graham is immigration reform. and i think he made a good case, the republican party has to be open to immigration reform, okay? i'm not saying he's -- he makes a point about social security. we're going to need to add to the workforce. in general, more workers if they have this skill, and he called it merit based. if they have the skills will help the american economy. i like the fact that lindsey was not afraid to say that. >> yeah. >> here's the challenge, though, with the four candidates, if you think about the first debate where carly fiorina had her first moment. she had it because she took it to hillary clinton and took it aggressively. and i didn't hear a lot of that by these candidates. they were differentiating each other with the parties. but no one came at her very, very aggressively. and i think they missed an opportunity. >> larry, did anybody float your boat in terms of growth policy? >> no. >> not enough. we tackle climate change quite a bit. >> a lot of climate change.

>> with a lot of co-2 being expelled about climate change. >> i like the rick santorum flat tax, but not the tax credit. let's reform the tax code. >> but he has a family message, which is lost in the debate. >> i'm all for the family message, i just don't want the tax code to be resourced. but you're right, the word growth didn't occur very much. one of them, i think it was lindsey graham did say, it might have been rick santorum, if you cut the corporate tax, you will help create middle class. i think rick santorum. >> it was rick santorum. >> and this is a great line. that's vintage kudlow, please do this, right, absolutely. >> remember what he said the last time we were altogether here. it wasn't that long ago. but she says hard to tell the truth, hard to get people, hard to sound compassionate when you're taking away the punch bowl. these guys didn't really seem like they wanted to talk about taking away the punch bowl. it'll be a problem for republicans. things we need -- >> what do you mean? take away the punch bowl?

>> what do i mean? >> yeah. >> you can't run on promising more entitlements. promising, you know, extend -- how about social security, disability. did you see how that's tackled to some extent? you don't think we need to rein that in? why would you go get a job? >> that one, i agree with you. but, look, taking away the punch bowl, i mean, bernie sanders has, according to the "wall street journal," $18 trillion worth of spending increase and 90% income tax. >> right. >> that is not going to -- >> he's a little bit more centrist than others. why should republicans take the other side? >> they should. >> well, they didn't. >> they should go to free market economics. >> there was good emphasis on that. but much more about foreign policy than it was about economics. >> cnbc, so -- >> actually, this is a really interesting point. the most compelling rhetoric right now has to do with foreign policy. >> it does. >> if you think about the events of the last couple of weeks. the incursions russia has made,

what's happened in the islands with regard to china. there's plenty here, which bring up the issue of what is it that makes america strong? and how strong do we want to be? an issue that trump has more in common in some cases, larry, with the democratic side than the rest of the gop. >> he doesn't have one. you are exactly right. it is ben carson. we're going to get to that in the next debate. again, i think that this group -- no. i think lindsey graham won because of foreign policy. that's where i'm going to go. >> he dominated. >> i was going to take joe on and some others, but i'm going to leave it there. lindsey graham, commander in chief, step up to russia and iran, yes. >> and more of the same, probably, in the next. >> in a normal year, lindsey graham would be on this stage at 8:00. >> do i get -- rick santelli, my great pal, i think the feds should stay at zero. >> full circle to the other major story of the day.

>> we used to agree on so many things, i don't know what happened. let's get to eamon javers in the center of the arena. eamon? >> yeah, hi, joe, you can tell, they're setting up new lecterns behind me. quite a few more candidates for the next debate, but you've been talking about how lindsey graham clearly won the war of the zinger up there in the debate. he did that but also said two things that might make him out of step with this year's republican primary electorate. the first one was, he says he supports this budget deal in washington that is highly unpopular with the conservative base. he started off with a dig at president obama. but he did get around to saying he supports that deal. and he also talked about being for legal immigration. here's what he said. >> we're going to fix immigration only if we work together. i want to secure the border because if we don't, we're going to get hurt and hit, again. i want to fix a broken visa system. i want to increase legal immigration because we're going to have a shortage of workers

