that's it for us. i'll sooyou back here on monday night. right now, cnn's reagan library republican presidential debate in its entirety. judge for yourself what the candidates have to say starting now. good night.

thank you, one and all for being here. there are many important policy issues facing our nation. we're going to get to many of them tonight. i do want to start off with current events in had news and also some of the comments that candidates have recently made on the campaign trail. ms. fiorina, i want to start with you. fellow republican candidate and louisiana governor bobby jindal has suggested your party's front-runner, mr. donald trump would be dangerous as president. he said he wouldn't want, quote, such a hot head with his finger on the nuclear codes. you as well have raised concerns about mr. trump's temperament. you have dismissed him as an entertainer. would you feel comfortable with donald trump's finger on the nuclear codes. >> he's a wonderful entertainer. he's been terrific at that business. i also think one of the benefits of a presidential campaign is the character and capability judgment of every single one of us is revealed over time and

under pressure. all of us will be revealed over time and under pressure. i look forward to a long race. >> you didn't answer my question. would you feel comfortable with d donald trump's finger on the nuclear codes? >> that's not for me to answer. it's for the voter of this country to answer. i have a lot of faith in the common sense and good judgment of the voters of the united states of america. >> mr. trump. >> well -- >> first of all, rand paul shouldn't even be on this stage. he's number 11 and has 1% in the polls and how he got up here there is far too many people anyway. as far as temperament and we know that, as far as temperament, i have a great temperament. i've built a phenomenal business with incredible, iconic assets, one of the great real estate businesses and i may be an entertainer because i had success with number one best sellers all over the place, with kwaetd the apprentice" and everything else i have done, but i will tell you this, what i am

far and away greater than an entertainer is a businessman and that's the kind of mindset this country needs to bring it back because we owe $19 trillion right now, $19 trillion, and you need this kind of thinking to bring our country back. and believe me, my temperament is very good, very calm, but we will be respected outside of this country. we are not respected now. >> senator paul, your name is invoked. >> i kind of have to laugh when i think of sounds like a nonsecwitter. he was asked whether or not he would be capable and in good hands to be in charge of the nuclear weapons and of a sudden there's a sideways attack at me. i think that really goes to really the judgment. do we want someone with that character, that kind of careless language to be negotiating with putin? do we want someone like that to be negotiating with iran? i think really there is a sophomoric quality that is entertaining about mr. trump, but i am worried. i'm very concerned about having him in charge of the nuclear

weapons because i think his response, his visceral response to attack people on their appearance, short, tall, fat, ugly, my goodness, 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? >> mr. trump? >> i never attacked him on look and believe me, there is plenty of subject matter there. that i can tell you. >> jake, jake, jake -- >> i want to give mr. trump. mr. trump, i want to give you another chance, mr. trump, i want to give you a chance to respond to something that your rival to your left, governor bush said. governor bush told me last week when i read him the quote from governor jindal that he agrees you're not a serious candidate. tell governor bush why you are a serious candidate and what your qualifications are to be command in chief. >> i've actually been in politics all my life, though i've been on that side as opposed to this side. i've been a politician for three months. obviously i'm doing well. i'm number one in polls by a lot.

the qualifications is that i've dealt with people all over the world, been successful all over the world, everything i've done virtually has been a tremendous success. when markets changed, when things turned, i heard governor pataki, by the way, was a failed governor in new york, very seriously failed, he wouldn't be elected dogcatcher. i heard what he had to say. i'll tell you this, atlantic city, i've made a tremendous amount of money in atlantic city. left seven years ago and got great credit and that's what i'm about. i'm a businessman. did really well, really well, and jeb, what i want to do is put that ability into this country to make our country rich again and i can do that and i'm not sure that anybody else in the group will be able to do that. >> governor bush, would you feel comfortable with donald trump's finger on the nuclear code? >> i think the voters will make that determination but what i know to be true, the next president of the united states will have to fix an extraordinarily difficult situation. this administration, with president obama and hillary

clinton, has created insecurity the likes of which we never would have imagined. there is not a place in the world we're better off today than six and a half years ago and that requires steadiness and understanding how the world works. that requires an understanding and appreciation of american leadership in the world. you can't just, you know, talk about this stuff and insult leaders around the world and expect a good result. you have to do this with a steady hand and i believe i have those skills. >> jake, this is -- >> i have to -- >> this is what is wrong with the debate. we're not talking about real issues. >> mr. trump, we don't need an apprentice in the white house, we have one right now. he told us all the things we wanted to hear back in 2008. we don't know who you are, where you're going, we need someone that can actually get the job done and you've talked about business. let me finish -- >> excuse me -- in wisconsin you're losing $2.2 billion. i would do so much better than that. >> mr. trump, you're using the talking points of the democrats.

