Republican September 2016 Debate Condensed Transcript
Here is my condensation of the transcript of the September 16 2015 debate involving the GOP Presidential hopefuls, the transcript found at Wednesday’s GOP debate transcript, annotated - The Washington Post. Facts re my condensation: 8553 words, 24.3% of the original length of 35247 words; Readability level 11-12th grade; Google sarch based on top 10 keywords: people will trump would bush president us years need going. Facts re original transcript: 35247 words, 9-10th grade readability level; Google search based on top 10 keywords: people trump will think want would know governor because going.
...By Washington Post September 16 at 11:37 PM
...CNN Republican presidential debate...Sept. 16, 2015...
PAUL: Good evening, everyone. I'm an eye surgeon from Bowling Green, Kentucky. My wife, Kelly, and I have been married for nearly 25 years, and I spend my days defending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights...
HUCKABEE: I'm Mike Huckabee...
RUBIO:... My name is Marco Rubio. I'm from Florida. My wife Jeanette and I are the proud -- we've been married 17 years, and we're the proud parents of four children...
CRUZ: I'm Ted Cruz. I am the son of an Irish-Italian mom and a Cuban immigrant dad who fled oppression and came to America seeking freedom. I'm a husband to my best friend, Heidi, who's here tonight. I'm a dad to two little girls who are the loves of my life, Caroline and Catherine...
CARSON: Hi, I'm Ben Carson, and I'm a retired pediatric neurosurgeon. I'm here with my wife, Candy, of 40 years, and two of my sons, and their wives...
TRUMP: I'm Donald Trump. I wrote "The Art of the Deal". I say not in a braggadocious way, I've made billions and billions of dollars dealing with people all over the world...
BUSH: I'm Jeb Bush, and I believe America's on the verge of its greatest century, and I'm ready to lead. I'm a committed, conservative reformer that cut taxes, that balanced budgets, that took on the special interest in Florida, and we won.
WALKER: Good evening, I'm Scott Walker...the greatest president was a governor from California. Ronald Reagan...
FIORINA...from secretary to CEO, is only possible in this nation...My husband, Frank, of 30 years, started out driving a tow truck for a family owned auto body shop....
(APPLAUSE)
KASICH: Hello, I'm John Kasich, the Governor of Ohio. Emma, and Reese, my children, and Karen, love 'ya girls...
(APPLAUSE)
CHRISTIE: Hi, my name is Chris Christie...
(APPLAUSE)...
TAPPER: ...Would you feel comfortable with Donald trump's finger on the nuclear codes?
FIORINA: ...
TAPPER: You didn't answer my question...
FIORINA: That's not for me to answer; it is for the voters of this country to answer, and I have a lot of faith in the ...good judgment of the voters...
TRUMP: Well, first of all, Rand Paul shouldn't even be on this stage... I think I have a great temperament. I built...one of the really truly great real-estate businesses.
...'ve had tremendous success with number-one bestsellers...with "The Apprentice" ...
...I am...a businessman, and that's the kind of mindset this country needs to bring it back, because we owe $19 trillion right now...you need this kind of thinking to bring our country back.
...y temperament is very good, very calm. But we will be respected...We are not respected...
PAUL: ...He was asked whether or not he would be capable ...there's a sideways attack at me.
...Do we want someone with that kind of character, that kind of careless language to be negotiating with Putin?...with Iran?
...I'm very concerned about him...in charge of the nuclear weapons...his visceral response to attack people on their appearance -- short, tall, fat, ugly -- ...that happened in junior high. Are we not way above that? Would we not all be worried to have someone like that in charge of the nuclear arsenal?...
...TRUMP: I've actually been in politics all my life, although I've been on that side as opposed to this side...Everything I've done virtually has been a tremendous success...
TAPPER: Governor Bush, would you feel comfortable with Donald Trump's finger on the nuclear codes?
BUSH: I think the voters will make that determination.
...This administration...has created insecurity ...There's not a place in the world where we're better off today than six and a half years ago...
You can't ... insult leaders ... expect a good result...
...He told us all the things we wanted to hear back in 2008. We don't know who you are or where you're going. We need someone who can actually get the job done.
...TRUMP: In Wisconsin, you're losing $2.2 billion right now.
WALKER You're using the talking...We balanced a budget... the politicians in Washington right now...think we can take a country into bankruptcy...They think we can take a country into bankruptcy.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: ...I used the law four times...when the folks of Iowa found out the true facts of the job that you've done in Wisconsin...he was No. 1 and now he's No. 6 or seven... you were supposed to make a billion dollars in the state. You lost 2.2 -- you have right now, a huge budget deficit. That's not a Democratic point. That's a point. That's a fact. And when the people of Iowa found that out, I went to No. 1 and you went down the tubes...
WALKER: ...
We balanced a $3.6 billion budget deficit, we did it by cutting taxes -- $4.7 billion to help working families, family farmers, small business owners and senior citizens...
KASICH:...people at home want to know...what we're going to do to...balance a budget, how we're going to create more economic growth...pay down the debt...strengthen the military...
(LAUGHTER)
...I veto 400 bills from a crazy liberal Democratic legislature, not one of them has been overridden. I've vetoed more tax increases than any governor in American history, according to Americans for Tax Reform...
CARSON: Typically, politicians do things that are politically expedient...I'm extraordinary concerned about the direction of this country, the divisiveness that is going on, fiscal irresponsibility, the failure to take a leadership position in the world...
FIORINA... 75 percent of the American people think the government is corrupt; 82 percent of the American people think these problems that have festered for 50 years in some cases, 25 years in other cases. The border's been insecure for 25 years; 307,000 veterans have died waiting for health care...
TAPPER: ... Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that the $100 million you've raised for your campaign makes you a puppet for your donors...
BUSH: No...People are supporting me because I have a...record of conservative leadership ... I cut taxes $19 billion over eight years....we created a climate that led the nation in job growth seven out of eight years. We were one of two states to go to AAA bond rating...The one guy that had some special interests that ...tried to get me to change my views...was generous...was Donald Trump. He wanted casino gambling in Florida --...
BUSH: You wanted it and you didn't get it because I was opposed to --...
TRUMP: ... lot of money was raised by ...people that are standing up here...donors, the special interests, the lobbyists have very strong power over these people...
TRUMP: I didn't want -- it was my obligation as a businessman to my family, to my company, to my employees, to get along with all politicians. I get along with all of them...
CARSON: ...
I in no way am willing to get in the bed with special interest group or lick the boots of billionaires. ... we now have over 500,000 donations...
TAPPER:...Russia is sending troops and tanks into Syria right now to prop up...U.S. enemy, ...al-Assad. ...Obama's incoming top general says..."Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security."
...Mr. Trump..." What would you do right now if you were president, to get the Russians out of Syria?
TRUMP: ...they have to respect you. He has absolutely no respect for President Obama. Zero.
... we're fighting ISIS. ISIS wants to fight Syria. Why are we fighting ISIS in Syria? Let them fight each other and pick up the remnants.
...We don't get along with anybody... they rip us left and right. They take advantage of us economically and every other way...
RUBIO: ...He wants to reposition Russia, once again, as a geopolitical force.
He ...said that the ...fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century...he's trying to reverse that.
...He's trying to destroy NATO...exploiting a vacuum that this administration has left in the Middle East.
...Russians will begin to fly -- fly combat missions in that region, not just targeting ISIS, but in order to prop up Assad.
...He will ... say, "America is no longer a reliable ally, Egypt. America is no longer a reliable ally, Saudi Arabia. Begin to rely on us."
...he is trying to replace us as the single most important power broker in the Middle East,...this president is allowing it. ...
FIORINA:...What I would do...begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet...missile defense program in Poland, ...regular, aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states... send a few thousand more troops into Germany...General Suleimani...the head of the Quds force traveled to Russia and talked Vladimir Putin into aligning...with Iran and Syria to prop up Bashar al- Assad.
... Putin...the only way he will stop is to sense strength and resolve on the other side...We could also, to Senator Rubio's point, give the Egyptians what they've asked for, which is intelligence.
...I will. We could arm the Kurds. They've been asking us for three years...
TAPPER:...Senator Cruz,...Kasich says that anyone who is promising to rip up the Iran deal...is..."inexperienced...playing to a crowd." ...
CRUZ: ...the single biggest...threat facing America...is...nuclear Iran. six and a half years of President Obama...Weakness is provocative... Iranian nuclear deal is ...catastrophic...$100 billion to the Ayatollah Khamenei, making ...Obama ... the world's leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism...This deal abandons four American hostages in Iran,...only accelerate Iran's acquiring nuclear weapons...President Obama wants to...use the United Nations to bind the United States, and take away our sovereignty...I ...took on the world court of the United Nations in a case called Medellin v. Texas, and we won a historic victory saying the World Court...has no power to bind the United States, and no President...has the authority to give away our sovereignty...if there's anyone up here who would be bound by this catastrophic deal with Iran, they're giving up the core responsibility of commander in chief...
KASICH: ...it's a bad agreement...if they cheat, we slap the sanctions back on. If they help Hamas, and Hezbollah, we slap the sanctions back on. And, if we find out that they may be developing a nuclear weapon, than the military option is on the table...
TAPPER: ... Senator Paul.
TRUMP(?): ...Slow (ph) and steady, (inaudible) chicken...
TAPPER: ...Governor Walker says that President Obama should cancel the state dinner because of China's currency manipulation...alleged cyber attacks against the United States...
PAUL: ...Fiorina also said we're not going to talk with Putin....We continued to talk with the Russians throughout the Cold War... Should we cut up the agreement immediately? That's absurd. Wouldn't you want to know if they complied? ...it doesn't mean that I would ...cut it up without looking to see if whether or not Iran has complied...
WALKER: ...why would we be giving an official state visit to a country that's been involved in a massive cyber attack against the United States...21 gun salute ...I was one of the first ones to call for terminating the bad deal with Iran... the President who called ISIS the JV squad said I needed to bone up... Obama folds on everything with Iran...
BUSH: ...We should use offensive tactics as it relates to cyber security...There should be super sanctions in what President Obama has proposed. There's many other tools that we have without canceling a dinner. That's not going to change anything, but we can be much stronger as it relates to that...we need to do is to establish our commitment to Israel...make sure that they have the most sophisticated weapons to send a signal to Iran ...
HUCKABEE: ...This is really about the survival of Western civilization. This is not just a little conflict with a Middle Eastern country that we've just now given over $100 billion to, the equivalent in U.S. terms is $5 trillion.
...This is a government for 36 years has killed...kidnapped Americans...sponsored terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah...
...we must,...make it very clear that the next president...will absolutely not honor that agreement, ...
