at [40:47] risk all right we have plenty more we want to get to that was an interesting exchange thank you for [40:52] that well i want to move on because i have uh we're going to get to you governor but i really [40:56] want to get to a facebook questioner uh his name is alex shallgren and he has the following [41:01] question my question is how would the candidate stop the treacherous actions of isis [41:09] is and its growing influence in the u.s if they were to become president senator cruz i want to [41:15] talk to you about this because many of the facebook users and the folks on facebook wanted the candidates [41:20] to speak to isis tonight you asked the chairman of the joint chiefs a question what would it take to [41:24] destroy isis in 90 days he told you isis will only be truly destroyed once they are rejected by the [41:30] populations in which they hide and then you accused him of pushing medicaid for the iraqis how would [41:38] you destroy isis in 90 days megan we need a commander-in-chief that speaks the truth [41:45] we will not defeat radical islamic terrorism so long as we have a president unwilling to utter the [41:52] words radical islamic terrorism when i asked general dempsey the chairman of the joint chiefs [42:04] what would be required militarily to destroy isis he said there is no military solution we need to [42:09] change the conditions on the ground so that young men are not in poverty and susceptible to radicalization [42:16] that with all due respect is nonsense it's the same answer the state department gave that we need to [42:23] give them jobs what we need is a commander-in-chief who makes care clear if you join isis if you wage [42:31] jihad on america then you are signing your death warrant you don't see it as an ideological problem in [42:39] addition to a military one megan of course it's an ideological problem that's one of the reasons why [42:46] i introduced the expatriate terrorist act in the senate that said if any american travels to the [42:52] middle east and joins isis that he or she forfeits their citizenship so they don't use a passport to [42:59] come back and wage jihad on americans yes it is ideological and let me contrast president obama who [43:06] at the prayer breakfast essentially acted as an apologist he said well gosh the crusade the inquisitions [43:15] we need a president that shows the courage that egypt's president al-sisi did a muslim when he [43:20] called out the radical islamic terrorists who are threatening the world governor bush for days on [43:30] end in this campaign you struggled to answer a question about whether knowing what we know now [43:36] i remember i remember it too and isis of course is now thriving there you finally said no to the [43:46] families of those who died in that war who say they liberated a country and deposed a ruthless dictator [43:52] how do you look at them now and say your brother's war was a mistake knowing what we know now with [43:57] faulty intelligence and not having security be the first priority when when we invaded it was a mistake [44:04] i wouldn't have gone in however for the people that did lose their lives and the families that [44:09] suffer because of it i know this full well because as governor of the state of florida i called every one of [44:14] them every one of them that i could find to tell them that i was praying for them that i cared about [44:20] them and it was really hard to do and every one of them said that their child did not die in vain [44:26] or their their wife or husband did not die in vain and so why it was difficult for me to do it was based [44:31] on that here's the lesson that we should take from this which relates to this whole subject barack obama [44:37] became president and he abandoned iraq he left and when he left al-qaeda was done for isis was created [44:44] because of the void that we left and that void now exists as a caliphate the size of indiana [44:50] to honor the people that died we need to we need to stop the uh iran agreement for sure because the [44:56] iranian mullahs have have their blood on their hands and we need to take out isis with every tool at [45:02] our disposal governor walker in february you said that we needed to gain partners in the arab world [45:09] which arab country not already in the u.s led coalition has the potential to be our greatest [45:14] partner what about additional ones we need to focus on the ones we have you look at egypt probably the [45:20] best relationship we've had in israel at least in my lifetime incredibly important you look at the [45:25] saudis in fact earlier this year i met with saudi leaders and leaders from the united arab emirates [45:30] and i asked them what's the greatest challenge in the world today set aside the iran deal they said [45:35] it's the disengagement of america we are leading from behind under the obama clinton doctrine america's [45:41] a great country we need to stand up and start leading again we'd have allies not just in israel [45:45] but throughout the persian gulfs dr carson in one of his first acts as commander-in-chief president [45:51] obama signed an executive order banning enhanced interrogation techniques in fighting terror as [45:57] president would you bring back waterboarding well thank you megan i wasn't sure i was going to get [46:03] to talk again we have a lot for you don't worry that request all right um you know what we do in order [46:16] to get the information that we need is our business and i wouldn't necessarily be broadcasting to [46:22] everybody what we're going to do you know we um we've we've gotten into this this mindset of fighting [46:32] politically correct wars there is no such thing as a politically correct war and the left of course [46:42] will say carson doesn't believe in the geneva convention carson doesn't believe in fighting [46:47] stupid wars and and what we have to remember is we want to utilize the tremendous intellect that we have [46:56] in the military to win wars and i've talked to a lot of the generals a lot of our advanced people [47:03] and believe me if we gave them the mission which is what the commander-in-chief does they would be [47:09] able to carry it out and if we don't tie their hands behind their back they will do it extremely [47:13] effectively gentlemen the next series of questions deals with obamacare and the role of the federal [47:22] government mr trump obamacare is one of the things you call a disaster complete disaster yes saying it [47:31] needs to be repealed and replaced correct now 15 years ago you called yourself a liberal on health [47:37] care you were for a single-payer system a canadian style system why were you for that then and why [47:44] aren't you for it now first of all i'd like to just go back to one in july of 2004 i came out strongly [47:51] against the war with iraq because it was going to destabilize the middle east and i'm the only one on the [47:57] stage that knew that and had the vision to say it and that's exactly what happened the middle east [48:03] became totally destabilized so i just want to say as far as a single-payer it works in canada it works [48:09] incredibly well in scotland it could have worked in a different age which is the age you're talking [48:14] about here what i'd like to see is a private system without the artificial lines around every state i have [48:21] a big company with thousands and thousands of employees and if i'm negotiating in new york or in new [48:26] jersey or in california i have like one bidder nobody can bid you know why because the insurance [48:31] companies are making a fortune because they have control of the politicians of course with the [48:37] exception of the politicians of the stage but they have total control of the politicians they're [48:42] making a fortune get rid of the artificial lines and you will have yourself great plans and then we [48:48] have to take care of the people that can't take care of themselves and i will do that through a [48:52] different system hey mr trump hold on one second news flash i know hold on senator paul news flash [48:58] the republican party's been fighting against a single-payer system for a decade see i think [49:03] you're on the wrong side of this if you're still arguing for a single-payer i'm not i'm not [49:07] i don't think you heard me you're having a hard time tonight all right mr trump it's not just [49:13] your past support for single-payer health care you've also supported a host of other liberal [49:19] policies you've also donated to several democratic candidates hillary clinton included nancy pelosi [49:26] you explained away those donations saying you did that to get business related favors and you said [49:32] recently quote when you give they do whatever the hell you want them to do you better believe it so [49:38] what specifically did they do if i ask them if i need them you know most of the people on this stage [49:44] i've given to just so you understand a lot of money not me not me but you're welcome to give me [49:53] a check donald many of actually to be clear that's right charlie christ not much i have donald if you [50:00] end your campaign i hope you will give to me good sounds good sounds good to me governor i will tell [50:06] you that our system is broken i give to many people before this before two months ago i was a businessman [50:12] i give to everybody when they call i give and you know what when i need something from them two years [50:17] later three years later i call them they are there for me so that's a broken system