i'm using facts. >> three times in four and a half years when i got elected because it is working. we balanced a budget. you want to talk about balanced budgets. four major products into bankruptcy over and over and over again. you can't take america into bankruptcy. that's what's wrong with politicians in washington. they think we can take a country into bankruptcy. >> every major business leader, i never went bankrupt. everybody knows. hundreds of companies, i used the law four times and made a tremendous thing. i'm in business. i did a very good job. i will say this and people are very, very impressed with what i've done, the business people but when the folks of iowa found out the true facts of the job that you've done in wisconsin, all of a sudden you, too, he was number one and now he's number six or seven in the polls. look, we brought it out, you were supposed to make a billion dollars in the state. you lost $2.2 billion. 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 number

one and you went down the tubes. >> governor walker? >> absolutely. this is an issue that's important in this race. just because he says it doesn't make it true. the facts are the facts. we balanced at $3.6 billion budget deficit and cut taxes to $4.7 billion to help working families, family farmers, small business owners and senior citizens and it's about time people of america stand up and take note of this. if you want someone that can actually take on the special interest of washington, which you yourself said you were part of, using the system, we need somebody that will stand up and fight for average americans to put them back in charge. i'm taking that on. i'll do that as your next president. >> let's move on. >> jake, jake. >> phenomenon going on in the race is the political -- >> okay, governor kasich, go ahead. >> if i were sitting at home and watching this back and forth, i would be inclined to turn it off. i mean, people at home want to know across this country, they

want to know what we're going to do to fix this place, how we're going to balance a budget, how we're going to create more economic growth, how we're going to pay down the dent, what we're going to do to strengthen the military. >> we have a lot of issues coming up, sir. >> with a lot. i know that it may be buzzing out there but i think it's important we get to the issues without all the fighting. >> we are getting to the issues, sir. >> phenomenon going on in the race is the political outsiders in the race, dr. carson, donald trump, carly fiorina all tonight have majority support in the polls. governor christie, i want to ask you about something dr. carson said the other day. dr. carson said campaigning is easier for him because he's not a politician. he can just tell the truth, therefore, while politicians quote have their finger in the air to see and do what is politically expedient. tell dr. carson, is that a fair description of you? >> i know ben doesn't think that about me. i'm sure he was talking about

one of the other guys, not me. as far as being an outsider, let me tell you this, jake, i'm a republican in new jersey. i wake up every morning as an outsider. i wake up every morning with a democratic legislature trying to beat my head in and fight me because i'm trying to bring conservative change to a state that needed it desperately. everyone can talk up here about their credentials. every morning ivy toe bills and more taxes than any american in history according to americans for tax reform. what folks want is for somebody to go down and get the job done, and that's exactly what i'll do. i know this much, what the american people want to hire is somebody that believes in them. and believes that they are the ones who can fix our country. i will be the vessel through which they can fix this country, but it's not about me. it's about all of you. and getting this government off your back and out of your way

and letting you succeed. i know ben wasn't talking about me, look at him smiling at me right now. i know ben didn't mean it about me. one of these other guys, i'm sure. >> dr. carson, who were you thinking about on this stage when you said that? >> be honest, man, be honest. >> more broadly, is experience in government not important for a president to have? >> typically politicians do things that are politically expedient, and they're looking for whatever their particular goal is. that is not the reason i've gotten into this thing. i'm extraordinarily concerned about the direction of this country, the divisiveness that's going on. the fiscal irresponsibility, the failure to take a leadership position in the world. all of those things will lead to a situation where the next generation will not have a chance that we've had now. so i don't, i don't want to

really get into describing who's a politician and who's not a politician but i think the people have kind of made that decision for themselves already and will continue to do so as time goes on. >> see, jake, it wasn't me. >> jake, i'll tell you why people are supporting outsiders. it's because you know what happens if somebody has been in the system their whole life, they don't know how broken the system is. a fish swims in water, it knows its water. it's not that politicians are bad people. it's that they have been in that system forever. the truth is, 75% of the american people think the government is corrupt, 82% of the american people think these problems that have festered for 50 years in some cases, 25 years in other cases, the border has been insecure for 25 years. 300,000 veterans have died waiting for health care. these things have gone on for so