HEWITT: ... Obama drew a red line that ...Assad crossed...Obama threatened to strike. He did not, ...We now have 4 million refugees, Syria is a living hell...what would you have done when Bashar Assad crossed the line?
TRUMP: I wouldn't have drawn the line, but once he drew it, he had no choice... Had he...gone in with force, done something to Assad ...you wouldn't have millions of people displaced all over the world...
RUBIO: ... we have zero responsibility...He said the attack he would conduct would be a pinprick. ...If the United States military is going to be engaged...t should only be engaged in an endeavor to win...we're not going to authorize use of force if you're not put in a position where they can win...
HEWITT: Senator Paul?
PAUL: ...Had we bombed Assad at the time, like President Obama...Clinton wanted and many Republicans wanted...ISIS would be... in charge of Syria had we bombed Assad. Sometimes both sides of the civil war are evil, ...intervention...makes us less safe...Every time we have toppled a secular dictator, we have gotten chaos... radical Islam, and we're more at risk. So, I think we need to... know most interventions...have actually backfired on us...
RUBIO: ... ...No. 1 test for use of military force should be the vital national security interest of the United States. ... I opposed President Obama bombing Syria... he couldn't answer the question what do you do if chemical weapons end up in the hands of radical Islamic terrorists like al-Nusra, like Al Qaida, like ISIS?...Anyone who is paying attention to what Khamenei says knows that they will not comply...
RUBIO: In the middle of negotiating this treaty, Khamenei led the assembled masses in chanting, death to America...
(LAUGHTER)
... if you elect me as president, under no circumstances will a theocratic ayatollah who chants death to America ever be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon...
KASICH: ...we operate better in the world when our allies work with us...nobody's trusting Iran. They violate the deal, we put on the sanctions, and we have the high moral ground to talk to our allies in Europe...If they don't go with us, we slap the sanctions on anyway. If they fund these radical groups that threaten Israel and all of the West, then we ... put the sanctions back on... if we think...they're getting close to a -- to developing a nuclear weapon...I would do everything in my power...to stop them...
CRUZ: ... I've listened to several folks saying, "Well, gosh, if they cheat, we'll act."... there are several facilities in Iran they designate as military facilities that are off limit all together...other facilities, we give them 24 days notice before inspecting ...designed to allow them to hide the evidence...this agreement trusts the Iranians to inspect themselves...
HUCKABEE:...the Kentucky constitution that 75 percent of the people of that state had voted for ...said that marriage was between a man and a woman. The Supreme Court ... decided...they were just going to redefine marriage...there wasn't a constitutional shred of capacity for them to do it...courts cannot legislate...The courts can't make a law. They can interpret one. They can review one...They can't force it... we have separation of powers, and we have checks and balances... we have what Jefferson said was judicial tyranny...We made accommodation to the Fort Hood shooter to let him grow a beard.... to the detainees at Gitmo ...
BUSH: I think there needs to be accommodation for someone acting on faith. Religious conscience ...our Bill of Rights... you can't just say, "well, they -- gays can't get married now."
... there should be some accommodation for her conscience... florists that don't want to participate in weddings, or bakers...accommodations for people so that we can solve the problem in the right way... at the local level...
CHRISTIE: She is, and so if she, based on conscience, can't sign that ... marriage license...there should be someone in her office to be able to do it...
KASICH:... we should defund Planned Parenthood...in my state, we're trying to figure out how to get it done, because we are threatened with the federal government taking all of our Medicaid money away... giving governors the ability to be able to act to defund Planned Parenthood...all we're gonna do is shut the government down, and then we're gonna open up -- open it up, and the American people are gonna...say, "what's...with these Republicans?"... I was in the Congress for 18 years, balanced the budget, cut taxes...Changed welfare, went around the president to get welfare reform done...
CRUZ: ...These Planned Parenthood videos are horrifying...Planned Parenthood officials callously,...bartering and selling...body parts of human beings... Planned Parenthood...essentially confesses to multiple felonies. It is a felony with ten years' jail term to sell the body parts of unborn children...we shouldn't be sending $500 million... funding an ongoing criminal enterprise, ...Republican leadership ...has begun... by preemptively surrendering to...Obama and saying, "we'll give in because Obama threatens a veto."...I will veto any budget that doesn't fund Planned Parenthood...
KASICH...Let's ask Hillary Clinton. She believes in the systematic murder of children in the womb to preserve their body parts... in a way that maximizes their value for sale for profit. It is disgusting, ...Make him veto if that's what he wants to do...
CHRISTIE: We elected a Republican Congress to do this. And they should be doing it, and they're not. And they're giving the president a pass...
FIORINA: ...On day one in the Oval Office, I will make two phone calls, the first to my good friend to Bibi Netanyahu to reassure him we will stand with ...Israel. The second, to the supreme leader, to tell him that unless ...he opens every military...nuclear facility to real anytime, anywhere inspections by our people, not his, we,...will make it as difficult as possible...As regards Planned Parenthood,... Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, it's heart beating, it's legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain... if we will not stand up in and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us...
BUSH:..Life is a gift from God. And from beginning end we need to respect it and err on the side of life...we will restore that interpretation of Title X. And this deal will be finished...
TRUMP: .... We're talking about Iran. The agreement was terrible...One of the worst contracts ...I've ever seen...somebody better start thinking about North Korea... you have somebody right now in North Korea who has got nuclear weapons and who is saying ... I'm ready to use them...
BUSH: ...I don't believe that Planned Parenthood should get a penny from the federal government...Women's income grew three times faster than the national average when I was governor... we increased child support -- we increased child support with a broken system by 90 percent...
WALKER: ... I defunded Planned Parenthood four-and-a-half years ago, in a Blue State....so many Republicans are upset with Washington... they say why can't we pass this. Why can't we defund Planned -- (parenthood) put it in a spending bill the... Constitution doesn't call for 60 votes. Pass it with 51 votes...
TAPPER: ...Ms. Fiorina... Trump said the following about you. Quote, "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?"...Trump later said he was talking about your persona, not your appearance...
(LAUGHTER)...
TRUMP: ...I want to build a wall...that works...we have a lot of really bad dudes in this country from outside...They go, if I get elected...Gangs all over the place. Chicago, Baltimore...I will make sure...laws are adhered to. ...we have a country of laws, they're going to go out, and they'll come back if they deserve to come back. If they've had a bad record...they're never coming back....
CHRISTIE: ... for 15,000 people a day to be deported every day for two years...none of us could accomplish given the current levels of funding, and ... law enforcement officers...What we need to do is to secure our borde...We need to use electronics... drones...FBI, DEA, and ATF,... take the fingerprint of every person who comes into this country on a visa,...
TRUMP: ... Illegal immigration is costing us more than $200 billion dollars a year just to maintain what we have...
CARSON...we have an incredible illegal immigration problem...the fences that were there were not manned... those are the kind of fences when I was a kid ...would barely slow us down...Yuma County, Arizona. They stop 97 percent of the illegal immigrants... a double fence with a road so ... quick access by the enforcement people...If we don't seal the border, the rest of this stuff clearly doesn't matter...they had cut a hole in the fence, and to repair it, they put a few strands of barb wire across. Well, the photographers who were there with us... they went through there,... ICE tells them to release these people, 67,000 criminals released...on to our property, it's ridiculous...
TRUMP: ... that they come into our country as an act of love...
BUSH: ... to build a wall, and to deport people -- half a million a month -- would cost hundreds of billions of dollars...It would destroy community life, it would tear families apart...send a signal ...that the United States value...so important for our long-term success no longer matter...
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: ...we are spending $200 billion a year on maintaining what we have. We will move them out. The ... good ones will come back...
CARSON: ...people who had a pristine record, we should consider allowing them to become guest workers... they have a six-month period to do that....
CRUZ...A majority of the men and women on this stage have previously and publicly embraced amnesty. I am the only candidate on this stage who has never supported amnesty... I've been leading the fight in the Senate to triple the Border Patrol, to put in place fencings...biometric exit/entry system...
RUBIO:...we have people still coming illegally... legal immigration system that no longer works...built on the basis of whether you have a relative living here instead of merit...11 million or 12 million people, many of whom have been here for longer than a decade who are already here illegally...we must secure our border...with a wall...entry/exit tracking system. 40 percent of the people who come here illegally come legally, and then they overstay the visa...e-verify system...modernize our legal immigration system so you come to America on the basis of what you can contribute economically, not ... a relative living here....
CARSON: ...they said they cannot hire Americans to do the kind of job that I'm talking about.
... individuals who register as guest workers, they don't get to vote, they are not American citizens, and they don't get the rights and privileges of American citizens...
I talked about the success in Yuma County...Department of Justice said, "No, we don't want to do that. That's too successful."...
TRUMP:...14th Amendment says...it is wrong. It can be corrected with an act of Congress...A woman gets pregnant. She's nine months, she walks across the border, she has the baby in the United States, and we take care of the baby for 85 years. I don't think so... Mexico and almost every other country anywhere in the world doesn't have that. ...They are coming from Asia to have babies here...
FIORINA: ... Democrats don't want this issue solved...you can't just wave your hands and say "the 14th Amendment is gonna go away." It will take an extremely arduous vote in Congress, followed by two-thirds of the states, and if that doesn't work to amend the Constitution, then it is a long, arduous process in court...we've been talking about illegal immigration for 25 years. San Francisco has been a sanctuary city since 1989. There are 300 of them...what has happened? Nothing. The border remains insecure. The legal immigration system remains broken...
TRUMP: ...Democrats do not want to solve this problem...a reading of the 14th Amendment allows you to have an interpretation where this is not legal and where it can't be done...
PAUL: ...case that was decided around 1900 was, people had a green card, were here legally, and they said that their children were citizens. There's never been a direct Supreme Court case on people who were here illegally...14th Amendment says that "those who are here and under the jurisdiction." The ...author of the -- of the 14th Amendment said ... this was applying to slaves, and did not specifically apply to others...
FIORINA: I led Hewlett Packard through...the worst technology recession in 25 years. The NASDAQ stock index fell 80 percent. It took 15 years for the stock index to recover.... very strong competitors who...went out of business ... we doubled the size of the company, we quadrupled its topline growth rate, we quadrupled its cash flow, we tripled its rate of innovation...we saved 80,000 jobs, went on to grow to 160,000 jobs...now Hewlett Packard is almost 300,000 jobs. We went from lagging behind to leading in every product category ...market segment...as for the firing...When you challenge the status quo, you make enemies. I made a few. Steve Jobs told me that when he called me the day I was fired...the man that led my firing, Tom Perkins, just took --...out a full-page ad ...to say he was wrong, I was right. I was a terrific CEO, the board was dysfunctional....he thinks I will make a magnificent president...