what'd you get from [50:24] hillary clinton and nancy pelosi well i'll tell you what with hillary clinton i said be at my wedding and [50:28] she came to my wedding you know why she had no choice because i gave i gave to a foundation that frankly [50:36] that foundation is supposed to do good i didn't know her money would be used on private jets going all over [50:41] the world it was but thank you mr trump thank you hold on we're gonna we're gonna move on we'll [50:46] come back to you governor walker just one second on this though we we spend a lot of time talking [50:50] about hillary clinton and and pitting us back and forth let's be clear we should be talking about [50:54] hillary clinton on that last subject because everywhere in the world that hillary clinton touched [50:58] is more messed up today than before she and we have many questions to come many questions to come [51:03] governor huckabee on facebook john pritz rioni asks this will you abolish or take away the powers [51:12] and cut the size of the epa the irs the department of education now broadly broadly the size of [51:19] government is a big concern for facebook users facebook persons as well as obviously conservatives [51:25] but year after year decade after decade there are promises from republicans to shrink government [51:31] but year after year decade after decade it doesn't happen in fact it gets bigger even under republican [51:37] politicians so the question is at this point is the government simply too big for any one person even [51:44] a republican to shrink it's not too big to shrink but the problem is we have a wall street to washington [51:51] axis of power that has controlled the political climate the donor class feeds the political class who [51:57] does the dance that the donor class wants and the result is federal government keeps getting bigger [52:03] every person on this stage who has been a governor will tell you that the biggest fight they had was [52:08] not the other party wasn't even the legislature it was the federal government who continually put [52:14] mandates on the states that we had to suck up and pay for and the fact is there are a lot of things [52:19] happening at the federal level that are absolutely beyond the jurisdiction of the constitution this is power [52:26] that should be shifted back to the states whether it's the epa there is no role at the federal level [52:32] for the department of education and i'm still one who says that we can get rid of the internal revenue [52:38] service if we would pass the fair tax which is a tax on consumption rather than a tax on people's income [52:44] and move power back where the founders believed it should have been all along dr carson dr carson do you [52:51] agree with that what i agree with is that we need a significantly changed taxation system [52:58] and the one that i've advocated is based on tithing because i think god's pretty fair guy [53:05] and he said you know if you give me a tithe it doesn't matter how much you made if you had a bumper [53:12] crop you don't owe me triple ties and you'd had no crops at all you don't owe me no ties so there must [53:17] be something inherently fair about that and that's why i've advocated a proportional tax system you [53:22] make ten billion dollars you pay a billion you make ten dollars you pay one and everybody gets treated [53:28] the same way and you get rid of the deductions you get rid of all the loopholes and right governor [53:34] bush and i have a lot more to say about we're going to come back to you dr carson governor bush you [53:39] are one of the few people on this stage who advocates for common core education standards reading and [53:45] math a lot of people on this stage vigorously oppose federal involvement in education they [53:51] say it should all be handled locally president obama's secretary of education arne duncan has said [53:58] that most of the criticism of common core is due to a quote fringe group of critics do you think that's [54:05] accurate no i don't and i don't believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of [54:09] standards directly or indirectly the creation of curriculum or content that is clearly a state [54:14] responsibility i'm for higher standards measured in an intellectually honest way with abundant school [54:23] choice ending social promotion and i know how to do this because as governor of the state of florida i [54:28] created the first statewide voucher program in the country the second statewide voucher program in the [54:33] country and the third statewide voucher program in the country and we had rising student achievement [54:39] across the board because high standards robust accountability ending social promotion in third grade [54:44] real school choice across the board challenging the teachers union and beating them is the way to go [54:50] and florida's low-income kids had the greatest gains inside the country our graduation rate improved [54:55] by 50 percent that's what i'm for senator rubio why is governor bush wrong on common core well first of [55:03] i too believe in curriculum reform it's critically important in the 21st century we do need curriculum reform [55:08] and it should happen at the state and local level the way that's where that's where that is where [55:12] educational policy belongs because if a prayer parent is unhappy with what their child is being taught in [55:17] school they can go to that local school board of their state legislature or their governor and get it [55:21] changed here's the problem with common core the department of education like every federal agency [55:27] will never be satisfied they will not stop with it being a suggestion they will turn it into a mandate [55:32] in fact what they will begin to say to local communities is you will not get federal money [55:36] unless you do things the way we want you to do it and they will use common core or any other [55:40] requirements that exist nationally to force it down the throats of our people in our states [55:45] do you agree with your your old friend he's definitely my friend and i think the states ought [55:51] to create these standards and if states want to opt out of common core fine just make sure your [55:56] standards are high because today in america a third of our kids after we spend more per student [56:02] than any country in the world other than a couple of rounding errors to be honest with you 30 percent [56:07] are college and or career ready if we are going to compete in this world we're in today there's no [56:12] possible way we can do it with lowering expectations and dumbing down everything [56:16] children are going to suffer and families hearts are going to be broken that their kids won't be [56:20] able to get a job in the 21st century we have many more questions coming on a host of topics [56:26] here from quicken loans arena in cleveland stay with us what would make you stand out as the best [56:34] choice for the republican nomination how do you intend to go about student loan reform what will be the [56:40] first thing you will do to stimulate economic growth in our country and bring more jobs to the [56:45] united states it's just before 10 p.m on the east coast welcome back to quicken loans arena in cleveland [57:05] ohio and the very first republican primary debate of the 2016 presidential campaign ten candidates on [57:12] the stage selected based on their standing in five national polls and tonight they are facing off [57:17] answering the questions you want asked we hope gentlemen uh we're obviously digging into some [57:24] subjects in depth but we're also going to change it up every once in a while throughout the next hour [57:29] and have many rounds where we ask you're not going to like it only a couple of candidates questions on [57:34] those subjects uh this is the first of the many rounds and it's about us somebody whose name probably [57:41] hasn't been mentioned enough so far tonight governor casick let me start with you whoever the republican [57:46] nominee whoever the republican nominee is it looks at least for now like whoever that nominee is he or [57:53] she will be facing off against hillary clinton you know how she will come after whoever the republican [58:00] nominee is she will say that you whoever it is support the rich while she supports the middle class [58:07] that you want to suppress the rights of women and minorities she wants to move the country [58:12] forward while you the republicans want to take the country back to the past how will you if you're [58:19] the nominee how will you answer that and take hillary clinton on well let's start off with my father [58:24] being a mailman so i understand the concerns of all the folks across this country some of whom have [58:29] trouble uh you know making ends meet but i think she will come in a narrow way the nominee of this party [58:35] if they're going to win has got to come at it in a big way which is pro-growth which is balancing [58:41] budgets you know we were talking about it people were saying could we do it i was the chairman of [58:46] the budget committee and the lead architect the last time it happened in washington and when we did [58:50] it we had great economic growth we cut taxes and we had a big surplus economic growth is the key [58:57] economic growth is the key to everything but once you have economic growth it is important that we [59:03] reach out the people who live in the shadows the people who don't seem to ever think they get a [59:08] fair deal and that includes people in our