long because no one will challenge the status quo. a leader challenges the status quo and solve problems that have festered for a long time and they produce results. that is what my whole life has been about. people know this is about far more than replacing a d with an r. this is about changing the system. >> thank you. governor bush, in addition to the fact he's an outsider, one of the reasons mr. trump is a front-runner, republican voters say, is they like the fact he is not bought and paid for by wealthy donors. mr. trump has repeatedly said that the $100 million you've raised for your campaign makes you a puppet for your donors. are you? >> no, absolutely not. people are supporting me because i have a proven record of conservative leadership where i cut taxes $19 billion over eight years. we shrunk the state government workphose. we led job growth seven out of eight years. we were one of two states to go

to aaa bond rating. people don't we need a disrupter to go to washington, d.c. the one guy who had special interests that i know of who tried to get my views and generous and gave me money was donald trump. he wanted casino gambling in florida. >> no i didn't. >> yes, you did. >> i was opposed to casino gambling before. during and after, and i'm not going to be bought by anybody. >> i promise i would have gotten it. >> no way. >> i know my people. i know my people. >> anything else you want to say about this? >> i will tell you jeb mate the statement, i'm not only referred to him. a lot of money was raised by a lot of people standing up here. the donors, the special interests, the lobbyists have very strong power over these people. i'm spending all my money. i'm not getting any. i turned down -- i turned down so much, i could have right now from special interests and donors, i could have double and triple what he's got.

i turned it down. i've turned down last week $5 million from somebody. so i will tell you, i understand the game. i've been on the other side all of my life, and they have a lot of control over our politicians and i don't say that favorably and not sure if there is another system but i say i am not accepting any money from anybody, nobody has control of me other than the people of this country. i'll do the right thing. >> you got, according to what you said on one of the talk shows, you've got hillary clinton to go to your wedding because you gave her money. >> that's true. >> maybe it works for hillary clinton, it doesn't work for anybody on this stage. >> i was a businessman. i got along with clinton and everybody. that was my job to get along with people. >> the fact is -- >> excuse me, one second -- >> no. >> more energy tonight. i like that. [ laughter ] >> i was asked the question -- >> 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 and i did a good job in doing it. go ahead. >> so he supports pelosi, schumer, clinton. >> got along with everybody. >> when he asked florida to have casino gambling, we said no. >> wrong. >> we said no. that's the simple fact. >> don't make things up. >> don't cut me off, sir. >> jake, can i say something about that? >> sure, dr. carson. >> when i entered this race, all the political pundits said it's impossible. you can't do it because you're not connected with the money, and there's no way that you can raise what you need in order to compete successfully. i in no way am wimming to get into bed with special interest groups or lick the boots of billionaires. i have said to the people, if they want me to do this, please get involved and we now have over 500,000 donations and the money is coming in, but the

pundits forgot about one thing, and that is the people. they are really in charge. >> russia is sending troops and tanks into syria right now to prop up a u.s. enemy, bosher al assad. they said, quote, russia presents the greatest threat to our national security. mr. trump you said you'll get along, quote, very well with putin. what would you do right now if you were president to get the russians out of syria? >> number one, they have to respect you. he has absolutely no respect for president obama. zero. syria is a mess. look at what is going on with isis and think 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. i would talk to them, get along with him. i believe and i may be wrong in which case i'd probably have to take a different path but i'd get along with a lot of the world leaders this country is not getting along with. we don't get along with china,

we don't get along with the heads of mexico. we don't get along with anybody, and yet, at the same time, they rip us left and right. they take advantage of us economically and every other way. we get along with nobody. i will get along, i think, with putin, and i will get along with others and we will have a much more stable, stable world. >> so just to clarify, the only answer i heard to the question i asked is that you would reach out to vladimir putin and you would do what? >> i believe that i will get along, we will do between that, ukraine, all of the other problems, we won't have the kind of problems that our country has right now with russia and many other nations. >> senator rubio, you've take an very different approach to the question of russia. you've called vladimir putin a quote gangster. why would president rubio's approach be more effective than president trump's? >> i have an understanding what russia and putin are doing. it's pretty straightforward.

he want reposition russia as a geopolitical force. he himself said the destruction of the soviet union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 21st century and he's trying to reverse that. he's trying to destroy nato and this is what it's part of. he's exploiting a vacuum. here's what you're going to see in the next few weeks. you'll see the russians begin to fly combat missions not just targeting isis but in order to prop up assad. he will also turn to other allies and say america is no longer a reliable ally, saudi arabia, rely on us. he's trying to replace us as the sing the most important power broker in the middle east, and this president is allowing it. that is what is happening in the middle east, with russia and everywhere else. >> thank you. i want to bring in carly fiorina. >> having -- >> ms. fiorina. >> having met vladimir putin, i wouldn't talk to him at all. we talked way too much. i would begin rebuilding the sixth fleet and missile defense

program in poland and conduct regular aggressive military exercises in the baltic states. i would probably send a few thousand more troops into germany. vladimir putin would get the message. by the way, the reason it's so critically important that every one of us know general sume amm sewell amani's name is because russia is in syria right now because the head of the quds force travels there and they're propping up bashar al assad. russia is a bad actor, but vladimir putin is someone we should not talk to because the only way he will stop is to sense strength and resolve on the other side. and we have all of that within our control. we could rebuild the six fleet. i will and we haven't. we could rebuild the missile defense program. we haven't. i will. we could also, to senator rubio's point, give the egyptians what they asked for, which is intelligence. >> thank you, senator.