TRUMP:...The head of the Yale Business School, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld...one of the worst tenures for a CEO that he has ever seen, ranked one of the top 20 in the history of business. The company...continues to be a disaster...today...they fired another...30,000 people saying we still haven't recovered from the catastrophe...revenues went up, that's because she bought Compaq, it was a terrible deal...led to the destruction of the company...Carly was at Lucent before that. And Lucent turned out to be a catastrophe also...
FIORINA: ...Sonnenfeld is a well-known Clintonite ... You ran up mountains of debt, as well as losses, using other people's money, and you were forced to file for bankruptcy ...four times, a record four times. ...
TRUMP: ... almost everybody in Atlantic City is either in trouble or filed for ... I did great in Atlantic City. I knew when to get out. My timing was great...
CHRISTIE:...
Let's ...stop playing...games. Stop playing...we don't want to hear about your careers...You know who's not successful? The middle class in this country who's getting plowed over by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Let's start talking about those issues...
TAPPER: Donald Trump...wants to raise the taxes of hedge fund managers, as does Governor Bush...
KASICH: I don't at this point in terms of changing the incentives for investment and risk-taking.
...I'm ... one of the few people in this country that led the effort ...last time we balanced the federal budget...We also cut taxes. And when I left Washington in 2000, we had a $5 trillion surplus, and the economy was booming. I had spent 10 years of my life to get us to that point, ...went into Ohio and took an $8 billion hole and turned it into a $2 billion surplus...We've had the largest amount of tax cuts of any sitting governor. We've grown well over 300,000 jobs. You see, I've done it in both places...
HUCKABEE: ... we ought to get rid of all the taxes on people who produce... I'm an unabashed supporter of the "fair tax,"...a tax on our consumption...
CARSON: ...people who say the guy who paid a billion dollars because he had 10, he has still got $9 billion left, that's not fair, we need to take more ...That's...socialism. That doesn't work...What made America...great...we said, that guy just put in $1 billion, let's create an environment ...even more conducive to his success so that next year he can put in $2 billion...
TRUMP: ...the flat tax...if you make $200 million a year, you pay ten percent, you're paying...little relatively to somebody... making $50,000 a year, and has to hire H&R Block... because it's so complicated... we've had a graduated tax system for many years...it's no...socialistic...I'll be putting in the plan in about two weeks...a major reduction in taxes...for the middle class. The hedge fund guys won't like me...they'll pay more...people that are making a tremendous amount of money and paying virtually no tax,...
PAUL: ...Our companies, and our jobs are being chased overseas by a 70,000 page tax code... I've chosen to get rid of the whole thing, and have one single rate, 14 and a-half percent for everybody, business...corporate income...personal income... get rid of the payroll tax... flat tax, eliminating the tax code, getting rid of all the loopholes, is the way to go...
WALKER: So, the best way to help... wages go up is to get them the education, the skill they need...careers that pay more than minimum...I've cut income taxes, I've cut property taxes...property taxes are lower today in my state than they were before we took office...our plan is based on the Ronald Reagan tax cuts of 1986. That brought about one of the longest sustained periods of economic growth in American history...helping people get the skills and the education qualifications they need to succeed. That's the way you help people create jobs...
WALKER: ...That will ensure they repeal Obamacare...
CARSON: ... what I actually said about raising the minimum wage...I said, probably, or possibly. ... Negotiate a reasonable minimum wage, and index that so that we never have to have this conversation again...we ...have to have two minimum wages, a starter, and a sustaining...
WALKER: ...Hillary Clinton talks about the minimum wage...The answer is to give people the skills and the education so they make far more than minimum...
KASICH: ... I want to spend my time talking about my experience reforming welfare, balancing budgets, cutting taxes, providing economic growth when I was in Washington, turning Ohio around... when I won for election of governor, I was the first Republican to defeat an incumbent in 36 years,...
FIORINA: ... Mrs. Clinton has to defend her track record...Her track record of lying about Benghazi...e- mails...servers....
CHRISTIE: ...who is going to prosecute Hillary Clinton?...The Obama White House...Justice Department seems to have no interest....put a former federal prosecutor on the same stage as Hillary Clinton...she had a private email server in her basement, using national security secrets running through it, could have been hacked by the Russians, the Chinese, or two 18-year-olds...wanting to have some fun...
RUBIO: ... a lunatic in North Korea with...nuclear weapons and long-range rocket that can...hit the very place in which we stand tonight... Chinese are...expanding their military...hack into our computers. They're building...islands in the ...most important shipping lane in the world..A gangster in Moscow is... threatening Europe...threatening to destroy and divide NATO...radical jihadists in dozens of countries ...they even recruit Americans...this horrible deal with Iran...guaranteed to one day possess nuclear weapons and...a long-range rocket that can hit the United States...We are eviscerating our military...a president...more respectful to the ayatollah...than he is to...Israel...
RUBIO: ...the federal government does all kinds of things it's not supposed to be doing. It regulates bathrooms. It regulates schools that belong to local communities...the one thing that only the federal government can do is keep us safe...
TRUMP: ...I am not sitting in the United States Senate with...the worst voting record there is today...I'm a businessman doing business transactions...
RUBIO: ...You have millions... living paycheck to paycheck...We are about to leave our children with $18 trillion in... debt...they're about to raise the debt limit... we are eviscerating our military spending and signing deals with Iran...That's why I'm missing votes...
BUSH: ...I'm going to create a strategy that is based on the simple fact that the United States needs to lead the world. ... we need to ... stop the craziness of the sequester. Rebuild our military so...we don't deploy people over and over again without the necessary equipment to keep them safe... If we're going to lead the world, then we need to have the strongest military possible...We need to rebuild... counterintelligence...intelligence...we need to restore America's...leadership in the world. Name a country where our relationship is bette... than it was the ...day ...Obama got elected... I'll have a team that will be -- that will be following the doctrine I set up, and it will be peace through strength...
TRUMP: ...I am the only person on this dais... that fought very, very hard against us (ph),...I'm a very militaristic person, but you have to know when to use the military...I didn't want to go into Iraq, and I fought it, because what I said : ... was you're going to -- you're going to destabilize... the Middle East...
BUSH:...Trump... what was his position on who would've been the best negotiator to deal with Iran?... it was Hillary Clinton. ...
TRUMP: Your ...brother's administration gave us... Obama, because it was such a disaster, those last three months, that Abraham Lincoln couldn't have been elected.
BUSH: ... He kept us safe.
BUSH: ... He sent a clear signal that the United States would be strong and fight Islamic terrorism...
TRUMP:... I don't feel so safe...
WALKER:: ... We've had a president who called ISIS the J.V. squad, Yemen a success story, Iran a place we can do business with...
PAUL: ... I've made my career as being an opponent of the Iraq War. I was opposed to the Syria war. I was opposed to arming people who are our enemies. Iran is now stronger because Hussein is gone. ...the Iraq War made it worse...Governor Bush was asked, was the Iraq War a mistake, and he said, "No. We'd do it again."...We have make the decision now in Syria, should we topple Assad? ... I said no, because if you do...ISIS will now be in charge of Syria...
BUSH: ...When we -- we pull back, voids are created. We left Iraq. We should've...stay there with a small force...now we have ...ISIS...36 days ago... I gave a speech ...how to take out ISIS... we can create a force that will take out ISIS both in Iraq and in Syria...
RUBIO: ...the belief that somehow by retreating, America makes the world safer has been disproven ...uprising in Syria was...started by the ...Syrian people...I openly and repeatedly warned that if we did not find moderate elements on the ground that we could...arm, that void would be filled by radical jihadists... the president didn't listen...ISIS grew...ISIS then came over the border from Syria and back into Iraq. What is happening ...is the direct consequence of ...disengagement... the more we disengage, the more airplanes from Moscow...flying out of ... Syria...
CARSON: ...in 2003, I suggested to President Bush that he not go to war...people are...against us getting involved ...with global jihadism...they refer back to our invasion of Iraq...they ...think that that was what caused it. What caused it was withdrawing...creating a vacuum...We either allow them the continue to progress...or we use every resource available to us to destroy...
CHRISTIE: ... I support what President Bush did at that time, going into Afghanistan, hunting al Qaeda...making it as difficult around the world for them to move people and money...
CARSON: ...Declare that within five to 10 years we will become petroleum independent. The moderate Arab states would have been so concerned about that, they would have turned over ... Laden... on a silver platter within two weeks ... these problems... in ... the international situation...because we are weak....our Navy is so small....our Air Force is incapable of doing ...things that it did a few years ago... Marines Corps is not ready to be deployed.
RUBIO: But radical terrorism ...what they need, is ...operating space. That's what Afghanistan was for Al Qaida. It was a vacuum that they filled...why ISIS has grown ... we allowed a vacuum to emerge in Syria. They used it as an operating space to grow...They're now in Afghanistan, trying to supplant the Taliban as the most powerful radical jihadist group ... there, as well. You cannot allow ... jihadists to have ...safe haven...
HUCKABEE: new report that 50 different intelligence analysts have said that what they sent up the ladder was doctored...so that they could give some happy talk to the situation... if you don't have good intelligence...you cannot make good decisions...
TALKER:...Senator...Graham argued that candidates are only serious about fighting ISIS if they're willing to send 10,000 U.S. troops to Iraq, 10,000 U.S. troops... to Syria...
WALKER: ...Obama's administration has put political restrictions on the military personnel already in Iraq. We need to lift those and then we need to listen to our military experts...about how many more we sent in. ...we ...shouldn't have a ...chief who sends a message to our adversaries as to how far we're going to go...how far we're willing to fight... lift the political restrictions...empower our military personnel already there to work with the Kurd and the Sunni allies...in a way that allows that ISIS doesn't go back in Syria...if I'm commander-in-chief, I will only send you into harm's way when our national security is at risk...
PAUL: If you want boots on the ground...you got 14 other choices....the first war was a mistake. ...The Kurds deserve to be armed and I'll arm them. We can use our Air Force to amplify the forces there....Saudi Arabians ...funded the arms that went to the jihadists...not accepting any of the ...migrants... pushed out of Syria...Why... fight their wars for them?...we need to defend American interests...
KASICH: I called for boots on the ground many months ago ...you win the bigger war with the battle of ideas. You wonder why young...educated...rich...schooled people, have tried to join ISIS.
...our faith in the Jewish and Christian principals force us to live a life bigger than ourselves...
FIONNA: ......we need about 50 Army brigades... 36 Marine battalions... 300, and 350 naval ships, ...upgrade ...nuclear triad...we need to care for our veterans so 307,000 ...aren't dying waiting for health care.
BUSH: ... We need to make sure that we have justices...with a proven experienced record of respect for upholding the constitution... history in recent past is appoint people that have no experience so that you can't get attacked...John Roberts ...did not have a proven, extensive record ...I'm willing to fight for those nominees...