over time, as to the 11 million, i want to talk about fixing the problem. we're not going to deport 11 million people and their legal citizen children. but we will deport felons. >> the engine that has been driving donald trump's growth in this presidential primary campaign has been republican voters concern about immigration in this country. lindsey graham there is talking about being for legal immigration. that might not wash with all the trump supporters. lindsey graham with that joke about his iphone is not going for the trump supporters in this debate, guys. >> eamon, thank you very much. eamon javers down there near the stage. and joe, now, of course people will be turning their attention to the next debate. we're trying to sort out who will be the focus of the candidates we just heard on the stage. bobby jindal commenting on voter frustration. here's what he said. >> i think the reason voters have so frustrated, nothing

seems to change in d.c. over the next several hours, you'll hear republicans tell you they want to shrink the size of government. and it sounds great, and we've got to do it. here's the truth. of all these folks talking, i'm the only one that has cut the size of government. there's not two of us, there's one of us. the rest of it is all just hot air. we need to pay attention to what they do, not what they say. let's shrink the economy and grow the american economy. >> joining us now is the louisiana governor, bobby jindal. welcome. >> thank you for having me. you know, one of the points i was making, and the left seems to have woken up and discovered this. i'm exclusively for cutting taxes, cutting the size of government. they think that's a criticism. we do that on purpose. you've got an either/or choice. grow the government economy or the american economy. we tried seven years of growing the government economy, why not the american economy? >> we've been talking for a couple of hours now, governor, about how difficult it is when you've got -- you're running

against candidates on the other side, got bernie sanders, you know, went to send in another $18 trillion. we want to help people that are in need, obviously. we want a safety net. some of the tough things that need to be done to get the private sector moving, not allowing government to grow. >> that's exactly right. >> the republicans are having a hard time articulating that. it seems like. it entails looking hard hearted, or less than compassionate. >> i think republicans need to embrace our principles. if this election is about who can, quote, give away free stuff, we lose. tell those students sitting here, they've never seen a robust american economy. for as long as they've been here, seen government try to promise them more stuff that hasn't worked. more taxing, more regulating. >> are americans still aspirational? because it's easy to appeal to the 80% versus the top 20%.

you can probably get 61% if you appeal to the 81%. or to the 80%. how do you get elected as a republican when you're trying to get aspirational people? >> i think we are aspirational. i think our leaders aren't. i think our leaders are trying to teach us, obama tried to teach us about redistribution and class warfare and envy. i think the american people know the american dream is if you work hard, get an education, you should be able to do better than your parents. i know the american dream is not to have someone else take care of you. >> how can you run and expect to win a majority when you're saying i'm going to cut taxes on corporations when the democrats are, you know, how many times have we heard the president? president obama take -- pick an industry. he's that private sector. i don't know if there are any that haven't been disparaged. how are you going to do that? say cut taxes across the board, which would benefit people that have money. >> well, i would say this, you better off than 7 years ago? they lied to us. they told us deficit premiums, didn't happen.

lowest workforce, participation rate in decades. more and more are giving up. they can't find a good-paying job you've got record student debt. yeah, government promises everything but don't deliver. when you dut cut spending, we can give folks the dignity of a good-paying job. if we play by the rules, work hard, can we join the middle class? can we do what we're able to do? that's still our future if we embrace the american way, not the european way. we've shown it can work. i don't think the american people are as bad as our leaders. here's the choice they face, crony capitalism is what we've got today. the left is promising socialism. crony capitalism is wrong. the answer is not more government intervention. >> the most important thing, i hope people understood clearly, i am explicitly for cutting taxes, government spending.