minority community that can that includes people who feel [59:14] as though they don't have a chance to move up you know america is a miracle country and we have to [59:20] restore the sense that the miracle will apply to you each and every one of the people in this country [59:26] who's watching tonight lift everybody unite everybody and build a stronger united states [59:32] of america again it will be and can be done i know that all of you would like to answer this question [59:38] but we're only going to ask one other candidate before we move on to a different subject dr carson [59:42] basically same question to you if hillary clinton is the nominee and she comes at you with that kind [59:49] of line of attack how will you take iraq if hillary is the candidate which i doubt that would be a [59:55] dream come true but uh you know the fact of the matter is she is the epitome of uh the progressive [1:00:05] the secular progressive movement and uh it will she counts on the fact that people are uninformed [1:00:13] the alinsky model taking advantage of useful idiots well i just happen to believe that people are not [1:00:21] stupid and the way i will come at it is to educate people help people to actually understand that is [1:00:27] that progressive movement that is causing them the problems you know you look at uh the the national [1:00:34] debt and how it's being driven up if i was trying to destroy this country what i would do is find a way [1:00:39] to drive wedges between all the people drive the debt to an unsustainable level and then step off the [1:00:46] stage as a world leader and let our enemies increase while we decreased our capacity as a military [1:00:51] person and that's what she's doing gentlemen we're going to turn now to the subject of the economy [1:01:01] jobs and money and the government and governor bush i'm going to start with you you have made a bold [1:01:07] promise in your announcement you have promised four percent economic growth and 19 million new jobs [1:01:14] if you were fortunate enough to serve two terms as president that many jobs 19 million would be [1:01:19] triple what your father and your brother accomplished together and four percent growth the last [1:01:25] president to average that was lyndon johnson during the height of the vietnam war so question how on earth [1:01:33] specifically would you pull that off we've done it 27 times since world war ii i think we need to lift [1:01:40] our spirits and have high lofty expectations for this great country of ours the new normal of two percent [1:01:45] that the left is saying you can't do anything about is so dangerous for our country there's six [1:01:50] million people living in poverty today more than when barack obama got elected six and a half million [1:01:56] people are working part-time most of whom want to work full-time we've created rules and taxes on top of [1:02:01] every aspiration of people and the net result is we're not growing fast income's not growing a four [1:02:08] percent growth strategy means you fix a convoluted tax code you get in and you change every aspect of [1:02:14] regulations that are job killers you get rid of obamacare and and replace it with something that [1:02:19] doesn't suppress wages and and kill jobs you embrace the energy revolution in our country this [1:02:25] president and hillary clinton who can't even say she's for the excel pipeline even after she's left [1:02:30] give me a break of course we're for it we should be for these things to create high sustained economic [1:02:35] growth and frankly fixing our immigration system and turning it into an economic driver as part of this [1:02:40] as well we can do this governor walker governor walker when you ran for governor of wisconsin back [1:02:49] in 2010 you promised that you would create 250 000 jobs in your first term first four years in fact [1:02:58] wisconsin added barely half that and ranked 35th in the country in job growth now you're running for [1:03:04] president and you're promising an economic plan in which everyone will earn a piece of the american dream [1:03:12] given your record in wisconsin why should voters believe you well the voters in wisconsin elected [1:03:17] me last year for the third time because they wanted someone who aimed high not aimed low before i came [1:03:22] in the unemployment rate was over eight percent it's now down to 4.6 percent we more than made up for [1:03:27] the jobs that were lost during the recession and the rate in which people are working is almost five [1:03:32] points higher than it is nationally you know people like hillary clinton think you grow the economy by [1:03:36] growing washington one report last year showed that six of the top 10 wealthiest counties in america [1:03:41] were in or around washington dc i think most of us in america understand that people not the [1:03:46] government creates jobs and one of the best things we can do is get the government out of the way [1:03:50] repeal obamacare put in plain rain rain in all the auto control regulations put in place in all the [1:03:56] above energy policy give people the education skills that they need to succeed and lower the tax rate and [1:04:01] reform the tax code that's what i'll do as president just like i did in wisconsin governor christie i want [1:04:07] to engage you and governor huckabee in a subject that is a big issue in both of your campaigns and [1:04:13] that is entitlement reform you say that you to save the system you want to raise the retirement age have [1:04:20] to raise the retirement age and to cut benefits for social security and medicare and you say that some [1:04:26] of the candidates here on the stage are lying governor huckabee says he can save social security and [1:04:32] medicare without doing any of that is he lying no he's not lying he's just wrong i mean so there's [1:04:39] a difference um listen i'm i'm the only guy on this stage who's put out a detailed 12-point plan [1:04:45] on entitlement reform and here's why because 71 percent of federal spending right now is on entitlements [1:04:51] and debt service 71 percent and we have spent the last hour and five minutes talking about the other 29 [1:04:58] and no time on the 71 and that makes no sense now let me tell you exactly what we would do [1:05:03] on social security yes we'd raise the retirement age two years and phase it in over 25 years that [1:05:08] means we'd raise it one month a year for 25 years when we're all living longer and living better lives [1:05:14] secondly we would means test social security for those who are making over two hundred thousand [1:05:19] dollars a year in retirement income and who have four to five million dollars in liquid assets saved [1:05:25] they don't need that social security check social security is meant to be to make sure that no one [1:05:30] who's worked hard and played by the rules and paid into the system grows old in poverty in america [1:05:35] if we don't deal with this problem it will bankrupt our country or lead to massive tax increases neither [1:05:40] one that we want in this country governor huckabee you say the changing entitlements the kind of thing [1:05:49] that governor christie is talking about would be breaking a promise to the american people and you [1:05:55] say that you can keep those programs save social security save medicare without those kinds of [1:06:01] reforms through a fair tax which is a broad tax on consumption please explain to governor christie [1:06:07] how that would work and how you could save these programs without the kind of painful reforms he says [1:06:13] we need let's all be reminded 60 million americans are on social security 60 million a third of those [1:06:21] people depend on 90 percent of their income from social security nobody in this country is on social [1:06:27] security because they made the decision when they were starting work at 14 that they wanted to [1:06:31] trust some of their money with the government the government took it out of their check whether [1:06:35] they wanted them to or not and if a person goes to 65 they're going to spend 51 years with the [1:06:41] government reaching into their pocket at every paycheck now here's the point whose fault is it that [1:06:47] the system is screwed up is it the recipients or is it the government and if congress wants to mess [1:06:53] with the retirement program why don't we let them start by changing their retirement program and not have one [1:07:00] instead of talking about getting rid of social security and medicare that was robbed 700 billion [1:07:06] dollars to pay for obamacare it's always that the government figures that they can do this off the [1:07:11] backs of people many of whom are poor and depend on that money and i just think it's fundamentally [1:07:16] lying to the people and stealing from them and we shouldn't be doing it oh chris 30 30 seconds yeah [1:07:23] sure i i don't disagree with ending congress's retirement program i'm a governor i don't have a retirement [1:07:28] program in my state and i don't disagree with that but here's the news for the american people he's [1:07:32] complaining about the lying and stealing the lying and stealing has already occurred the trust fund [1:07:37] is filled with ious we can't fix the problem just by entering congress's retirement that's worth about [1:07:42] this much we need to go at the fundamental problem and the fundamental problem is that this system is [1:07:48] broken it has been stolen from we have been lied to we need a strong leader to tell the truth