CRUZ: ...John Roberts...he's amazingly talented lawyer...it was a mistake when he was appointed to the Supreme Court...he knows in these Obamacare cases he changed the statute, he changed the law...to force that failed law on millions of Americans...in 1990...Souter...Jones, the rock ribbed (ph) conservative...George Herbert Walker Bush appointed... Souter... 2005...Roberts...Luttig, the rock ribbed (ph) conservative...George W. Bush appointed...Roberts, ...If...Bush had appointed...Jones, and... Luttig...Obamacare would have been struck down... the marriage laws of all 50 states would be on the books...
BUSH: ...John Roberts. He supported him...Ted, but the simple fact is that you supported him ...what we need to do is to have someone that has a long standing set of rulings that ...makes it clear that he is a focused...on upholding the Constitution of the United States so they won't...use the bench as a means to ... legislate...
CRUZ:...It wasn't that the...Bushes wanted to appoint a liberal...it was the easier choice. ...Souter and ...Roberts,...didn't have a ... paper trail. If you had nominated...Jones or... Ludig...you would have had a... fight and they weren't willing to spend political capital to put a...udicial conservative on the court...if I'm elected president, every...Supreme Court justice will...follow the law and...not act like philosopher kings ... imposing their liberal policies on millions of Americans --
HUCKABEE: ...I'm tired of liberals always having a litmus test and conservatives are supposed to pretend we don't...I'd ask do you think that the unborn child is a human being...do you believe... that religious liberty is the fundamental liberty around which all the other freedoms...are based? ...do you... believe...that we have an individual right to bear arms...do you believe in the Fifth and the 14th Amendment? Do you believe that a person, before they're deprived of life and liberty, should in fact have due process ...?...
HUCKABEE: ...I'd make darn sure that we... believe the 10th Amendment....our biggest fight ...half the time...was with the federal government who apparently never understood ... that if it's not reserved in the Constitution, then the 10th Amendment says it's left to the states...
PAUL: ...the people going to -- to jail for this are poor people, often African-Americans and often Hispanics, and yet the rich kids who use drugs aren't...I would like to see more rehabilitation and less incarceration.... I think the federal government has gone too far, I think that the war on drugs has had a racial outcome,...damaged our inner cities...we damage them again by incarcerating them and then preventing them from getting employment...So I don't think that the federal government should override the states. I believe in the 10th Amendment...
BUSH: ...We have -- we have a serious epidemic of drugs that goes way beyond marijuana...we're the state that has the most drug courts across every circuit in -- in -- in Florida, there are drug courts to give people a second chance...
PAUL: ...Governor Bush campaigned against medical marijuana. That means that...Morgan Hintz ...is not allowed to use cannabis oil.
BUSH: ...No, I did not oppose when the legislature passed the bill to deal with that very issue...Medical marijuana...there was a huge loophole... as a citizen of Florida, I voted no...
CHRISTIE:...New Jersey is the first state in the nation that now says if you are non-violent, non-dealing drug user, that you don't go to jail...You go to mandatory treatment...That doesn't mean we should be legalizing gate way drugs.... look at the decrease in productivity, look at the way people...move on to other drugs when they use marijuana as a gateway drug...
PAUL: ... they aren't really believing in the Tenth Amendment...if you're breaking any federal law on marijuana, even though the state law allows it, he would put you in jail....we were never intended to have crime dealing at the federal level. Crime was supposed to be left to the states. ...
CHRISTIE: ...In New Jersey, we have medical marijuana laws, which I supported ...This is recreational use of marijuana. This is much different...I'm not against medical marijuana... I'm against the recreational use against marijuana...
FIORINA: ...we are misleading young people when we tell them that marijuana is just like having a beer.... the marijuana that kids are smoking today is not the same as the marijuana that Jeb...smoked 40 years ago...we do need criminal justice reform. We have the highest incarceration rates in the world. Two-thirds of the people in our prisons are there for non-violent offenses, mostly drug related...
BUSH: Not very far...I think we need to do this state by state....you're going to take away rights of -- of law-abiding citizens, the 99.999 percent of the people... We have concealed-weapon permit holders...1,200,000 ...we put people behind bars when they use a gun...
RUBIO: ... you can pass all the gun laws in the world, like the left wants. The criminals are going to ignore it...You can't have a strong country without ... the institutions in this country that defend and support those families.
RUBIO:...we have a left-wing government under this president that is undermining all of the institutions and society that support... family...values.
CRUZ:...when...Reid and...Obama came after the right to keep and bear arms ... I was proud to lead the fight... to protect our right to keep and bear arms,...
CHRISTIE:...71 percent of all federal spending is on entitlements and debt service. When John Kennedy was elected president in 1960, it was 26 percent. Harvard and Dartmouth says that Social Security's going to go insolvent in seven to eight years...We need to be not paying out benefits to people who don't really need it...
RUBIO: ...we are not going to destroy our economy. We are not going to make America a harder place to create jobs in order to pursue policies that will do absolutely nothing, nothing to change our climate...America is not a planet.... we are not even the largest carbon producer anymore, China is. And they're drilling a hole and digging anywhere in the world that they can get a hold of...
CHRISTIE: ...we don't need this massive government intervention...We have already reached our clean air goals for 2020...53 percent of our electricity comes from nuclear. We use natural gas...We're the third-highest- using solar power state. You know why? ...we made all of those things economically feasible...We shouldn't be destroying our economy in order to chase some wild left-wing idea that somehow us by ourselves is going to fix the climate...Nuclear needs to be back on the table in a significant way in this country if we want to go after this problem...
RUBIO: ...They will not do a thing to lower the rise of the sea... cure the drought... they will make America a more expensive place to create jobs...
CARSON: ... they have not demonstrated that there is any correlation between vaccinations and autism... we have 4.1 million federal employees. Six hundred and fifty federal agencies and department...
TRUMP: Autism has become an epidemic. ...I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time. ...I'm in favor of vaccines, do them over a longer period of time, same amount...
PAUL: ...I'm all for vaccines. But I'm also for freedom. I'm also a little concerned about how they're bunched up....
HUCKABEE:...I remember the polio vaccine. We saved billions of dollars since that time, because we haven't had to treat for polio...Alzheimer's, a disease alone that will cost us...$1.1 trillion by the year 2050....
TAPPER: ...What woman would you like to see on the $10 bill?
PAUL: ...Susan B. Anthony ...
HUCKABEE:... my wife...
RUBIO: ...Rosa Parks...
CRUZ: ... I'd take Jackson off and I'd leave Alexander Hamilton right where he is... I very much agree with Marco that it should be Rosa Parks. ...
CARSON: ... my mother...
TRUMP: ...my daughter, Ivanka... Other than that we'll go with Rosa Parks. I like that...
BUSH:...Margaret Thatcher...illegal, but what the heck?
...WALKER: ...Clara Barton...
FIORINA: I wouldn't change the $10 bill, or the $20 bill...
KASICH: ...Mother Theresa...
CHRISTIE:...Abigal Adams...
TAPPER: ...the United States Secret Service uses codenames for the president...what would you want...your Secret Service codename to be...
CHRISTIE: ...True Heart.
KASICH:...I have one now..."Unit One".
WALKER: Harley. I love riding Harley's.
BUSH: Ever Ready, it's very high energy, Donald.
TRUMP: Humble.
CARSON: One Nation.
CRUZ: ...I might go with Cohiba ...I'd go with, for Heidi, Angel...
RUBIO: ... Gator.
HUCKABEE: ...Duck Hunter...
PAUL: Justice Never Sleeps...
PAUL: ...I'm a Reagan Conservative...peace through strength... our goal is peace,...war is the last resort...we go to war in a constitutional way...when we go to war, we don't fight with one arm tied behind our back...
HUCKABEE: ... we would have the most incredible well-trained, well-equipped, well- prepared military in the history of mankind... the...chief would never send them to a mission without all the resources necessary...a tax system that eliminated the IRS. People wouldn't be punished for their work...Abortion would be no more...
RUBIO: One of the things that made Ronald Reagan a great president, is that he understood that America was a unique nation... He knew it was founded on...the dignity of all people, human rights, the rights of all to live in freedom and liberty, and choose their own path in life....bringing down communism was so important to him. If I'm honored with the opportunity to be president, I hope that our Air Force One will fly...to our allies; in Israel, in South Korea, and Japan...It would also fly to China... to meet with those that aspire to freedom... within China....also fly into Moscow and into Russia. ...meet with those who aspire to freedom ...in Russia. ... I hope that my Air Force One... will one day land in a free Cuba...
CRUZ:...If I'm elected president...the bust of Winston Churchill will be back in the Oval Office...the American embassy in Israel will be in Jerusalem.... ISIS will be defeated. ...Khamenei will understand that he will never...acquire nuclear weapons...Young people ...will find ... two, three, four, five job opportunities...How will that happen? Through tax reform. We'll pass a simple flat tax and abolish the IRS...we will repeal every word of Obamacare...We'll kill the terrorists, we'll repeal Obamacare, and we will defend the Constitution...
CARSON: ...I was a radical Democrat before I started listening to Ronald Reagan...He sounded logical....I see people exercising the most irresponsible fiscal habits that anyone could possibly do. And hiding it ... so that the...have no idea what our financial situation is...Reagan was a master at understanding that a pinnacle nation has to be a nation that leads...
TRUMP: ... We will make this country greater than ever before. We'll have more jobs...more of everything... the world will respect us...it will be actually a friendlier world...
BUSH: Six million more people are living in poverty than the day that Barack Obama got elected ... middle class has had declining income, workforce participation rates are lower than they were in 1977...For the first time in modern history, more businesses are failing than are being created. ...we can reverse course by creating a strategy of high sustained economic growth...4 percent growth strategy...reform how we tax, fix the broken regulatory system, embrace the energy revolution ...fix the immigration system...deal with the structural fiscal problems that exist ... entitlement problems that will overwhelm...create way too much debt...
WALKER: ... We need to live in a world where our children are free...from the threats of radical Islamic terrorism...where everyone can live their piece of the American dream...send powers back to the states and back to the people...We took on the big government union bosses...special interests...
FIORINA: I... Lady Liberty... Lady Justice... all of us are equal in the eyes of God...all of us must be equal in the eyes of the law and the government,...it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter how you start, it doesn't matter your circumstances...every American's life must be filled with...possibilities that come from...God-given gifts...
KASICH: ... having the elected officials and the leaders realize they're Americans before they're Republicans or Democrats... freedom and for human rights...America was never great because we ran America from the top down. America is great because we have run America from the bottom up, where we all live in the neighborhoods...."If you've saved one life, you've changed the world."
CHRISTIE: I turned 18 in 1980, and my first vote was for Ronald Reagan. Boy, am I glad I did it. ...enforcing the law, level the playing field for everybody...reward those folks who play by the rules...I will not ... to anything with a country that says death to us and death to Israel and holds our hostages while we sign agreements with them...