i'm for doing that. that's the choice in this election. >> governor, thank you. and thanks for coming by here. >> thank you y'all for having me. >> appreciate it. and best of luck. hope to see you back in new jersey. we are just minutes away now from the second part of tonight's debate. up next, we're going to hear from former white house press secretary who he thinks will be the breakout stars of the debate tonight. and you can join the conversation on twitt twitter #gopdebate. is that the number thing? >> the pound sign. >> we'll be right back. >> make the ceos pay the taxes the way the rest of us do. and third, i'd purposely shrink the size of government. >> 35% corporate tax rate the second highest in the world. >> i will have policies not just tax policies. make sure that families are strong, again in america. >> i cut taxes more than everybody on this stage on the

next stage combined.

what did you think about that debate? >> we're going to talk about it now. joining us now senator lindsey graham of south carolina. and just about everybody we've had here said you did a bang-up job tonight, senator. >> well, you had a good group of people. and i enjoyed the hell out of it. i tried to make the case that foreign policy and economic well being go together. and that you're right, the way to grow the economy is to lower taxes. but i can't promise you we're going to eliminate corporate taxes. but i would try to get a 25% corporate tax rate because people are leaving the country because it's too hard -- >> it's treated well here -- >> because we wanted them to. we gave them a great workforce, low tax structure, a permitting process. they built the plant faster than they thought they could. you know, policy and attitude go together. the person in the white house

who is president needs to have an attitude about business. you're not the enemy. i want you to do well. >> do you think that we need to first and foremost -- dlthere's lot of foreign policy talk. we'd like to focus on ways to, you know, get -- >> i actually listen to you. >> 62% of the participation workforce, that's a 50-year low. how many people would like to work longer? how many people would like to get a raise from market forces because they're in demand? none of those things are happening in this -- >> the median income is at 1995 level. women have left the workforce in the largest numbers. it's about the middle class. >> wealthy people are going to be fine. if you've got a government check, you'll still get one. but here's what i'm telling the republican party. the only way to help the middle class is to grow the economy. hillary clinton has a list of a mile long of new government to help the middle class. if you're a waitress, the best thing i can do for you is make sure that somebody can build a new restaurant in town to hire

your way. your company doesn't pay you more, you go to boeing. i intend to grow the economy. it's the only hope of the middle class. >> do people need to vote for you explicitly? >> no, they need to vote for me. forget about these other guys. >> a lot of what we've heard from everybody else. >> no more mr. nice guy. we saw you say this yesterday. you're sick of this. sick of -- and then you said "crap" tonight. this is -- >> well, it's cable. >> it's cable. >> but, seriously,. >> i think i'm the best qualified. >> i think articulating sounds like, you know, a set of policies we heard from other candidates in the field. you can draw some more clear differences in some particular instances. but this is really a debate in which you seem to be running against hillary clinton, running against the democrats. running against president obama in the white house. is that really what the message you're trying to sell to the american public comes down to? >> our foreign policy's in

freefall. hillary clinton doesn't fit. rebuild the military, use it smartly, barack obama's allowed radicalism run wild. the chinese are walking all over us. you need somebody in the white house that knows what the hell they're doing when it comes to the economy. >> what do you do about vladimir putin? day one? >> export natural gas that we own in abundance to undercut his monopoly on europe. reinforce nato so every time he looks around, he sees a nato flag. help the ukrainians by giving them weapons to defend themselves to drive the cost of his intervention into the ukraine. sanction the hell out of him and his rich buddies. he's got a pair of twos and we've got a full house. >> the fed didn't move, again, today. you heard rick santelli's question. do you believe in your heart of hearts that the seven years of zero interest rate is at -- has it helped or started, actually, becoming a negative? >> i think it's almost like crack cocaine.

eventually, we're going to have to have an economy that doesn't have free money. and it's going to be some pain, but the key is growing the economy, right? it's to creating more jobs. between obamacare, the epa regulation on carbon, which is draconian and a very complicated tax code, it's hard to create a job. if you're in business, you need certainty. what i would give you is certainty. and more certain tax code. i would deal with the climate change problem without making it a religion like al gore. at the end of the day, the middle class is only going to be helped if people hire. if you had 48 people, would you hire three more? what's that got to do with health care? >> you're a funny guy, too. >> i grew up in a bar, my dad was funny. if you're a good bar owner, you've got to be funny enough to make them come back, and be tough enough to make sure they don't take your business away. >> as we go to break, i want to hear real jokes from you. you got any?