and fix [1:07:53] all right this is 30 seconds finally well you ask about how we fund it one of the reasons that social [1:07:58] security is in so much trouble is the only funding stream comes from people who get a wage the people [1:08:03] who get wages is declining dramatically most of the income in this country is made by people at the [1:08:08] top who get dividends and and uh capital gains the fair tax transforms the process by which we fund [1:08:15] social security and medicare because the money paid at consumption is paid by everybody including [1:08:20] illegals prostitutes pimps drug dealers all the people that are freeloading off the system now [1:08:26] that's why it ought to be a transformed system all right all right enough mr trump a little r-rated [1:08:36] mr trump you talk a lot about how you are the person on this stage to grow the economy i want to ask you [1:08:43] about your business record trump corporations trump corporations casinos and hotels have declared [1:08:50] bankruptcy four times over the last quarter century in 2011 you told forbes magazine this i've used the [1:08:58] laws of the country to my advantage but at the same time financial experts involved in those bankruptcies [1:09:05] say that lenders to your companies lost billions of dollars question sir with that record why should we [1:09:12] trust you to run the nation's business because i have used the laws of this country just like the [1:09:20] greatest people that you read about every day in business have used the laws of this country the [1:09:25] chapter laws to do a great job for my company for myself for my employees for my family etc i have never [1:09:32] gone bankrupt by the way i have never but out of hundreds of deals but sir that's your line but [1:09:39] companies have gone bankrupt out of what am i saying out of hundreds of deals that i've done hundreds [1:09:45] on four occasions i've taken advantage of the laws of this country like other people i'm not going to [1:09:52] name their names because i'm not going to embarrass but virtually every person that you read about [1:09:56] on the front page of the business sections they've used the law the difference is when somebody else uses [1:10:01] those laws nobody writes about it when i use it they say oh trump trump trump the fact is i built a net worth [1:10:08] of more than 10 billion dollars i have a great great company i employ thousands of people [1:10:14] and i'm very proud of the job i did again chris hundreds and hundreds of deals four times i've [1:10:20] taken advantage of the laws and frankly so has everybody else in my position well sir let's just [1:10:26] talk about the latest example which is trump entertainment resorts which went bankrupt in 2009 [1:10:33] in that case alone lenders to your company lost over a billion dollars and more than 1100 people [1:10:42] were laid off well is that the way that you'd run the country about the lenders first of all these [1:10:47] lenders aren't babies these are total killers these are not the nice sweet little people that you think [1:10:52] okay you know i mean you're living in a world of the make-believe chris you want to know the truth [1:10:57] and i had the good sense to leave atlantic city which by the way caesars just went bankrupt [1:11:04] every company chris can tell you every company virtually in atlantic city went bankrupt [1:11:09] every company and let me just tell you i had the good sense and i've gotten a lot of credit [1:11:14] in the financial pages seven years ago i left atlantic city before it totally cratered [1:11:20] and i made a lot of money in atlantic city and i'm very proud of it i want to tell you that very [1:11:25] very proud of it so by the way this country right now owes 19 trillion dollars and they need somebody [1:11:33] like me to straighten out that mess senator rubio senator rubio more than 3 000 people sent us [1:11:45] questions about the economy and jobs on facebook and here is a video question from tanya sialko [1:11:53] from philadelphia here she is please describe one action you would do to make the economic environment [1:12:03] more favorable for small businesses and entrepreneurs and anyone dreaming of opening [1:12:10] their own business that's a great question senator how do you answer tanya that's a great question first [1:12:14] of all it begins by having leaders that recognize that the economy we live in today is dramatically [1:12:19] different from the one we had five years ago it's an economy that now has placed us in global [1:12:23] competition with dozens of other countries around the world now the big companies that have connections [1:12:27] with washington they can affect policies to help them but the small companies like the one tanya's talking [1:12:32] about they're the ones that are struggling the first thing we need to do is we need to even out the [1:12:36] tax code for small businesses so that we lower their tax rate to 25 percent just as we need to lower it [1:12:41] for all businesses we need to have a regulatory budget in america that limits the amount of regulations [1:12:47] on our economy we need to repeal and replace obamacare and we need to improve higher education so that [1:12:52] people can have access to the skills they need for 21st century jobs and last but not least we need to [1:12:57] repeal dodd frank it is eviscerating small businesses and small banks 20 over 40 percent of small and [1:13:06] mid-sized banks that loan money to small businesses have been wiped out over the license dodd frank has [1:13:10] passed we need to repeal and replace dodd frank we need to make america fair again for all businesses but [1:13:15] especially those being run by small business owners senator rubio thank you gentlemen another question for a few [1:13:22] of you yesterday just yesterday president obama criticized republican lawmakers trying to block the [1:13:29] iran deal calling them knee-jerk partisans adding that hardliners in iran who chant death to america [1:13:38] were quote making common cause with the republican caucus here's what two of your opponents on the 5 p.m [1:13:45] debate stage said about aroma i will tell you one thing i would whole lot rather had carly fiorina [1:13:52] over there doing our negotiation than john kerry maybe we would have gotten a deal where we didn't [1:13:56] give everything away but the issue for us is to have a congress that stands up and says not only no but [1:14:05] hell no to this money going to a regime that is going to use it for terror when america does not lead [1:14:11] the world is a dangerous and a tragic place this is a bad deal obama broke every rule of negotiation [1:14:18] yes our allies are not perfect but iran is at the heart of most of the evil that is going on in the [1:14:24] middle east through their proxy now i want to ask a few of you this first governor walker uh you've said [1:14:31] that you would tear up the iran deal on day one if this deal is undone what then well first off [1:14:39] let's remember i still remember as a kid tying a yellow ribbon around the tree in front of my house [1:14:44] during the 444 days that iran held 52 americans hostage iran is not a place we should be doing [1:14:50] business with to me you terminate the deal on day one you reinstate the sanctions authorized by [1:14:55] congress you go to congress and put in place even more crippling sanctions in place and then you [1:15:00] convince our allies to do the same this is not just bad with iran this is bad with isis it is tied [1:15:05] together and once and for all we need a leader who's going to stand up and do something about it [1:15:09] it's yet another example of the failed foreign policy of the obama clinton doctor senator paul would [1:15:14] you tear up the deal on day one i oppose the iranian deal and will vote against it i don't think that [1:15:22] the president negotiated from a position of strength but i don't immediately discount negotiations [1:15:28] i'm a reagan conservative reagan did negotiate with the soviets but you have to negotiate from a [1:15:34] position of strength and i think president obama gave away too much too early if there's going to [1:15:39] be a negotiation you're going to have to believe somehow that the iranians are going to comply and [1:15:45] i asked this question to john kerry i said do you believe they're trustworthy and he said no and i said [1:15:49] well how are we going to get them to comply i would have never released the sanctions before there [1:15:54] was consistent evidence of compliance governor huckabee what do you think about what senator paul just said [1:16:00] ronald reagan said trust but verify president obama is trust but vilify he trusts our enemies [1:16:08] and vilifies everyone who disagrees with him and the reason we disagree with him has nothing to do with [1:16:13] party it has to do with the incredibly dangerous place that this world is going to be as a result [1:16:19] of a deal in which we got nothing we didn't even get four hostages out we got nothing and iran gets [1:16:27] everything they want we said we would have anywhere anytime negotiations and inspections we gave that [1:16:34] up we said that we would make sure that they didn't have any nuclear capacity we gave that up the president [1:16:41] can't tell us what we got i'll tell you what the world got the world has a burgeoning nuclear power [1:16:47] that didn't as the soviets say we might defend ourselves in a war what the iranians have said is [1:16:54] we will wipe israel off the face of the map and we will bring