(APPLAUSE)
TAPPER: That concludes this Republican presidential debate...
Condensed Transcript of September 2016 GOP Presidential Debate
...By Washington Post September 16 at 11:37 PM
...CNN Republican presidential debate...Sept. 16, 2015...
PAUL: Good evening, everyone. I'm an eye surgeon from Bowling Green, Kentucky. My wife, Kelly, and I have been married for nearly 25 years, and I spend my days defending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights...
HUCKABEE: I'm Mike Huckabee...
RUBIO:... My name is Marco Rubio. I'm from Florida. My wife Jeanette and I are the proud -- we've been married 17 years, and we're the proud parents of four children...
CRUZ: I'm Ted Cruz. I am the son of an Irish-Italian mom and a Cuban immigrant dad who fled oppression and came to America seeking freedom. I'm a husband to my best friend, Heidi, who's here tonight. I'm a dad to two little girls who are the loves of my life, Caroline and Catherine...
CARSON: Hi, I'm Ben Carson, and I'm a retired pediatric neurosurgeon. I'm here with my wife, Candy, of 40 years, and two of my sons, and their wives...
TRUMP: I'm Donald Trump. I wrote "The Art of the Deal". I say not in a braggadocious way, I've made billions and billions of dollars dealing with people all over the world...
BUSH: I'm Jeb Bush, and I believe America's on the verge of its greatest century, and I'm ready to lead. I'm a committed, conservative reformer that cut taxes, that balanced budgets, that took on the special interest in Florida, and we won.
WALKER: Good evening, I'm Scott Walker...the greatest president was a governor from California. Ronald Reagan...
FIORINA...from secretary to CEO, is only possible in this nation...My husband, Frank, of 30 years, started out driving a tow truck for a family owned auto body shop....
(APPLAUSE)
KASICH: Hello, I'm John Kasich, the Governor of Ohio. Emma, and Reese, my children, and Karen, love 'ya girls...
(APPLAUSE)
CHRISTIE: Hi, my name is Chris Christie...
(APPLAUSE)...
TAPPER: ...Would you feel comfortable with Donald trump's finger on the nuclear codes?
FIORINA: ...
TAPPER: You didn't answer my question...
FIORINA: That's not for me to answer; it is for the voters of this country to answer, and I have a lot of faith in the ...good judgment of the voters...
TRUMP: Well, first of all, Rand Paul shouldn't even be on this stage... I think I have a great temperament. I built...one of the really truly great real-estate businesses.
...'ve had tremendous success with number-one bestsellers...with "The Apprentice" ...
...I am...a businessman, and that's the kind of mindset this country needs to bring it back, because we owe $19 trillion right now...you need this kind of thinking to bring our country back.
...y temperament is very good, very calm. But we will be respected...We are not respected...
PAUL: ...He was asked whether or not he would be capable ...there's a sideways attack at me.
...Do we want someone with that kind of character, that kind of careless language to be negotiating with Putin?...with Iran?
...I'm very concerned about him...in charge of the nuclear weapons...his visceral response to attack people on their appearance -- short, tall, fat, ugly -- ...that happened in junior high. Are we not way above that? Would we not all be worried to have someone like that in charge of the nuclear arsenal?...
...TRUMP: I've actually been in politics all my life, although I've been on that side as opposed to this side...Everything I've done virtually has been a tremendous success...
TAPPER: Governor Bush, would you feel comfortable with Donald Trump's finger on the nuclear codes?
BUSH: I think the voters will make that determination.
...This administration...has created insecurity ...There's not a place in the world where we're better off today than six and a half years ago...
You can't ... insult leaders ... expect a good result...
...He told us all the things we wanted to hear back in 2008. We don't know who you are or where you're going. We need someone who can actually get the job done.
...TRUMP: In Wisconsin, you're losing $2.2 billion right now.
WALKER You're using the talking...We balanced a budget... the politicians in Washington right now...think we can take a country into bankruptcy...They think we can take a country into bankruptcy.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: ...I used the law four times...when the folks of Iowa found out the true facts of the job that you've done in Wisconsin...he was No. 1 and now he's No. 6 or seven... you were supposed to make a billion dollars in the state. You lost 2.2 -- you have right now, a huge budget deficit. That's not a Democratic point. That's a point. That's a fact. And when the people of Iowa found that out, I went to No. 1 and you went down the tubes...
WALKER: ...
We balanced a $3.6 billion budget deficit, we did it by cutting taxes -- $4.7 billion to help working families, family farmers, small business owners and senior citizens...
KASICH:...people at home want to know...what we're going to do to...balance a budget, how we're going to create more economic growth...pay down the debt...strengthen the military...
(LAUGHTER)
...I veto 400 bills from a crazy liberal Democratic legislature, not one of them has been overridden. I've vetoed more tax increases than any governor in American history, according to Americans for Tax Reform...
CARSON: Typically, politicians do things that are politically expedient...I'm extraordinary concerned about the direction of this country, the divisiveness that is going on, fiscal irresponsibility, the failure to take a leadership position in the world...
FIORINA... 75 percent of the American people think the government is corrupt; 82 percent of the American people think these problems that have festered for 50 years in some cases, 25 years in other cases. The border's been insecure for 25 years; 307,000 veterans have died waiting for health care...
TAPPER: ... Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that the $100 million you've raised for your campaign makes you a puppet for your donors...
BUSH: No...People are supporting me because I have a...record of conservative leadership ... I cut taxes $19 billion over eight years....we created a climate that led the nation in job growth seven out of eight years. We were one of two states to go to AAA bond rating...The one guy that had some special interests that ...tried to get me to change my views...was generous...was Donald Trump. He wanted casino gambling in Florida --...
BUSH: You wanted it and you didn't get it because I was opposed to --...
TRUMP: ... lot of money was raised by ...people that are standing up here...donors, the special interests, the lobbyists have very strong power over these people...
TRUMP: I didn't want -- it was my obligation as a businessman to my family, to my company, to my employees, to get along with all politicians. I get along with all of them...
CARSON: ...
I in no way am willing to get in the bed with special interest group or lick the boots of billionaires. ... we now have over 500,000 donations...
TAPPER:...Russia is sending troops and tanks into Syria right now to prop up...U.S. enemy, ...al-Assad. ...Obama's incoming top general says..."Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security."
...Mr. Trump..." What would you do right now if you were president, to get the Russians out of Syria?
TRUMP: ...they have to respect you. He has absolutely no respect for President Obama. Zero.
... we're fighting ISIS. ISIS wants to fight Syria. Why are we fighting ISIS in Syria? Let them fight each other and pick up the remnants.
...We don't get along with anybody... they rip us left and right. They take advantage of us economically and every other way...
RUBIO: ...He wants to reposition Russia, once again, as a geopolitical force.
He ...said that the ...fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century...he's trying to reverse that.
...He's trying to destroy NATO...exploiting a vacuum that this administration has left in the Middle East.
...Russians will begin to fly -- fly combat missions in that region, not just targeting ISIS, but in order to prop up Assad.
...He will ... say, "America is no longer a reliable ally, Egypt. America is no longer a reliable ally, Saudi Arabia. Begin to rely on us."
...he is trying to replace us as the single most important power broker in the Middle East,...this president is allowing it. ...
FIORINA:...What I would do...begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet...missile defense program in Poland, ...regular, aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states... send a few thousand more troops into Germany...General Suleimani...the head of the Quds force traveled to Russia and talked Vladimir Putin into aligning...with Iran and Syria to prop up Bashar al- Assad.
... Putin...the only way he will stop is to sense strength and resolve on the other side...We could also, to Senator Rubio's point, give the Egyptians what they've asked for, which is intelligence.
...I will. We could arm the Kurds. They've been asking us for three years...
TAPPER:...Senator Cruz,...Kasich says that anyone who is promising to rip up the Iran deal...is..."inexperienced...playing to a crowd." ...
CRUZ: ...the single biggest...threat facing America...is...nuclear Iran. six and a half years of President Obama...Weakness is provocative... Iranian nuclear deal is ...catastrophic...$100 billion to the Ayatollah Khamenei, making ...Obama ... the world's leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism...This deal abandons four American hostages in Iran,...only accelerate Iran's acquiring nuclear weapons...President Obama wants to...use the United Nations to bind the United States, and take away our sovereignty...I ...took on the world court of the United Nations in a case called Medellin v. Texas, and we won a historic victory saying the World Court...has no power to bind the United States, and no President...has the authority to give away our sovereignty...if there's anyone up here who would be bound by this catastrophic deal with Iran, they're giving up the core responsibility of commander in chief...
KASICH: ...it's a bad agreement...if they cheat, we slap the sanctions back on. If they help Hamas, and Hezbollah, we slap the sanctions back on. And, if we find out that they may be developing a nuclear weapon, than the military option is on the table...
TAPPER: ... Senator Paul.
TRUMP(?): ...Slow (ph) and steady, (inaudible) chicken...
TAPPER: ...Governor Walker says that President Obama should cancel the state dinner because of China's currency manipulation...alleged cyber attacks against the United States...
PAUL: ...Fiorina also said we're not going to talk with Putin....We continued to talk with the Russians throughout the Cold War... Should we cut up the agreement immediately? That's absurd. Wouldn't you want to know if they complied? ...it doesn't mean that I would ...cut it up without looking to see if whether or not Iran has complied...
WALKER: ...why would we be giving an official state visit to a country that's been involved in a massive cyber attack against the United States...21 gun salute ...I was one of the first ones to call for terminating the bad deal with Iran... the President who called ISIS the JV squad said I needed to bone up... Obama folds on everything with Iran...
BUSH: ...We should use offensive tactics as it relates to cyber security...There should be super sanctions in what President Obama has proposed. There's many other tools that we have without canceling a dinner. That's not going to change anything, but we can be much stronger as it relates to that...we need to do is to establish our commitment to Israel...make sure that they have the most sophisticated weapons to send a signal to Iran ...
HUCKABEE: ...This is really about the survival of Western civilization. This is not just a little conflict with a Middle Eastern country that we've just now given over $100 billion to, the equivalent in U.S. terms is $5 trillion.
...This is a government for 36 years has killed...kidnapped Americans...sponsored terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah...
...we must,...make it very clear that the next president...will absolutely not honor that agreement, ...
HEWITT: ... Obama drew a red line that ...Assad crossed...Obama threatened to strike. He did not, ...We now have 4 million refugees, Syria is a living hell...what would you have done when Bashar Assad crossed the line?
TRUMP: I wouldn't have drawn the line, but once he drew it, he had no choice... Had he...gone in with force, done something to Assad ...you wouldn't have millions of people displaced all over the world...