>> okay. >> we're on a break. not yet. >> all right. >> thank you, senator. appreciate it. >> thank you so much. we're getting ready for the next big debate on cnbc. jane wells tracking the arrivals outside the center here at the university of colorado. hey, jane. >> yeah, we have a great vantage point here where we've been able to watch them come through the security corridor. in fact, video shot a short time ago. the very latest arrivals. the candidates for the most part are arriving with a huge police escort through sort of a cavernous path to get here. and a little while earlier today, we caught up with some of them as they were practicing and going through a walk through before the second part of the debate, which starts a short time. and we know they're going to be asked about the tough questions, the tough economic questions on cnbc like taxes, investment in technology, job creation. that sort of thing. and they're all hoping for a rocky mountain high polling

performance. >> it's fantastic, beautiful. absolutely gorgeous. >> are you going to have -- how bad -- >> we have one coming out. it'll be in tomorrow's papers. >> what all do you got? >> laying out my tax plan. >> what's the biggest priority? >> economic growth, improving the conditions of working men and women across this country. it's a simple flat tax and we're rolling out the details this afternoon. >> i'm very, very concerned t t that, you know, this country could be turned over to somebody that doesn't know how to run it. >> any specific you've looked to? >> just be myself. that's the key. don't try to be anybody else. >> all right, at the same time, some were campaigning, senator rand paul over on the campus had lunch with students, answered a lot of questions saying he supports the more online education. thinks it creates competition and drives down costs. asked about legal marijuana, a very big issue in colorado. as a doctor, he says he's not a

fan, though. doesn't think the federal government should get involved with state law. now, we've got a lot of police presence here. there's a free speech area across the way. no big incidents so far. i suppose they'll be on stage. and i should tell you, even though it's a liberal area, i saw a ben carson for president bumper sticker with a colorado license plate in the parking lot. >> i hope you took a picture, jane. >> that could go viral. >> that's where i cut my teeth on liberalism and you see what happened. anyway, i was there for four years. one person who may stand out in the next -- yeah, exactly. ohio governor john kasich. here's what he had to say about his rivals in a speech yesterday. >> you know how crazy this election is? let me tell you something. i've about had it with these people. we've got people proposing health care reform that's going to leave, i believe, millions of

people without adequate health insurance. what has happened to our party. what has happened to the conservative movement? >> let's bring in ari flesher for president george w. bush. and you go across the 1 candidates, ari, and you've got one on one side, is he talking about obamacare as far as you can tell? he's now sort of doing the other side business and saying, are we going to, you know, playing that republicans are the hard hearted people that want to take away health insurance? >> i think he was referring specifically ben carson's plan vis-a-vis medicare. governor kasich is going to try to portray compassionate conservatism. it's interesting, he sounds different, hasn't broken through

with it yet, though. >> yeah, i wonder just going back to this issue, ari, isn't a center piece of the republican party tackling some of these entitlements. not just for the sake of the program, but because of the concern about how they're crowding out other forms of government spending or economy over time? if john kasich is willing to seed that ground, how big of a deal is that for the party? >> well, look, i think the center piece for republican party, and this is what i hope to hear tonight, is economic growth. economic growth will solve a tremendous number of problems. you need a growing economy to make some of the tough choices that need to be made to preserve social security, medicare going forward. but economic growth, i want to hear tonight with specificity what it is that each candidate would do to achieve more robust growth in the economy. and frankly, jeb bush who has talked about 4% growth, he's got a tremendous amount at stake tonight. he needs a powerful night to make his economic case because this campaign needs a boost.