death to america when someone points [1:17:01] a gun at your head and loads it by god you ought to take them seriously and we need to take that [1:17:06] seriously thank you gentlemen 2016 presidential campaign continues from cleveland after a short time [1:17:16] now stick around social issues next back gentlemen we're on now to discuss some social issues across [1:17:42] the board governor bush let's start with you many republicans have been outraged recently by a series [1:17:48] of videos on planned parenthood you now say that you support ending federal funding for this organization [1:17:53] however until late 2014 right before you started your campaign you sat on the board of a bloomberg [1:17:59] charity that quite publicly gave tens of millions of dollars to planned parenthood while you were a director [1:18:05] how could you not know about these well publicized donations and if you did know how could you help [1:18:11] a charity so openly committed to abortion rights i joined the bloomberg foundation because of mike [1:18:16] bloomberg's shared commitment for meaningful education reform that's why i was on it we never [1:18:22] we never had a debate about the budget uh it was uh presented and we approved it not item by item [1:18:28] here's my record as governor of the state of florida i defunded planned parenthood i created a [1:18:34] culture of life in our state we were the only state to to appropriate money for crisis pregnancy centers [1:18:41] we expanded dramatically the number of adoptions out of our foster care system we created we did [1:18:48] parental notification laws we ended partial birth abortion we did all of this and we were the first [1:18:53] state to do a choose life license plate now 29 states have done it and tens of millions of dollars have [1:18:58] gone to create a culture where more people more babies are adopted did you know no i didn't know but [1:19:05] it doesn't matter i was working on this board because of the education my record is clear my [1:19:09] record as a pro-life governor is not in dispute i am completely pro-life and i believe that we should [1:19:15] have a culture of life it's informed by my faith from beginning to end and i did this not just as it [1:19:21] related to unborn babies i did it at the end of life issues as well this is something that goes way [1:19:26] beyond politics and i hope one day that we get to the point where we respect life uh in its fullest form [1:19:32] across the board senator rubio you favor a rape and incest exception to abortion bans cardinal timothy [1:19:41] dolan of new york just said yesterday those exceptions are preposterous he said they discriminate [1:19:46] against an entire class of human beings if you believe that life begins at conception as you say [1:19:51] you do how do you justify ending a life just because it begins violently through no fault of the baby well [1:19:58] megan first of all i'm not sure that that's a correct assessment of my record i would go on to add that [1:20:03] i believe all you don't favor a rape and incest i have never said that and i have never advocated [1:20:07] that what i have advocated is that we pass law in this country that says all human life at every [1:20:12] stage of its development is worthy of protection in fact i think that law already exists it's called [1:20:16] the constitution of the united states and and and let me go further i believe that every single human [1:20:23] being is in charge of the isn't is entitled to the protection of our laws whether they can vote or not [1:20:28] whether they can speak or not whether they can hire a lawyer or not whether they have a birth certificate or not [1:20:33] and i think future generations will look back at this history of our country and call us barbarians [1:20:37] for murdering millions of babies we never gave them a chance to live mr trump in 1999 you said you [1:20:46] were quote very pro-choice even supporting parther partial birth abortion you favored an assault weapons [1:20:52] ban as well in 2004 you said in most cases you identified as a democrat even in this campaign your [1:20:58] critics say you often sound more like a democrat than a republican calling several of your opponents on this [1:21:03] stage things like clowns and puppets when did you actually become a republican i don't think they [1:21:14] like me very much i'll tell you what i've evolved on many issues over the years and you know who else [1:21:20] has is ronald reagan evolved on many issues and i am pro-life and if you look at the question i was in [1:21:28] business they asked me a question as to pro-life or choice and i said if you let it run that i hate [1:21:35] the concept of abortion i hate the concept of abortion and then since then i've very much evolved [1:21:42] and what happened is friends of mine years ago were going to have a child and it was going to be [1:21:49] aborted and it wasn't aborted and that child today is a total superstar a great great child and i saw that [1:21:56] and i saw other instances and i am very very proud to say that i am pro-life as far as being a republican [1:22:03] is concerned i come from a place new york city which is virtually i mean it's almost exclusively [1:22:09] democrat and i have really started to see some of the negatives as an example and i have a lot of [1:22:17] liking for this man but the last number of months of his brother's administration were a catastrophe [1:22:23] and unfortunately those few months gave us president obama and you can't be happy about that [1:22:30] governor bush i want to ask you on the subject of name calling of uh your fellow candidates a story [1:22:35] appeared today quoting an anonymous gop donor who said you called mr trump a clown a buffoon [1:22:41] something else that cannot be repeated on television none of which is true no it's not true but i have [1:22:47] said that mr trump's language is divisive i want to win i want one of these people here or the ones at [1:22:54] five o'clock to be the next president united states we're not going to win by doing what barack obama and [1:22:59] hillary clinton do each and every day dividing the country saying creating a grievance kind of [1:23:05] environment we're going to win when we unite people with a hopeful optimistic message i have that [1:23:10] message because i was a governor of state that saw people lifted up because we had high sustained [1:23:15] economic growth our economy grew at double the rate of the nation we created 1.3 million jobs we led the [1:23:22] nation seven out of those eight years we were only one of two states that went to triple a bond rating [1:23:27] i cut taxes 19 billion dollars if you do that and apply conservative principles the right way [1:23:33] you create an environment where everybody rises up that's how we're going to win campaigning in [1:23:37] places to give people hope that their life is better because too many people are suffering today in [1:23:42] america mr trump 30 seconds well first of all jeb i i am very happy that you denied that and i appreciate [1:23:49] that very much i mean he's a true gentleman he really is the one thing he did say about and i mean that [1:23:55] the one thing he did say about me however was my tone and i also understand that but when you have [1:24:01] people that are cutting christians heads off when you have a world at the border and at so many places [1:24:07] that it's medieval times we've never it's almost got to be as bad as it ever was in terms of the [1:24:13] violence and the horror we don't have time for tone we have to go out and get the job done subject of [1:24:22] gay marriage and religious liberty governor kasich if you had a son or daughter who was gay or lesbian [1:24:28] how would you explain to them your opposition to same-sex marriage well look i i i'm an old-fashioned [1:24:34] person here and i happen to believe in traditional marriage but i've also said the court is ruled how [1:24:39] would you wait wait wait megan the court is ruled and i said we'll accept it and guess what i just went [1:24:46] to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay because somebody doesn't think the way i do [1:24:52] doesn't mean that i can't care about them or i can't love them so if one of my daughters happened [1:24:57] to be that of course i would love them and i would accept them because you know what that's what we're [1:25:03] taught when we when we have strong faith so issues like that issues like that are planted to divide us [1:25:13] i think the simple fact of the matter is and this is where i would agree with jeb and i've been saying [1:25:18] it all along we need to give everybody a chance treat everybody with respect and let them share in [1:25:23] this great american dream that we have megan so look i'm going to love my daughters i'm going to love [1:25:29] them no matter what they do because you know what god gives me unconditional love i'm going to give it [1:25:34] to my family and my friends and the people around me in the wake of the supreme court's ruling on same-sex [1:25:44] marriage carol fox on facebook wants to know the following quote what will you do to ensure [1:25:50] christians are not prosecuted for speaking out against gay marriage and will christians be forced [1:25:55] to conduct business that conflicts with their religious beliefs look i don't want my marriage [1:26:01] or my guns registered in washington and if people have an opinion that's a religious opinion that is [1:26:12] hardly felt obviously they should be allowed to practice that and no