RUBIO: ... we have zero responsibility...He said the attack he would conduct would be a pinprick. ...If the United States military is going to be engaged...t should only be engaged in an endeavor to win...we're not going to authorize use of force if you're not put in a position where they can win...
HEWITT: Senator Paul?
PAUL: ...Had we bombed Assad at the time, like President Obama...Clinton wanted and many Republicans wanted...ISIS would be... in charge of Syria had we bombed Assad. Sometimes both sides of the civil war are evil, ...intervention...makes us less safe...Every time we have toppled a secular dictator, we have gotten chaos... radical Islam, and we're more at risk. So, I think we need to... know most interventions...have actually backfired on us...
RUBIO: ... ...No. 1 test for use of military force should be the vital national security interest of the United States. ... I opposed President Obama bombing Syria... he couldn't answer the question what do you do if chemical weapons end up in the hands of radical Islamic terrorists like al-Nusra, like Al Qaida, like ISIS?...Anyone who is paying attention to what Khamenei says knows that they will not comply...
RUBIO: In the middle of negotiating this treaty, Khamenei led the assembled masses in chanting, death to America...
(LAUGHTER)
... if you elect me as president, under no circumstances will a theocratic ayatollah who chants death to America ever be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon...
KASICH: ...we operate better in the world when our allies work with us...nobody's trusting Iran. They violate the deal, we put on the sanctions, and we have the high moral ground to talk to our allies in Europe...If they don't go with us, we slap the sanctions on anyway. If they fund these radical groups that threaten Israel and all of the West, then we ... put the sanctions back on... if we think...they're getting close to a -- to developing a nuclear weapon...I would do everything in my power...to stop them...
CRUZ: ... I've listened to several folks saying, "Well, gosh, if they cheat, we'll act."... there are several facilities in Iran they designate as military facilities that are off limit all together...other facilities, we give them 24 days notice before inspecting ...designed to allow them to hide the evidence...this agreement trusts the Iranians to inspect themselves...
HUCKABEE:...the Kentucky constitution that 75 percent of the people of that state had voted for ...said that marriage was between a man and a woman. The Supreme Court ... decided...they were just going to redefine marriage...there wasn't a constitutional shred of capacity for them to do it...courts cannot legislate...The courts can't make a law. They can interpret one. They can review one...They can't force it... we have separation of powers, and we have checks and balances... we have what Jefferson said was judicial tyranny...We made accommodation to the Fort Hood shooter to let him grow a beard.... to the detainees at Gitmo ...
BUSH: I think there needs to be accommodation for someone acting on faith. Religious conscience ...our Bill of Rights... you can't just say, "well, they -- gays can't get married now."
... there should be some accommodation for her conscience... florists that don't want to participate in weddings, or bakers...accommodations for people so that we can solve the problem in the right way... at the local level...
CHRISTIE: She is, and so if she, based on conscience, can't sign that ... marriage license...there should be someone in her office to be able to do it...
KASICH:... we should defund Planned Parenthood...in my state, we're trying to figure out how to get it done, because we are threatened with the federal government taking all of our Medicaid money away... giving governors the ability to be able to act to defund Planned Parenthood...all we're gonna do is shut the government down, and then we're gonna open up -- open it up, and the American people are gonna...say, "what's...with these Republicans?"... I was in the Congress for 18 years, balanced the budget, cut taxes...Changed welfare, went around the president to get welfare reform done...
CRUZ: ...These Planned Parenthood videos are horrifying...Planned Parenthood officials callously,...bartering and selling...body parts of human beings... Planned Parenthood...essentially confesses to multiple felonies. It is a felony with ten years' jail term to sell the body parts of unborn children...we shouldn't be sending $500 million... funding an ongoing criminal enterprise, ...Republican leadership ...has begun... by preemptively surrendering to...Obama and saying, "we'll give in because Obama threatens a veto."...I will veto any budget that doesn't fund Planned Parenthood...
KASICH...Let's ask Hillary Clinton. She believes in the systematic murder of children in the womb to preserve their body parts... in a way that maximizes their value for sale for profit. It is disgusting, ...Make him veto if that's what he wants to do...
CHRISTIE: We elected a Republican Congress to do this. And they should be doing it, and they're not. And they're giving the president a pass...
FIORINA: ...On day one in the Oval Office, I will make two phone calls, the first to my good friend to Bibi Netanyahu to reassure him we will stand with ...Israel. The second, to the supreme leader, to tell him that unless ...he opens every military...nuclear facility to real anytime, anywhere inspections by our people, not his, we,...will make it as difficult as possible...As regards Planned Parenthood,... Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, it's heart beating, it's legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain... if we will not stand up in and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us...
BUSH:..Life is a gift from God. And from beginning end we need to respect it and err on the side of life...we will restore that interpretation of Title X. And this deal will be finished...
TRUMP: .... We're talking about Iran. The agreement was terrible...One of the worst contracts ...I've ever seen...somebody better start thinking about North Korea... you have somebody right now in North Korea who has got nuclear weapons and who is saying ... I'm ready to use them...
BUSH: ...I don't believe that Planned Parenthood should get a penny from the federal government...Women's income grew three times faster than the national average when I was governor... we increased child support -- we increased child support with a broken system by 90 percent...
WALKER: ... I defunded Planned Parenthood four-and-a-half years ago, in a Blue State....so many Republicans are upset with Washington... they say why can't we pass this. Why can't we defund Planned -- (parenthood) put it in a spending bill the... Constitution doesn't call for 60 votes. Pass it with 51 votes...
TAPPER: ...Ms. Fiorina... Trump said the following about you. Quote, "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?"...Trump later said he was talking about your persona, not your appearance...
(LAUGHTER)...
TRUMP: ...I want to build a wall...that works...we have a lot of really bad dudes in this country from outside...They go, if I get elected...Gangs all over the place. Chicago, Baltimore...I will make sure...laws are adhered to. ...we have a country of laws, they're going to go out, and they'll come back if they deserve to come back. If they've had a bad record...they're never coming back....
CHRISTIE: ... for 15,000 people a day to be deported every day for two years...none of us could accomplish given the current levels of funding, and ... law enforcement officers...What we need to do is to secure our borde...We need to use electronics... drones...FBI, DEA, and ATF,... take the fingerprint of every person who comes into this country on a visa,...
TRUMP: ... Illegal immigration is costing us more than $200 billion dollars a year just to maintain what we have...
CARSON...we have an incredible illegal immigration problem...the fences that were there were not manned... those are the kind of fences when I was a kid ...would barely slow us down...Yuma County, Arizona. They stop 97 percent of the illegal immigrants... a double fence with a road so ... quick access by the enforcement people...If we don't seal the border, the rest of this stuff clearly doesn't matter...they had cut a hole in the fence, and to repair it, they put a few strands of barb wire across. Well, the photographers who were there with us... they went through there,... ICE tells them to release these people, 67,000 criminals released...on to our property, it's ridiculous...
TRUMP: ... that they come into our country as an act of love...
BUSH: ... to build a wall, and to deport people -- half a million a month -- would cost hundreds of billions of dollars...It would destroy community life, it would tear families apart...send a signal ...that the United States value...so important for our long-term success no longer matter...
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: ...we are spending $200 billion a year on maintaining what we have. We will move them out. The ... good ones will come back...
CARSON: ...people who had a pristine record, we should consider allowing them to become guest workers... they have a six-month period to do that....
CRUZ...A majority of the men and women on this stage have previously and publicly embraced amnesty. I am the only candidate on this stage who has never supported amnesty... I've been leading the fight in the Senate to triple the Border Patrol, to put in place fencings...biometric exit/entry system...
RUBIO:...we have people still coming illegally... legal immigration system that no longer works...built on the basis of whether you have a relative living here instead of merit...11 million or 12 million people, many of whom have been here for longer than a decade who are already here illegally...we must secure our border...with a wall...entry/exit tracking system. 40 percent of the people who come here illegally come legally, and then they overstay the visa...e-verify system...modernize our legal immigration system so you come to America on the basis of what you can contribute economically, not ... a relative living here....
CARSON: ...they said they cannot hire Americans to do the kind of job that I'm talking about.
... individuals who register as guest workers, they don't get to vote, they are not American citizens, and they don't get the rights and privileges of American citizens...
I talked about the success in Yuma County...Department of Justice said, "No, we don't want to do that. That's too successful."...
TRUMP:...14th Amendment says...it is wrong. It can be corrected with an act of Congress...A woman gets pregnant. She's nine months, she walks across the border, she has the baby in the United States, and we take care of the baby for 85 years. I don't think so... Mexico and almost every other country anywhere in the world doesn't have that. ...They are coming from Asia to have babies here...
FIORINA: ... Democrats don't want this issue solved...you can't just wave your hands and say "the 14th Amendment is gonna go away." It will take an extremely arduous vote in Congress, followed by two-thirds of the states, and if that doesn't work to amend the Constitution, then it is a long, arduous process in court...we've been talking about illegal immigration for 25 years. San Francisco has been a sanctuary city since 1989. There are 300 of them...what has happened? Nothing. The border remains insecure. The legal immigration system remains broken...
TRUMP: ...Democrats do not want to solve this problem...a reading of the 14th Amendment allows you to have an interpretation where this is not legal and where it can't be done...
PAUL: ...case that was decided around 1900 was, people had a green card, were here legally, and they said that their children were citizens. There's never been a direct Supreme Court case on people who were here illegally...14th Amendment says that "those who are here and under the jurisdiction." The ...author of the -- of the 14th Amendment said ... this was applying to slaves, and did not specifically apply to others...
FIORINA: I led Hewlett Packard through...the worst technology recession in 25 years. The NASDAQ stock index fell 80 percent. It took 15 years for the stock index to recover.... very strong competitors who...went out of business ... we doubled the size of the company, we quadrupled its topline growth rate, we quadrupled its cash flow, we tripled its rate of innovation...we saved 80,000 jobs, went on to grow to 160,000 jobs...now Hewlett Packard is almost 300,000 jobs. We went from lagging behind to leading in every product category ...market segment...as for the firing...When you challenge the status quo, you make enemies. I made a few. Steve Jobs told me that when he called me the day I was fired...the man that led my firing, Tom Perkins, just took --...out a full-page ad ...to say he was wrong, I was right. I was a terrific CEO, the board was dysfunctional....he thinks I will make a magnificent president...
TRUMP:...The head of the Yale Business School, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld...one of the worst tenures for a CEO that he has ever seen, ranked one of the top 20 in the history of business. The company...continues to be a disaster...today...they fired another...30,000 people saying we still haven't recovered from the catastrophe...revenues went up, that's because she bought Compaq, it was a terrible deal...led to the destruction of the company...Carly was at Lucent before that. And Lucent turned out to be a catastrophe also...