>> you know, ari, the criticism we're going to hear is that trickle down has been tried and i want doesn't work. >> yeah. >> the things you're saying republicans need to tell voters that we need to have corporations pay less in taxes, how you going to sell that? you've got to say we've got to bring down overall taxes, which would include people on the high end. you're going to hear the left say it's tax cuts for the rich. how are you going to sell that at this point? it didn't work four years ago when i thought romney was probably a pretty good pro-growth candidate. can someone get elected in national office, again, telling people that? >> well, i think the biggest difference was in the summer of 2012, the economy started to come back and people started to feel better about it, and that's what polls show heading into the 2012 election day. doesn't look like it's going to be the case heading into 2016. the question 2016, you want to have third term for barack ob a obama. so republicans can frame this properly. but ronald reagan taught us all we need to know about framing

economic growth and a rising tide, and then bill clinton signed a capital gains tax cut into law, and that helped boost the economy in the mid-1990s. so there's a powerful history republicans can point to of economic success, but they have to make the case. the challenge is to make the case in a way that connects with middle class voters, so middle class voters know republicans care about them and we actually have plans to help them have a rise in salary, again, because median income has been stuck under president obama. we haven't even achieved the levels we had prior to 2008. >> comes at a time -- getting ready to raise interest rates after quite some time. we've had guests say that congress needs to take the baton here from the fed. and these details coming out and are they getting ready to do that? >> well, this budget deal will be forgotten about.

we'd be dealing with this for months. so frankly, this is shortly going to pass from the scene, and will be focused on the more presidential bigger picture issues. this issue will be behind us. but there's always going to be a difference between the congressional wing of the party and the presidential wing of the party. the presidential wing is much more aspirational. the candidates have to describe the big vision of where they take the country. congress is a lot more of the mundane sausage making. but here's the trick for republicans. if we want to enact into law the big policies we've always dreamed about, economic growth, tax reform, and moving america forward, you need a republican in the white house. we have a republican us house, senate, that's the big picture republicans have to keep in mind. >> well, ari, we've had a pretty

anemic six or seven years with zero interest rate and with three rounds of quantitative easing. if the republicans make that point, you've been under a rock for the past seven years. i don't know why they can't make that distinction. >> that's exactly right. we have so many millions of people who have quit and left the workforce and the unemployment rate is not 5.1% when you take into account how many people have given up looking. there are a lot of facts about why a third term for hillary clinton is barack obama's third term if we elect her. and then they have to be positive about themselves. and that's what i want to hear tonight. >> see the trickle down. anyway, thank you. >> there's one politician calling for a revolution in this country. >> i'm just saying. >> i'm feeling the burn. >> listen to what you're saying,

joe kernan. >> feeling the burn. getting ready for the next part of the debate. he's not here tonight. >> no, he's not. >> coming up, going to take a look at what was said in the earlier. you laughed at that joke about not coming back from the soviet union. >> he is very humorous. by the way, jack welch tweeting his support and appreciated the sense of humor. as we go to break, take a look at the hot button issues that facebook is talking about. we'll have more on all of these coming up. >> you're right. >> our legal immigration system has been broken for decades. >> we're going to build a wall, it's going to be a great wall, going to be a wall that really is effective. >> as a candidate, i intend to let everyone hear my message, including the many who can express their love of country in a different language. >> people are willing to be very reasonable about immigration, but not until you prove to them

that future illegal immigration will be controlled. >> i don't know anyone who came here knowingly illegally should be awarded with american citizenship.

♪ trying to predict the future is a discouraging and hazardous occupation. the only thing we can be sure of about the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic. so, if what i tell you appears absolutely unbelievable have you any chance of visualizing the future as it really will happen. ♪

the level playing field is not in the united states. it's international. joining us fresh off the debate is rick santorum.