government should interfere with [1:26:17] them one of the things one of the things that really got to me was the thing in houston where [1:26:24] you had the government the mayor actually trying to get the sermons of ministers when the government [1:26:30] tries to invade the church to enforce its own opinion on marriage that's when it's time to resist [1:26:36] governor walker many in the black lives matter movement and beyond believe that overly aggressive [1:26:47] police officers targeting young african americans is the civil rights issue of our time do you agree [1:26:54] and if so how do you plan to address it if not why not well i think uh the most important thing we [1:27:01] can do when it comes to policing is something you've had a guest on who's a friend of mine milwaukee [1:27:05] county sheriff david clark who's talked to me many times about this in the past it's about training [1:27:09] it's about making sure that law enforcement professionals not only on the way in to their positions but all the [1:27:15] way through their time have the proper training particularly when it comes to use of force [1:27:19] and that we protect and stand up and support those men and women who are doing their jobs in law [1:27:23] enforcement and for the very few that don't that there are consequences to show that we treat [1:27:27] everyone the same here in america thank you coming up more of our debate including questions about [1:27:36] president obama's foreign policy and these guys and their better ideas coming up welcome back to [1:28:01] cleveland our next topic is foreign policy candidates you may not have seen the late developing news [1:28:07] today our fox pentagon team broke earlier this evening about a top iranian general traveling to moscow [1:28:14] to meet with russian president vladimir putin his name is general qasem sulamani he's blamed for [1:28:20] hundreds of u.s troops deaths in iraq and afghanistan his trip to russia appears to directly violate [1:28:28] u.n security council resolutions to confine him to iran so mr trump if you were president how would [1:28:37] you respond to this i would be so different from what you have right now like the polar opposite [1:28:44] we have a president who doesn't have a clue i would say he's incompetent but i don't want to do [1:28:51] that because that's not nice but if you look at the deals we make whether it's the nuclear deal [1:29:00] with 24-hour periods and by the way before you get to the 24 hours you have to go through a system [1:29:06] you look at sergeant bergdahl we get bergdahl a trader and they get five of the big great killers [1:29:13] leaders that they want we have people in washington that don't know what they're doing now i agree [1:29:21] now with iran we're making a deal you would say we want him we want him we want our prisoners we want [1:29:31] all these things we don't get anything we're giving them 150 billion dollars plus they are going to be [1:29:37] i'll tell you what if iran was a stock you folks should go out and buy it right now because you'll [1:29:42] quadruple this what's happened in iran is a disgrace and it's going to lead to destruction in large [1:29:50] portions of the world another new development today senior defense officials tell fox they [1:29:56] strongly suspect russia was behind a cyber attack on the chairman of the joint chief's office email [1:30:03] this comes in the wake of the director of national intelligence blaming the chinese for the largest [1:30:08] ever cyber attack stealing personal data of tens of millions of americans senator cruz in your view [1:30:16] have russia and china committed acts of cyber war and if you were president what would you do about [1:30:22] it well brett of course they have and over the last six and a half years we've seen the consequences [1:30:28] of the obama-clinton foreign policy leading from behind is a disaster we have abandoned and alienated [1:30:35] our friends and allies and our enemies are stronger radical islam is on the rise iran's on the verge of [1:30:41] acquiring a nuclear weapon china is waging cyber warfare against america russia general suleimani [1:30:48] you just mentioned the iranian general is the head of the al quds forces he's directly responsible for [1:30:54] the murder of over 500 american servicemen in iraq and part of this iranian deal was lifting the [1:31:01] international sanctions on general suleimani the day general suleimani flew back from moscow to iran [1:31:07] was the day we believe that russia used cyber warfare against the joint chiefs we need a new [1:31:14] commander-in-chief that will stand up to our enemies and that will have credibility it is worth [1:31:20] emphasizing that iran released our hostages in 1981 the day ronald reagan was sworn into office [1:31:30] dr carson in august of 2012 president obama famously declared that if syrian president bashar al-assad [1:31:37] used chemical weapons quote that's a red line for us and that there would be enormous consequences [1:31:43] one year later with overwhelming evidence that assad had in fact used chemical weapons and crossed [1:31:49] that red line president obama declined to use military force against the assad regime [1:31:54] as president would you have used military force there well what we have to stop and think about [1:32:00] is the fact that we have weakened ourselves militarily to such an extent that it affects all of our [1:32:07] military policies our navy is at its smallest size since 1917 our air force since 1940 in recent [1:32:16] testimony the commandant of the marine corps said half of the non-deployed units were not ready and [1:32:24] you know the sequester is cutting the heart out of our personnel our generals are retiring because [1:32:30] they don't want to be part of this and at the same time our enemies are increasing our our friends can't [1:32:36] trust us anymore you know ukraine was a nuclear armed state they gave away their nuclear arms with [1:32:43] the understanding that we would protect them we won't even give them offensive weapons you know we [1:32:47] turned our back on israel our ally you know and in a situation like that of course obama's not going [1:32:55] to be able to do anything i would shore up our military first because if you don't get the military right [1:33:00] nothing else is going to work governor walker as president what would you do if russian president [1:33:06] vladimir putin started a campaign to destabilize nato allies estonia latvia lithuania mirroring the [1:33:14] actions putin took at the early days of ukraine well first off for the cyber attack with russia the other [1:33:20] day it's sad to think right now but probably the russian and chinese government know more about hillary [1:33:25] clinton's email server than do the members of united states congress and and that has put our [1:33:32] national security at risk if i'm president he won't think about that you know putin believes in [1:33:37] the old linen adage that you probe with bayonets when you find mush you push when you find steel you [1:33:43] stop under obama and clinton we found a lot of mush over the last few years we need to have a national [1:33:48] security that puts steel in front of our enemies i would send weapons to you ukraine i would work with [1:33:53] nato to put forces on the eastern border of poland and the and the baltic nations and i would reinstate [1:33:59] re-put in place back in the missile defense system that we had in poland and in the czech republic [1:34:05] governor huckabee the culture of the american military is definitely changing uh women are [1:34:11] moving into combat roles don't ask don't tell has obviously been dropped and now defense secretary [1:34:17] ashton carter recently directed the military to prepare for a moment when it is welcoming [1:34:23] transgender persons to serve openly as commander-in-chief how would you handle that the military [1:34:30] is not a social experiment the purpose of the military is kill people and break things it's not [1:34:36] to transform the culture by trying out some ideas that some people think would make us a different [1:34:42] country and more diverse the purpose is to protect america i'm not sure how paying for transgender [1:34:49] surgery for soldiers sailors airmen marines makes our country safer we've reduced the military by 25 [1:34:56] percent under president obama the disaster is that we've forgotten why we have a military the purpose [1:35:03] of it is to make sure that we protect every american wherever that american is and if american is calling [1:35:09] out for help whether it's in benghazi or at the border then we ought to be able to answer it [1:35:14] we've not done that because we've decimated our military we're flying b-52s the most recent one [1:35:20] that was put in service was november of 1962. a lot of the b-52s we're flying we've only got 44 that are [1:35:28] in service combat ready and the fact is most of them are older than me and that's pretty scary [1:35:38] senator paul the first budget you proposed as senator cut all financial aid to israel you have since [1:35:46] changed your view on that issue what made you change your mind well let's be clear i'm the only one [1:35:53] on the stage who actually has a five-year budget that balances i've put pencil to paper and i've said [1:36:00] and i've said i would cut spending and i've said exactly where each one of my budgets has taken a meat [1:36:06] axe to foreign aid because i think we ought to quit sending it to countries that hate us i think we ought [1:36:13] to quit sending it to countries that burn our flag israel's not one of those but even benjamin [1:36:19] netanyahu said that ultimately they will be stronger when they're independent my position is [1:36:24] exactly the same we shouldn't borrow money from china to send it anywhere but why don't we start [1:36:31] with eliminating aid to our enemies okay but you still say that israel could be one of the countries [1:36:36] that is cut from financial aid i still say exactly what my original opinion is do you borrow money [1:36:41] from china to send it to anyone out of your surplus you can help your allies and israel is a great ally [1:36:48] and this is no particular animus of israel but what i will say and i will say over and over again [1:36:53] we cannot give away money we don't have we do not project power from bankruptcy court we're borrowing [1:37:01] a million dollars a minute it's got to stop somewhere governor christie what do you think of [1:37:05] that answer well listen you know if we want to deal with these issues we have to deal with them in a [1:37:12] way that makes sense i agree with what dr carson said earlier the first thing we need to do to make [1:37:17] america stronger is the strength in our military and i put out a really specific plan no less than [1:37:22] 500 000 active duty soldiers in the army no less than 185 000 active duty marines in the marine corps [1:37:28] bring us to a 350 ship navy again and modernize the ohio class of submarines and bring our air force [1:37:34] back to 2600 aircraft that are ready to go those are the kind of things that are going to send a clear [1:37:39] message around the world those are the things that we need to start working on immediately to make our [1:37:43] country stronger and make it better those are the things that we need to be able to be doing [1:37:47] and as we move towards dealing with foreign aid i don't disagree with senator paul's position that [1:37:52] we shouldn't be funding our enemies but i absolutely believe that israel is a priority to be able to fund [1:37:57] and keep them strong and safe after eight years of this administration governor thank you brett can i [1:38:03] brett can i jump in on this one senator we're going to finish up with some more questions thank you we [1:38:08] have to stand you by because after the break we're going to let the candidates make their closing statements [1:38:12] their final thoughts and god stay tuned for that welcome back in our final moments here together [1:38:40] we're going to allow the candidates to offer their final thoughts but first we want to ask them [1:38:44] an interesting closing question from chase norton on facebook who wants to know this of the candidates [1:38:50] i want to know if any of them have received a word from god on what they should do and take care of [1:38:57] first senator cruz start from you any word from god well i am blessed to receive a word from god every [1:39:05] day and receiving the scriptures and reading the scriptures and god speaks through the bible i'm the [1:39:13] son of a pastor and an evangelist and i've described many times how my father when i was a child was an [1:39:21] alcoholic he wasn't a christian and my father left my mother and left me when i was just three years [1:39:26] old and someone invited him to clay road baptist church and he gave his heart to jesus and it [1:39:31] turned him around and he got on a plane and he flew back to my mother and me i would also note that [1:39:38] the scripture tells us you shall know them by their fruits we see lots of campaign conservatives [1:39:45] but if we're going to win in 2016 we need a consistent conservative someone who's been a fiscal [1:39:49] conservative a social conservative a national security conservatives there are real differences [1:39:55] among the candidates on issues like amnesty like obamacare like religious liberty like life and [1:40:00] marriage and i have been proud to fight and stand for religious liberty to stand against planned [1:40:05] parenthood to to defend life for my entire career and i will be proud to continue to do so [1:40:12] as president of the united states okay same question well megan my father was a mailman his father [1:40:23] was a coal miner my mother's mother could barely speak english and their son today stands on this [1:40:28] podium in the great state of ohio not only as the governor but a candidate for president united states [1:40:36] i do i do believe in miracles you know i've had a lot of elections but my elections are really not [1:40:43] about campaigns i tell my people that that these are about a movement and a movement to do what to [1:40:51] restore common sense a movement to do things like provide economic growth and a movement not to let [1:40:57] anybody be behind you know today the country's divided you ask the question about the police and [1:41:02] the difficulty in communities we've got to unite our country again because we're stronger when we are [1:41:08] united and we are weaker when we are divided and we've got to listen to other people's voices respect [1:41:15] them but keep in mind and i believe i believe in in in terms of the things that i've read in my lifetime [1:41:22] the lord's not picking us but because of how we respect human rights because that we are a good force [1:41:28] in the world he wants america to be strong he wants america to succeed and he wants america to lead [1:41:35] and nothing's more important to me than my family my faith and my friends governor walker same question [1:41:43] well thanks megan i'm certainly an imperfect man and it's only by the blood of jesus christ that i've been [1:41:50] redeemed from my sins so i know that god doesn't call me to do a specific thing god hasn't given me [1:41:56] a list of ten commandments if you will of things to act on the first day what god calls us to do is [1:42:00] follow his will and ultimately that's what i'm going to try and do and and i hope people have seen in my [1:42:05] state even in the big challenges i took on when i had over a hundred thousand protesters in around our [1:42:10] capital trying to do what i thought was the right thing it wasn't just how i took on those political [1:42:14] battles it was ultimately how i acted not responding in kind not lashing out but just being decent going [1:42:20] forward and living my life in a way that would be a testimony to him in his faith and our faith [1:42:25] senator ruby i want to ask you the same question but i do want to mention [1:42:28] a woman just came here to the stage and asked what about the veterans i want to hear more about [1:42:34] what these candidates are going to do for our nation's veterans so i put the question to you [1:42:38] about god and the veterans which you may find to be related well first let me say i think god has [1:42:43] blessed us he's blessed the republican party with some very good candidates the democrats can't even [1:42:47] find one and and i believe god has blessed our country this country has been extraordinarily blessed [1:43:02] and we have honored that blessing and that's why god has continued to bless us and he's blessed [1:43:05] us with young men and women willing to risk their lives and sometimes die in uniform for the safety [1:43:10] and security of our people unfortunately today we have a va that does not do enough for them [1:43:15] i am proud that last year we helped change the law we changed the law to give the power to the va [1:43:20] secretary the ability to fire any executive that isn't doing their job and it's it is outrageous [1:43:25] they've only fired one person to date when i'm president of the united states we're going to have [1:43:29] a va that cares more about our veterans than about the bureaucrats to work at the va dr carson question [1:43:38] you about about god and his role but also one of the issues that that the public was very interested in [1:43:45] and we touched on it earlier is race relations in this country and how divided we seem right now [1:43:51] and what if anything you can do you would do as the next president to help heal that divide well i [1:43:58] think the bully pulpit is a wonderful place to start uh healing that divide you know we have the [1:44:03] purveyors of hatred who take every single incident between people of two races and try to make a race war [1:44:11] out of it and drive wedges into people and this does not need to be done what we need to think about [1:44:16] instead you know i was asked by an npr reporter once why don't i talk about race that often i said [1:44:22] it's because i'm a neurosurgeon and she thought that was a strange response and you say i said you [1:44:27] see when i take someone to the operating room i'm actually operating on the thing that makes them who [1:44:32] they are the skin doesn't make them who they are the hair doesn't make them who they are and it's time [1:44:36] for us to move beyond that because you know our our strength as a nation comes in our unity we are [1:44:50] the united states of america not the divided states and those who want to destroy us are trying to [1:44:55] divide us and we shouldn't let them do it thank you now each candidate will make a closing statement [1:45:04] you'll all have 30 seconds to make a closing statement for this debate we'll start with ohio governor [1:45:11] john casing but you know tonight we hear about what people want to do i want to tell you what [1:45:18] i've done i was a member of the armed services committee for 18 years i spent a big chunk of [1:45:24] my life studying