FIORINA: ...Sonnenfeld is a well-known Clintonite ... You ran up mountains of debt, as well as losses, using other people's money, and you were forced to file for bankruptcy ...four times, a record four times. ...
TRUMP: ... almost everybody in Atlantic City is either in trouble or filed for ... I did great in Atlantic City. I knew when to get out. My timing was great...
CHRISTIE:...
Let's ...stop playing...games. Stop playing...we don't want to hear about your careers...You know who's not successful? The middle class in this country who's getting plowed over by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Let's start talking about those issues...
TAPPER: Donald Trump...wants to raise the taxes of hedge fund managers, as does Governor Bush...
KASICH: I don't at this point in terms of changing the incentives for investment and risk-taking.
...I'm ... one of the few people in this country that led the effort ...last time we balanced the federal budget...We also cut taxes. And when I left Washington in 2000, we had a $5 trillion surplus, and the economy was booming. I had spent 10 years of my life to get us to that point, ...went into Ohio and took an $8 billion hole and turned it into a $2 billion surplus...We've had the largest amount of tax cuts of any sitting governor. We've grown well over 300,000 jobs. You see, I've done it in both places...
HUCKABEE: ... we ought to get rid of all the taxes on people who produce... I'm an unabashed supporter of the "fair tax,"...a tax on our consumption...
CARSON: ...people who say the guy who paid a billion dollars because he had 10, he has still got $9 billion left, that's not fair, we need to take more ...That's...socialism. That doesn't work...What made America...great...we said, that guy just put in $1 billion, let's create an environment ...even more conducive to his success so that next year he can put in $2 billion...
TRUMP: ...the flat tax...if you make $200 million a year, you pay ten percent, you're paying...little relatively to somebody... making $50,000 a year, and has to hire H&R Block... because it's so complicated... we've had a graduated tax system for many years...it's no...socialistic...I'll be putting in the plan in about two weeks...a major reduction in taxes...for the middle class. The hedge fund guys won't like me...they'll pay more...people that are making a tremendous amount of money and paying virtually no tax,...
PAUL: ...Our companies, and our jobs are being chased overseas by a 70,000 page tax code... I've chosen to get rid of the whole thing, and have one single rate, 14 and a-half percent for everybody, business...corporate income...personal income... get rid of the payroll tax... flat tax, eliminating the tax code, getting rid of all the loopholes, is the way to go...
WALKER: So, the best way to help... wages go up is to get them the education, the skill they need...careers that pay more than minimum...I've cut income taxes, I've cut property taxes...property taxes are lower today in my state than they were before we took office...our plan is based on the Ronald Reagan tax cuts of 1986. That brought about one of the longest sustained periods of economic growth in American history...helping people get the skills and the education qualifications they need to succeed. That's the way you help people create jobs...
WALKER: ...That will ensure they repeal Obamacare...
CARSON: ... what I actually said about raising the minimum wage...I said, probably, or possibly. ... Negotiate a reasonable minimum wage, and index that so that we never have to have this conversation again...we ...have to have two minimum wages, a starter, and a sustaining...
WALKER: ...Hillary Clinton talks about the minimum wage...The answer is to give people the skills and the education so they make far more than minimum...
KASICH: ... I want to spend my time talking about my experience reforming welfare, balancing budgets, cutting taxes, providing economic growth when I was in Washington, turning Ohio around... when I won for election of governor, I was the first Republican to defeat an incumbent in 36 years,...
FIORINA: ... Mrs. Clinton has to defend her track record...Her track record of lying about Benghazi...e- mails...servers....
CHRISTIE: ...who is going to prosecute Hillary Clinton?...The Obama White House...Justice Department seems to have no interest....put a former federal prosecutor on the same stage as Hillary Clinton...she had a private email server in her basement, using national security secrets running through it, could have been hacked by the Russians, the Chinese, or two 18-year-olds...wanting to have some fun...
RUBIO: ... a lunatic in North Korea with...nuclear weapons and long-range rocket that can...hit the very place in which we stand tonight... Chinese are...expanding their military...hack into our computers. They're building...islands in the ...most important shipping lane in the world..A gangster in Moscow is... threatening Europe...threatening to destroy and divide NATO...radical jihadists in dozens of countries ...they even recruit Americans...this horrible deal with Iran...guaranteed to one day possess nuclear weapons and...a long-range rocket that can hit the United States...We are eviscerating our military...a president...more respectful to the ayatollah...than he is to...Israel...
RUBIO: ...the federal government does all kinds of things it's not supposed to be doing. It regulates bathrooms. It regulates schools that belong to local communities...the one thing that only the federal government can do is keep us safe...
TRUMP: ...I am not sitting in the United States Senate with...the worst voting record there is today...I'm a businessman doing business transactions...
RUBIO: ...You have millions... living paycheck to paycheck...We are about to leave our children with $18 trillion in... debt...they're about to raise the debt limit... we are eviscerating our military spending and signing deals with Iran...That's why I'm missing votes...
BUSH: ...I'm going to create a strategy that is based on the simple fact that the United States needs to lead the world. ... we need to ... stop the craziness of the sequester. Rebuild our military so...we don't deploy people over and over again without the necessary equipment to keep them safe... If we're going to lead the world, then we need to have the strongest military possible...We need to rebuild... counterintelligence...intelligence...we need to restore America's...leadership in the world. Name a country where our relationship is bette... than it was the ...day ...Obama got elected... I'll have a team that will be -- that will be following the doctrine I set up, and it will be peace through strength...
TRUMP: ...I am the only person on this dais... that fought very, very hard against us (ph),...I'm a very militaristic person, but you have to know when to use the military...I didn't want to go into Iraq, and I fought it, because what I said : ... was you're going to -- you're going to destabilize... the Middle East...
BUSH:...Trump... what was his position on who would've been the best negotiator to deal with Iran?... it was Hillary Clinton. ...
TRUMP: Your ...brother's administration gave us... Obama, because it was such a disaster, those last three months, that Abraham Lincoln couldn't have been elected.
BUSH: ... He kept us safe.
BUSH: ... He sent a clear signal that the United States would be strong and fight Islamic terrorism...
TRUMP:... I don't feel so safe...
WALKER:: ... We've had a president who called ISIS the J.V. squad, Yemen a success story, Iran a place we can do business with...
PAUL: ... I've made my career as being an opponent of the Iraq War. I was opposed to the Syria war. I was opposed to arming people who are our enemies. Iran is now stronger because Hussein is gone. ...the Iraq War made it worse...Governor Bush was asked, was the Iraq War a mistake, and he said, "No. We'd do it again."...We have make the decision now in Syria, should we topple Assad? ... I said no, because if you do...ISIS will now be in charge of Syria...
BUSH: ...When we -- we pull back, voids are created. We left Iraq. We should've...stay there with a small force...now we have ...ISIS...36 days ago... I gave a speech ...how to take out ISIS... we can create a force that will take out ISIS both in Iraq and in Syria...
RUBIO: ...the belief that somehow by retreating, America makes the world safer has been disproven ...uprising in Syria was...started by the ...Syrian people...I openly and repeatedly warned that if we did not find moderate elements on the ground that we could...arm, that void would be filled by radical jihadists... the president didn't listen...ISIS grew...ISIS then came over the border from Syria and back into Iraq. What is happening ...is the direct consequence of ...disengagement... the more we disengage, the more airplanes from Moscow...flying out of ... Syria...
CARSON: ...in 2003, I suggested to President Bush that he not go to war...people are...against us getting involved ...with global jihadism...they refer back to our invasion of Iraq...they ...think that that was what caused it. What caused it was withdrawing...creating a vacuum...We either allow them the continue to progress...or we use every resource available to us to destroy...
CHRISTIE: ... I support what President Bush did at that time, going into Afghanistan, hunting al Qaeda...making it as difficult around the world for them to move people and money...
CARSON: ...Declare that within five to 10 years we will become petroleum independent. The moderate Arab states would have been so concerned about that, they would have turned over ... Laden... on a silver platter within two weeks ... these problems... in ... the international situation...because we are weak....our Navy is so small....our Air Force is incapable of doing ...things that it did a few years ago... Marines Corps is not ready to be deployed.
RUBIO: But radical terrorism ...what they need, is ...operating space. That's what Afghanistan was for Al Qaida. It was a vacuum that they filled...why ISIS has grown ... we allowed a vacuum to emerge in Syria. They used it as an operating space to grow...They're now in Afghanistan, trying to supplant the Taliban as the most powerful radical jihadist group ... there, as well. You cannot allow ... jihadists to have ...safe haven...
HUCKABEE: new report that 50 different intelligence analysts have said that what they sent up the ladder was doctored...so that they could give some happy talk to the situation... if you don't have good intelligence...you cannot make good decisions...
TALKER:...Senator...Graham argued that candidates are only serious about fighting ISIS if they're willing to send 10,000 U.S. troops to Iraq, 10,000 U.S. troops... to Syria...
WALKER: ...Obama's administration has put political restrictions on the military personnel already in Iraq. We need to lift those and then we need to listen to our military experts...about how many more we sent in. ...we ...shouldn't have a ...chief who sends a message to our adversaries as to how far we're going to go...how far we're willing to fight... lift the political restrictions...empower our military personnel already there to work with the Kurd and the Sunni allies...in a way that allows that ISIS doesn't go back in Syria...if I'm commander-in-chief, I will only send you into harm's way when our national security is at risk...
PAUL: If you want boots on the ground...you got 14 other choices....the first war was a mistake. ...The Kurds deserve to be armed and I'll arm them. We can use our Air Force to amplify the forces there....Saudi Arabians ...funded the arms that went to the jihadists...not accepting any of the ...migrants... pushed out of Syria...Why... fight their wars for them?...we need to defend American interests...
KASICH: I called for boots on the ground many months ago ...you win the bigger war with the battle of ideas. You wonder why young...educated...rich...schooled people, have tried to join ISIS.
...our faith in the Jewish and Christian principals force us to live a life bigger than ourselves...
FIONNA: ......we need about 50 Army brigades... 36 Marine battalions... 300, and 350 naval ships, ...upgrade ...nuclear triad...we need to care for our veterans so 307,000 ...aren't dying waiting for health care.
BUSH: ... We need to make sure that we have justices...with a proven experienced record of respect for upholding the constitution... history in recent past is appoint people that have no experience so that you can't get attacked...John Roberts ...did not have a proven, extensive record ...I'm willing to fight for those nominees...
