america back. at some point you'll be asked what did you do when the idea of america was slipping away? i promise you this, i will give every ounce of blood, energy and sweat i've got to save the idea of america, the greatest country in the history of the world. >> thank you, governor. [ applause ] senator graham? >> number one, i will win a war that we can't afford to lose. i have a plan to destroy radical islam because it has to be. these are religious nazis running while president obama has made one mistake after another and it's caught up with us. what i have to offer that's different? i get my foreign policy from being on the ground. i've been to iraq and afghanistan 35 times in the last decade trying to understand how we got in this mess. our leading candidate gets his foreign policy from watching television. and what i heard last night is the cartoon network, oh, i'm big, i'm strong, we're going to hit them in the head. that's not foreign policy.

that's a cartoon character. john kasich, a good friend of mine, said in new hampshire, we're going to close more bases on his watch. on my watch, we're going to open more bases. the military is in decline, folks. we're going to have the smallest military in modern times, spending half of what we'd normally spend by the end of this decade. >> thank you, senator. >> what do i offer? to make your families safe and our countries strong again, a vision and a determination to win a war that we cannot afford to lose. >> thank you, senator graham. our thanks to the candidates for a great debate. in just a moment, we're bringing the candidates from both of tonight's debates together for a group photo and it will be a first in this campaign. and then, of course, the main event, the top 11 candidates going head to head. i'll be back as moderator. right now, let's go to my colleague, anderson cooper. [ applause ]

[ applause ] jake, thanks very much. the first debate in the books. the main event just moments away. thanks for joining us. the first four candidates still on stage posing for pictures. rick santorum, george pataki, bobby jindal and lindsey graham trying to stand out and get traction with gop voters. wolf blitzer is in the debate hall and we'll check in with him very shortly and very shortly

we'll see all of the 11 candidates, presidential candidates from the next debate coming out on the stage so that all 15 candidates will be together on that stage for the first time posing for pictures, front-runners donald trump and dr. ben carson, of course, n newcomer carly fiorina on the stage as well. let's go ahead to john king, host of "inside politics" and gloria borger, nia-malika henderson and michael smerconish. what do we expect in the big debate just minutes away? john king, what did you think of what you heard tonight? did anyone break out of this lower tier? >> it's a fascinating question. everyone did what they wanted to do. the question is, can they change their poll numbers? lindsey graham, every question you asked about the sunrise or sunset, he said we're in a war against radical islam. we cannot afford to lose. he turned every question to that. that is his beat in this

campaign. he nudged some of the candidates in the earlier debate. we'll see if it happens in the front-runner class with more boots on the ground. lindsey graham was pushing the other candidates. the most interesting to me, rick santorum opened and closed by mentioning his leading role in fighting partial birth abortion. why is he doing that? because he won iowa last time and he's nowhere right now. he's got donald trump, ben carson in his evangelical lane and this is a survival question right now. all four of these candidates have survival questions and it struck me that he understands the math. he's trying to go back to his people in iowa right now and say why abandon me? i need you now. >> there you see arnold schwarzenegger talking to rick santorum as the four candidates mill around. we're going to see the 11 candidates come out on to the stage and pose for a picture for the first time. all of the candidates for the

gop nomination together on the stage. gloria, do you think anybody broke out? >> well, i think lindsey graham did exactly what he wanted to do which was not only be on message about isis muscular foreign policy for the republican party but he was the person trying to walk the fine line i thought between the base of the republican party and the establishment of the republican party, which is exactly what we're going to see jeb bush try and do later. he did it with humor, and he did it from a position of experience, talking about his experience, and he also managed to ding donald trump as a character from a cartoon network. bobby jindal, i will also add moving through the voters. >> bobby jindal seems to be, i think, in here in the spin room

already. there is now a scrum around jindal, trying to get as much attention as he can between the precious moments. >> not only social conservatives but positioning himself as anti establishment, as well. that's important to jipdndal. >> one quick point, he is a remainder we should learn her lesson and learn the lesson of trump. this happened in someways. remember when schwarzenegger ran the recall election in this state and everybody laughed? everybody said come on, this guy is an actor, this guy can't do this. he was elected and because people were in such a mood, they were willing to throw out the rule book and playbook and elect a guy that didn't have the policies. he talked like a leader, not a direct comparison between he and trump but we seen in a remarkable mood like this -- >> the other thing they share

now is he's going to host "celeb rememb erty apprentice". >> what's the scene there? >> hi, anderson, i was talking to mary beth christie and everybody, i was looking at the people's faces as the debate wa. i ran into michael regan and he was affusive. she thought this debate was terrific and thought lindsey graham was on fire and reforming to lindsey graham making laugh lines, particularly thurman having four kids and unless everyone wants to do that, time to get more legal immigration. everybody laughed here. this was a good one. the hall is smaller than the first debate. this is just 500 people. so it was quieter at first.