>> thank you, kelly. >> what did you think? >> well, you know, i thought you guys did a good job. not you because you weren't out there. >> did you get your voice in? >> good questioning. i thought so, too. >> no, i really thought they did a good job and they, you know, didn't let -- they let a couple of them go long, but by and large did a good job of asking very pointed questions that were on issues i thought were issues people were going to decide election time. i thought it was good. >> i liked your use of the word economy there. >> yeah. >> very nice. >> is that going to be the message we're all talking about tomorrow? >> i don't know. to me, i don't go to the debates to load up and try to hit -- jack a home run. i try to make good, solid contact. and if the ball goes over the fence, great, but what you want to do is lay out a vision for this country that people can connect with. i don't think anybody could walk away and say rick santorum's out there trying to help american

families. he's going to do something to create better-paying jobs in manufacturing and great opportunities for people to rise. >> one of our guests before the debate started said maybe rick santorum says we need to break up these banks. is that a message you'd ever -- >> i certainly would be for much higher capital requirement. but i have said that in retrospect, one of the worst votes because it was sold to me we needed to do it in order to compete. i don't think that's proven to be the case. and i certainly have concerns about dodd/frank and too big to fail. but and the power we've given the fed under that. >> we're not going to hear you going as far as the democrats to some extent have been saying these banks are too powerful and we need to break them up. >> if you change the laws with respect to the applied guarantee of the federal government, the banks will break up. >> senator, we're 5.1% now unemployment, stock market, you

know, almost 20,000, 17 and change, or whatever. >> lowest -- >> well, before -- i know that. >> i've been countering you. >> hopefully you can make that point. we're going to hear that a third term for president obama might not be that bad. hillary clinton has moved further left than her husband ever was. >> i know. you saw the president say the other day, the republicans are a bunch of grumpy cats and saying how bad everything is in terms of income inequality. >> i was going to say. you listen to the democratic debate, you'd be hard pressed to think that was a republican president they were bashing. >> right. >> they were talking about how horrible everything is. >> which is it? 5.1% unemployment, he can say it's better than it was 7 years ago. >> wages were flatlined. worker participation is the lowest level in 50 years. and people in america do not feel like things are getting better for them. and that's why i think the message that i have, which is grow this economy, with a

terrific flat, bear tax, lower corporate rate, which is pro worker, and you go out there and you deliver jobs coming back from china, and we start saying, hey, we're number one, again. you're going to change attitudes in this country. no the just -- >> you confused me. you say you're not sure? >> i didn't say -- >> you regret the vote? >> i said i don't think it turned out to be the right vote in my opinion. what i would say is we need to change substantively how we do regulation. the president's gone through regulation, taken every law in the congress and re-written it by writing regulations that have nothing to do with the law he's writing it by. a lot of them are environmental, but immigration, a whole bunch of others. what we need to do, and this is something i'll push as president, that weakens my power as president. and that's why i think i can get bipartisan support for it. instead of requiring every regulation to go to congress and have the congress have to disapprove it in order for it to be stopped, now we're going to

change the effort to make it that the congress has to approve it. in other words, has to get 60 votes from the senate. get a majority in the house of representatives. you do that, you will start to limit the amount of regulations getting put out there, they're going to be to our economy. >> senator, thank you. good luck. >> appreciate it. senator rick santorum there. we're minutes away from the second part of the republican debate here on cnbc. up next, larry kudlow will weigh in on who could be tonight's winner and what that will mean for his or her poll position. and #gopdebate to be part of the conversation. today, we have a tax code that makes us among the most expensive and burdensome places in the world to start a business or expanding an existing one. >> it's a tax reform that i think will make america strong and great, again.

>> eliminate excessive tax that crushes small business. >> my plan works on main street or wall street. no special favors, no special breaks. >> we will pass fundamental tax reform adopting a simple flat tax.