CRUZ: ...John Roberts...he's amazingly talented lawyer...it was a mistake when he was appointed to the Supreme Court...he knows in these Obamacare cases he changed the statute, he changed the law...to force that failed law on millions of Americans...in 1990...Souter...Jones, the rock ribbed (ph) conservative...George Herbert Walker Bush appointed... Souter... 2005...Roberts...Luttig, the rock ribbed (ph) conservative...George W. Bush appointed...Roberts, ...If...Bush had appointed...Jones, and... Luttig...Obamacare would have been struck down... the marriage laws of all 50 states would be on the books...
BUSH: ...John Roberts. He supported him...Ted, but the simple fact is that you supported him ...what we need to do is to have someone that has a long standing set of rulings that ...makes it clear that he is a focused...on upholding the Constitution of the United States so they won't...use the bench as a means to ... legislate...
CRUZ:...It wasn't that the...Bushes wanted to appoint a liberal...it was the easier choice. ...Souter and ...Roberts,...didn't have a ... paper trail. If you had nominated...Jones or... Ludig...you would have had a... fight and they weren't willing to spend political capital to put a...udicial conservative on the court...if I'm elected president, every...Supreme Court justice will...follow the law and...not act like philosopher kings ... imposing their liberal policies on millions of Americans --
HUCKABEE: ...I'm tired of liberals always having a litmus test and conservatives are supposed to pretend we don't...I'd ask do you think that the unborn child is a human being...do you believe... that religious liberty is the fundamental liberty around which all the other freedoms...are based? ...do you... believe...that we have an individual right to bear arms...do you believe in the Fifth and the 14th Amendment? Do you believe that a person, before they're deprived of life and liberty, should in fact have due process ...?...
HUCKABEE: ...I'd make darn sure that we... believe the 10th Amendment....our biggest fight ...half the time...was with the federal government who apparently never understood ... that if it's not reserved in the Constitution, then the 10th Amendment says it's left to the states...
PAUL: ...the people going to -- to jail for this are poor people, often African-Americans and often Hispanics, and yet the rich kids who use drugs aren't...I would like to see more rehabilitation and less incarceration.... I think the federal government has gone too far, I think that the war on drugs has had a racial outcome,...damaged our inner cities...we damage them again by incarcerating them and then preventing them from getting employment...So I don't think that the federal government should override the states. I believe in the 10th Amendment...
BUSH: ...We have -- we have a serious epidemic of drugs that goes way beyond marijuana...we're the state that has the most drug courts across every circuit in -- in -- in Florida, there are drug courts to give people a second chance...
PAUL: ...Governor Bush campaigned against medical marijuana. That means that...Morgan Hintz ...is not allowed to use cannabis oil.
BUSH: ...No, I did not oppose when the legislature passed the bill to deal with that very issue...Medical marijuana...there was a huge loophole... as a citizen of Florida, I voted no...
CHRISTIE:...New Jersey is the first state in the nation that now says if you are non-violent, non-dealing drug user, that you don't go to jail...You go to mandatory treatment...That doesn't mean we should be legalizing gate way drugs.... look at the decrease in productivity, look at the way people...move on to other drugs when they use marijuana as a gateway drug...
PAUL: ... they aren't really believing in the Tenth Amendment...if you're breaking any federal law on marijuana, even though the state law allows it, he would put you in jail....we were never intended to have crime dealing at the federal level. Crime was supposed to be left to the states. ...
CHRISTIE: ...In New Jersey, we have medical marijuana laws, which I supported ...This is recreational use of marijuana. This is much different...I'm not against medical marijuana... I'm against the recreational use against marijuana...
FIORINA: ...we are misleading young people when we tell them that marijuana is just like having a beer.... the marijuana that kids are smoking today is not the same as the marijuana that Jeb...smoked 40 years ago...we do need criminal justice reform. We have the highest incarceration rates in the world. Two-thirds of the people in our prisons are there for non-violent offenses, mostly drug related...
BUSH: Not very far...I think we need to do this state by state....you're going to take away rights of -- of law-abiding citizens, the 99.999 percent of the people... We have concealed-weapon permit holders...1,200,000 ...we put people behind bars when they use a gun...
RUBIO: ... you can pass all the gun laws in the world, like the left wants. The criminals are going to ignore it...You can't have a strong country without ... the institutions in this country that defend and support those families.
RUBIO:...we have a left-wing government under this president that is undermining all of the institutions and society that support... family...values.
CRUZ:...when...Reid and...Obama came after the right to keep and bear arms ... I was proud to lead the fight... to protect our right to keep and bear arms,...
CHRISTIE:...71 percent of all federal spending is on entitlements and debt service. When John Kennedy was elected president in 1960, it was 26 percent. Harvard and Dartmouth says that Social Security's going to go insolvent in seven to eight years...We need to be not paying out benefits to people who don't really need it...
RUBIO: ...we are not going to destroy our economy. We are not going to make America a harder place to create jobs in order to pursue policies that will do absolutely nothing, nothing to change our climate...America is not a planet.... we are not even the largest carbon producer anymore, China is. And they're drilling a hole and digging anywhere in the world that they can get a hold of...
CHRISTIE: ...we don't need this massive government intervention...We have already reached our clean air goals for 2020...53 percent of our electricity comes from nuclear. We use natural gas...We're the third-highest- using solar power state. You know why? ...we made all of those things economically feasible...We shouldn't be destroying our economy in order to chase some wild left-wing idea that somehow us by ourselves is going to fix the climate...Nuclear needs to be back on the table in a significant way in this country if we want to go after this problem...
RUBIO: ...They will not do a thing to lower the rise of the sea... cure the drought... they will make America a more expensive place to create jobs...
CARSON: ... they have not demonstrated that there is any correlation between vaccinations and autism... we have 4.1 million federal employees. Six hundred and fifty federal agencies and department...
TRUMP: Autism has become an epidemic. ...I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time. ...I'm in favor of vaccines, do them over a longer period of time, same amount...
PAUL: ...I'm all for vaccines. But I'm also for freedom. I'm also a little concerned about how they're bunched up....
HUCKABEE:...I remember the polio vaccine. We saved billions of dollars since that time, because we haven't had to treat for polio...Alzheimer's, a disease alone that will cost us...$1.1 trillion by the year 2050....
TAPPER: ...What woman would you like to see on the $10 bill?
PAUL: ...Susan B. Anthony ...
HUCKABEE:... my wife...
RUBIO: ...Rosa Parks...
CRUZ: ... I'd take Jackson off and I'd leave Alexander Hamilton right where he is... I very much agree with Marco that it should be Rosa Parks. ...
CARSON: ... my mother...
TRUMP: ...my daughter, Ivanka... Other than that we'll go with Rosa Parks. I like that...
BUSH:...Margaret Thatcher...illegal, but what the heck?
...WALKER: ...Clara Barton...
FIORINA: I wouldn't change the $10 bill, or the $20 bill...
KASICH: ...Mother Theresa...
CHRISTIE:...Abigal Adams...
TAPPER: ...the United States Secret Service uses codenames for the president...what would you want...your Secret Service codename to be...
CHRISTIE: ...True Heart.
KASICH:...I have one now..."Unit One".
WALKER: Harley. I love riding Harley's.
BUSH: Ever Ready, it's very high energy, Donald.
TRUMP: Humble.
CARSON: One Nation.
CRUZ: ...I might go with Cohiba ...I'd go with, for Heidi, Angel...
RUBIO: ... Gator.
HUCKABEE: ...Duck Hunter...
PAUL: Justice Never Sleeps...
PAUL: ...I'm a Reagan Conservative...peace through strength... our goal is peace,...war is the last resort...we go to war in a constitutional way...when we go to war, we don't fight with one arm tied behind our back...
HUCKABEE: ... we would have the most incredible well-trained, well-equipped, well- prepared military in the history of mankind... the...chief would never send them to a mission without all the resources necessary...a tax system that eliminated the IRS. People wouldn't be punished for their work...Abortion would be no more...
RUBIO: One of the things that made Ronald Reagan a great president, is that he understood that America was a unique nation... He knew it was founded on...the dignity of all people, human rights, the rights of all to live in freedom and liberty, and choose their own path in life....bringing down communism was so important to him. If I'm honored with the opportunity to be president, I hope that our Air Force One will fly...to our allies; in Israel, in South Korea, and Japan...It would also fly to China... to meet with those that aspire to freedom... within China....also fly into Moscow and into Russia. ...meet with those who aspire to freedom ...in Russia. ... I hope that my Air Force One... will one day land in a free Cuba...
CRUZ:...If I'm elected president...the bust of Winston Churchill will be back in the Oval Office...the American embassy in Israel will be in Jerusalem.... ISIS will be defeated. ...Khamenei will understand that he will never...acquire nuclear weapons...Young people ...will find ... two, three, four, five job opportunities...How will that happen? Through tax reform. We'll pass a simple flat tax and abolish the IRS...we will repeal every word of Obamacare...We'll kill the terrorists, we'll repeal Obamacare, and we will defend the Constitution...
CARSON: ...I was a radical Democrat before I started listening to Ronald Reagan...He sounded logical....I see people exercising the most irresponsible fiscal habits that anyone could possibly do. And hiding it ... so that the...have no idea what our financial situation is...Reagan was a master at understanding that a pinnacle nation has to be a nation that leads...
TRUMP: ... We will make this country greater than ever before. We'll have more jobs...more of everything... the world will respect us...it will be actually a friendlier world...
BUSH: Six million more people are living in poverty than the day that Barack Obama got elected ... middle class has had declining income, workforce participation rates are lower than they were in 1977...For the first time in modern history, more businesses are failing than are being created. ...we can reverse course by creating a strategy of high sustained economic growth...4 percent growth strategy...reform how we tax, fix the broken regulatory system, embrace the energy revolution ...fix the immigration system...deal with the structural fiscal problems that exist ... entitlement problems that will overwhelm...create way too much debt...
WALKER: ... We need to live in a world where our children are free...from the threats of radical Islamic terrorism...where everyone can live their piece of the American dream...send powers back to the states and back to the people...We took on the big government union bosses...special interests...
FIORINA: I... Lady Liberty... Lady Justice... all of us are equal in the eyes of God...all of us must be equal in the eyes of the law and the government,...it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter how you start, it doesn't matter your circumstances...every American's life must be filled with...possibilities that come from...God-given gifts...
KASICH: ... having the elected officials and the leaders realize they're Americans before they're Republicans or Democrats... freedom and for human rights...America was never great because we ran America from the top down. America is great because we have run America from the bottom up, where we all live in the neighborhoods...."If you've saved one life, you've changed the world."
CHRISTIE: I turned 18 in 1980, and my first vote was for Ronald Reagan. Boy, am I glad I did it. ...enforcing the law, level the playing field for everybody...reward those folks who play by the rules...I will not ... to anything with a country that says death to us and death to Israel and holds our hostages while we sign agreements with them...
(APPLAUSE)
TAPPER: That concludes this Republican presidential debate...
posted by David Virgil at 7:00 AM
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