people were very respectful for awhile, you could hear a pen drop but when candidates took to the podium, people loosened up, there was laughing and you know what was interesting, maybe i can show you, anderson, it's that, how close it is. how close the podiums are to the front row of where everyone was sitting. that made for a very, very intimate setting, as it will for the next debate, as well. i'll send it back to you guys right now. we'll be watching, wolf. >> alison, thanks very much. with us here inside this debate hall, our panel of cnn political commentators, the former obama advisor, van jones and political director jeffrey and columnist, s.e. cupp and kevin madden. how did this preliminary debate set the stage for the main event about to begin. >> the news out of the debate

was lindsey graham on national security. i think that will set a policy discussion up for many of the other candidates in questions about what we've done on national security with iraq and also what we're going to do to take on some threats we're facing with isil and some of the unrest in syria. so lindsey graham came out the big winner in that sense and will shape the tone for the debate in the later one. >> the tax on donald trump, they were pretty ferocious in the first few minutes. will he have to respond in the first few minutes coming up? >> i wouldn't put it past him to take his time for something bobby jindal said in the beginning. that's keeping with trump's personality. i don't know what kind of trump we'll see tonight. i've heard he may be softer. i don't know that side of him, personally. we'll see. i think it was interesting that rick santorum in particular said, you know, i'm not go to go

after donald trump personally. when you attack a republican, hillary clinton wins. at least one person is not taking the bait. >> real quick, the formeat forevered substance. donald trump is not been known as the substance candidate but allowing two candidates to go back and forth on the economy, national security or values issues, that will be something interesting to watch. >> you like donald trump and want him to do well but he has a lot of stake. people will watch in huge, huge numbers as you would like to say, donald trump and the challenge will see if he lives up to the hype. >> i'm sure that he will. one of the things about donald trump that i would disagree with kevin on, talking about lindsey graham as the winner in this, first, lindsey graham said why he would refuse to defend obamacare because president would surely veto the bill, right there, is the kind of disagreement between the establishment and the base of the republican party.

it's the thing that's fueling donald from who has this can do image, that's the defeat that is driving the base of this party absolutely crazy. president regan very quickly vetoed a clean the water bill in 1987 knowing he would be overturned by both houses of congress with the democrats, asked republicans to help. he got 26 votes in the house, later wrote in his diary, we need to draw lines to divide the parties and they weren't willing to do it and that's the problem here. >> van, you're a democrat and worked for president obama. there was a lot of criticism of president obama and hillary clinton to put it mildly but a lot more criticism of some fellow republicans, conservative republicans, the leadership of the house and senate. >> you would have expected they would come out here, they might beat up trump a bit, go after president obama, they go after hillary clinton, it would be a blood bath for them. they barely nicked the president and trump. you heard more attacks on

congressional republicans. jindal is more angry with the congressional republicans than the president. >> that was most of the surprising lines of the debate, you're right. >> so you have a party now that is in someways canblizing. >> mitch mcconnell and john boehner were not that happy with what they heard. stand by, anderson and i will step away for 60 seconds. when we come back, we expect all 15 of these republican presidential candidates will make their way to the stage together for a group photo session and then get ready, the main event.

and welcome back. we're now 11 minutes or so away from the main event, the candidates just seconds away from a group photo shot on

stage. let's go to sr. arah murray standing by. >> any moment the candidates will walk out of the door behind me and head to the debate stage. right now they are in this room together. it's the calm before the storm making a little slightly awkward small talk before they go out and take each other on on the debate stage and that's exactly what we're hearing a number of these candidates want to do. people like jeb bush, people like scott walker, their sights are set on being more aggressive this time and donald trump will be right in the middle of that stage. now we saw trump walk into the building awhile ago. he walked in with chris christie and giving each other a half hug and slapping each other on the back. seems for now everyone is getting along. you can see them coming out behind me now. >> sarah, thanks very much. you can see those candidates leaving. i should point out lindsey graham and jindal are here in the spin room, which is close by to the debate stage, whether or not they actually will join in in this photo op or think it's

more i important to reach out to the various networks here and try to get free press coverage instead of waiting for this photo, we shall see. while we're watching those 11 candidates for the next debate heading to the stage, there you see dr. ben carson, of course, we, there is carly fiorina. she's the only person to have graduated from the second tier debate last time around to the main stage. there is john kasich and there is, of course, donald trump. we're back again with john king, gloria boringer, mallika, in terms of what you anticipate. how aggressive do you see some candidates tonight going after donald trump? >> in someways, they box themselves into a corner already because they have been so aggressive with donald trump. they have done it on instagram and in interviews. so in someways, if they don't come into this debate ready to bring the same kind of fire and punch to what