welcome back. let's begin with the results of the poll. our viewers say lindsey graham did win the last debate. the next one is coming right up. time to fact check the

candidates. let's get straight out to scott cohen. >> it's a republican debate, and cutting spending is a republican theme. no surprise they try hard to outdo one another. two governors, bobby jindal and george pataki, former governor of new york. jindal says he's the only one who cut government. >> what we did is cut state spending. we've cut our budget 26%, according to other analysis. >> i shrunk the size of new york state government. we reduced the employment by over 25,000 and cut taxes. >> former pennsylvania senator rick santorum tried to do them all one better saying he helped cut the size of the federal budget. let's check them one by one. bobby jindal said he cut the state budget 26%. as we reported, that 26% includes federal hurricane aid that ran out. take out the hurricane aid and adjust for inflation and

spending under bobby gjindal is roughly flat. even the cato institute says he cut the budget by 9%, not 26%. george pataki cut taxes as governor of new york from '95 to 2006, but he did not cut the size of government. and he did not cut the workforce as much as he claims. spending grew by 12% according to state budget documents in new york. outpaces the rate of inflation. on santorum, the government workforce shrank when he was in the senate and in the house. in 2004, the budget itself grew by $700 billion by the time he left office. lindsey graham focused on national security saying he supports the budget deal passed in the house today because we are in dire circumstances. >> there are more terrorist organizations with safe havens to attack the american homeland than any time since 9/11. we're in the process of reducing our defense spending by half. i am looking at this budget with one view in mind, will it

restore the ability to defend this nation? we're on track to have the smallest army since 1940, the smallest navy since 1915. >> comes from a threat snapshot released early yer this month by the homeland security committee. by on the side of the military, it's the smallest army since 2006 based on current projections, not 1940. and the army was smaller than most of the george w. bush administration. the navy does have the smallest number of ships since 1915, but that was before the era of the aircraft carrier, perhaps, kelly, apples to oranges. >> fair enough. all right, our scott cohen is with fact patrol back at headquarters. i should mention that romney tweeting now, quote, after hearing lindsey graham talk foreign policy tonight, it's clear he belongs on the big stage. somebody else who liked what he heard. >> is that the real mitt romney? >> it doesn't have the real mitt romney in the handle, though, but i think we can safely say. he still is. eamon javers getting ready for the next big event.

hey, eamon. >> yeah, that's right, kelly. and lindsey graham as you've been talking about was clearly in the zinger zone tonight. couple of one-liners going over well in the hall. one of them about bernie sanders, saying he went to the soviet union on his honeymoon and doesn't think he ever came back. another one, appropriately enough, for this venue which is the coors event center was a certain alcohol-related comment he had. here's what he said. >> now, if you're looking for good beer policy, i'm your best bet. my dad owned a bar. i know beer. >> reporter: now, sometimes hard to tell whether these comments are, you know, really genuinely off the cuff or if these are scripted one-liners, but we're going to be watching in the next debate to see who has the zingers up their sleeves ready to go and who is off the cuff making the comments on the fly. those are the moments that can go viral. those are the moments that can get candidates attention. and for the lower-tier

candidates, they can be important, guys. >> all right. that's right. i'm paying for this microphone, i know. >> remember that? >> that's what we remember years later. >> yeah. ronald reagan, all these years later. >> nobody knows that one. >> ronald reagan. >> in new hampshire in 1980. >> also said i'm not going to let my opponent's relative youth get in the way. >> good for you. good for you. good for you. >> watches those tapes nightly. >> i might have seen it live. that's the scary thing. >> okay. >> let's head back out to jane wells, she's been monitoring the action outside -- >> okay. all right. >> this is a nice color -- >> well, you know, ronald reagan is one name that hasn't come up across behind me, the area they set aside across from the events center as the designated free speech zone. anybody with a beef can come here.

they were threatening thousands would -- well, no, but we're going to show you when they were filing in earlier. one of the rules was that they couldn't have loud speakers. so they spoke loudly with their images. they brought in puppets of some of the candidates. >> if they cared and what issues they would ask the candidates about if they could. >> i'm going to the debate, yes. >> no, i'm not going to the debate but i really wanted to go to the debate. >> i'm not going to lie to you, i don't know a whole lot about the debate itself. >> one question in general, is how they would deal with funding in general. >> i would like to hear from carly fiorina. >> the immigration policy -- >> i disagree with a lot of things that trump has to say and a lot of