national security issues and our role in the world number two i was the chairman of [1:45:30] the house budget committee and one of the chief architects the last time we balanced the budget [1:45:35] and it was the first time we'd done it since man walked on the moon we had a five trillion dollar [1:45:40] surplus and we cut taxes i spent 10 years in the private sector actually learning how business [1:45:46] works and now i'm the governor of ohio and i inherited a state that was on the brink of of dying [1:45:52] and we've turned it all around with jobs and balanced budgets and rising credit and tax cuts [1:45:57] and the state is unified and people have hope again in ohio well thank you megan listen i was born [1:46:13] into a middle class family in new jersey my dad came home from serving in the army after having lost his [1:46:18] father worked in the briars ice cream plant in new york new jersey was the first person to graduate [1:46:23] from college put himself through college at night my mom was a secretary i was appointed united states [1:46:28] attorney on september 10th 2001 and spent the next seven years of my career fighting terrorism [1:46:34] and putting terrorists in jail i'm a conservative pro-life governor in a state where it's really tough [1:46:40] to be both in a state like new jersey with lots of democrats but still we cut taxes [1:46:45] we balanced budgets we fought the teachers union this president has had weak leadership which has [1:46:50] led to bad choices we got to stop worrying about being loved and start worrying about being respected [1:46:54] and that's exactly how i'll lead our country senator paul closing statement i'm a different kind of [1:47:03] republican i've introduced a five-year balanced budget i've introduced the largest tax cut in our [1:47:09] history i stood for ten and a half hours on the senate floor to defend your light your right to be left [1:47:15] alone but i've also gone to chicago i've gone to detroit i've been to ferguson i've been to baltimore [1:47:23] because i want our party to be bigger better and bolder and i'm the only one that leads hillary [1:47:28] clinton in five states that were won by president obama i'm a different kind of republican senator marco [1:47:37] rubio thank you you know both of my parents were born into poor families on the island of cuba [1:47:43] they came to america because it was the only place where people like them could have a chance [1:47:47] here in this country they never made it big but the very purpose of their life was to give us the [1:47:51] chance to do all the things they never could my father was a bartender and the journey from the [1:47:56] back of that bar to this stage tonight to me that's the essence of the american dream it's what makes [1:48:01] our nation different and i'm running for president because i want that to still be possible for the [1:48:05] people trying to do that now i run for president because i believe that we can't just save the [1:48:10] american dream we can expand it to reach more people and change more lives than ever before and that's why [1:48:15] i'm asking for your vote so we can make america greater than it's ever been and make of this [1:48:20] century a new american century thank you senator ted cruz if i am elected president let me tell you [1:48:32] about my first day in office the first thing i intend to do is to rescind every illegal and [1:48:37] unconstitutional executive action taken by barack obama the next thing i intend to do is instruct the [1:48:44] department of justice to open an investigation into these videos and to prosecute planned parenthood for [1:48:50] any criminal violations the next thing i intend to do is instruct the department of justice and the [1:48:56] irs to start persecuting religious liberty i then intend to cancel the iran deal and finally move the [1:49:03] u.s embassy in israel to jerusalem i will keep my word my father fled cuba and i will fight to defend [1:49:13] liberty because my family knows what it's like to lose it dr carson closing statement well i haven't said [1:49:21] anything about me being the only one to do anything so let me try that i'm the only one to separate siamese [1:49:27] twins uh the only the only one to operate on babies while they were still in the mother's womb [1:49:36] the only one to take out half of a brain although you would think if you go to washington that someone [1:49:41] had beat me to it but but i'm very hopeful that i'm not the only one who's willing to pick up the baton [1:49:54] of freedom because freedom is not free and we must fight for it every day every one of us must fight [1:49:59] for it because we're fighting for our children and the next generation [1:50:03] governor mike huckabee closing statement it seems like this election has been a whole lot about a [1:50:12] person who's very high in the polls but doesn't have a clue about how to govern a person who has been [1:50:20] filled with scandals and who could not lead and of course i'm talking about hillary clinton [1:50:34] i think america is in trouble but it's not beyond repair but it's going to take leadership who sees [1:50:41] the greatness of this country and who believes that once again we can be one nation under god [1:50:48] i'll be my best to do that and thank you for your support governor scott walker thanks i'm a guy with [1:51:00] a wife and two kids and a harley one article called me aggressively normal i ran for governor because i was [1:51:06] worried about my kids future then i took on the big government union bosses and we won they tried to [1:51:13] recall me and we won they target us again and we won we balanced the budget cut taxes and turned our state [1:51:20] around with big bold reforms it wasn't too late for wisconsin and it's not too late for america that's [1:51:28] why i asked for your vote governor bush closing statements sir here's what i believe i believe [1:51:36] we're at the verge of the greatest time to be alive in this world but washington is holding us back [1:51:42] how we tax how we regulate we're not embracing the energy revolution in our midst a broken immigration [1:51:47] system that has been politicized rather than turning it into an economic driver we're not protecting and [1:51:52] preserving our entitlement system or reforming for the next generation all these things languish while [1:51:58] we have politicians in washington using these as wedge issues here's my commitment to you because [1:52:03] i did it as florida we can fix these things we can grow economically and restore america's leadership [1:52:08] in the world so that everybody has a chance to rise up i humbly ask for your vote whenever you're [1:52:14] going to get to vote whenever the primary is thank you all very much mr trump closing statement sir our country [1:52:24] is in serious trouble we don't win anymore we don't beat china in trade we don't beat japan with [1:52:32] their millions and millions of cars coming into this country in trade we can't beat mexico at the [1:52:39] border or in trade we can't do anything right our military has to be strengthened our vets have to be [1:52:46] taken care of we have to end obamacare and we have to make our country great again and i will do that [1:52:54] thank you gentlemen thank you it's over that's it you're relieved you were nervous before they don't [1:53:05] look relieved they like get me out of here thank you all very much and that will do it for the first [1:53:10] republican primary debate night of the 2016 presidential race our thanks to the candidates [1:53:15] who will now be joined by their families on stage but we're not done the kelly file starts in a moment [1:53:22] i'll be running over to the other set but first brett chris they're here with me we're going to say hello [1:53:26] to the candidates but all right dr carson how you doing nice to see you i'm going to have a little [1:53:30] great to see you guys kind of ruining it for us it's the moment you know it's the moment their [1:53:43] families have been sitting here in this arena on pins and needles way more nervous than these guys [1:53:49] way more more nervous you know waiting for every answer waiting for everything and now you know they [1:53:54] get up they get their hugs they get their kisses it's got to be a big relief i mean they're only human [1:53:59] right just to get this over with can i also say that that at the risk of sounding pollyanna-ish [1:54:05] i actually think all 10 candidates did quite well look at senator cruz oh look at this look at [1:54:10] senator cruz but but i think they all handled themselves well i thought they all made their [1:54:16] points you know they all had moments chris they all had some moment on some issue and they [1:54:22] really ran the gamut as far as the different issues we've been working in that cocoon for a long time [1:54:27] they're all very respectful here comes one of them now senator thank you thank you guys thank you senator [1:54:35] hi thank you thank you thank you hello mrs rubio how are you if you can hear at home uh senator rubio's [1:54:47] mocking chris wallace that's fun that's always it's always good for a laugh that's good look at all [1:54:53] these families up here well listen it's a nice moment because they they duke it out but then at the end [1:54:58] they're friendly this has been fun we're one down one down that is it for us governor bush good to see [1:55:06] you we are we're still on that's it for us and guess what the kelly file starts starts right now let's [1:55:14] see if i make it