>> we could arm the kurds. they have been asking us for three years. all of this is within our control. >> thank you, mr. fiorina. >> the next president, no matter who heo sheer will be, will inherit president obama's iran deal. senator cruz, senator kasich said anyone planning to rip up the iran deal on day one, as you promised to do, is quote, inexperienced, and quote, playing to a crowd. respond to governor kasich, please. >> let me tell you, jake, the single biggest national security threat facing america is the threat of a nuclear iran. we've seen six and a half years of president obama leading from behind. weakness is provocative. this iranian nuclear deal is nothing short of catastrophic. this deal on its face will send over $100 billion to the ayatollah khomeini, making the

obama administration the world's leading financier of radical islamic terrorism. abandons four american hostages in iran and will accelerate them acquiring nuclear weapons. you better believe it. if i'm elected president on the very first day in office, i will rip to shreds this catastrophic iranian nuclear deal. >> why is that in the playing to the crowd and an example of you being inexperienced? >> let's be clear. when it comes to experience, what president obama wants to do is he's run to the united nations and he wants to use the united nations to bind the united states and take away our sovereignty. i spent five and a half years as the solicitor general of texas the lead lawyer for the state in front of the u.s. supreme court, and i went in front of the supreme court and took on the world court in the united nations in a case and we won an historic victory saying the world court in the u.n. has no power to bind the united states and no president of the united states, republican or democrat,

has the authority to give away our sovereignty, and so if there's anyone up here who would deal with iran, they're giving up the core responsibility of commander in chief and as president, i would never do that. >> did senator cruz just play to the crowd? >> let me say i think it's a bad agreement. i would have never done it. a lot of our problems in the world today is that we don't have the relationship with our allies. if we want to go everywhere alone, we won't have the strength. if we can rebuild our relationships with our allies. this agreement, we don't know what's going to happen in 18 months. i served on a defense committee for 18 years. i have seen lots of issues in foreign affairs and in terms of global politics, you have to be steady. if they cheat, we slap the sanctions back on. if they help hamas and hezbollah, we slap the sanctions back on. if we find out they may be developing a nuclear weapon, the military option is on the table. we're stronger when we work with western civilization, friends in europe and doing it on our

own, i don't think is the right policy. >> thank you, governor kasich. i want to go to senator paul. senator paul, the white house is rolling out the red carpet for the president of china. governor walker says that president obama should cancel the dinner because of china's currency manipulation and china's alleged cyber attacks against the united states. is governor walker right? >> this goes back to what we've been saying for the last two or three questions. carly fiorina also said we're not going to talk with putin. think if regan said that during the cold war. we continued to talk with russians throughout the cold war, which is much more significant than where we are now. should we continue to talk with iran? yes. should we cut up the agreement immediately? that's absurd. wouldn't you want to know if they complied? i want to vote against the agreement because i don't think there is significant leverage but doesn't mean i would immediately not look at the agreement and cut it up without looking to see whether iran is compiling. the same goes with china. i don't think we need to be rash.

i don't think we need to be reckless and we need to leave lines of communication open. often we talk about whether we should be engaged in the world or disengaged in the world and i think this is an example of some who want to isolate us, actually, and not be engaged. we do need to be engaged with russia. doesn't mean we give them a free pass or china but to be engaged means to continue to talk. we did throughout the cold war and would be a big mistake not to do it again. >> governor walker, senator paul seems to suggest that canciellig the state dinner would be rash and reckless. >> one back on iran. when it comes to china why would we give an official state visit to a country involve in a massive cyber attack to the united states. that's not just a visit but 21-gun salute on the south lawn on the white house. that doesn't make sense. if we sent a message, wouldn't this be the time they issue a massive attack? jake, per the question i was one of the first to call for terminating the bad deal with iran. the president came after me and said i need to bone up.

the president that called isis the jv squad said i need to bone up. the reality is it's a bad deal on day one and a bad deal because this president has allowed iran to get closer and closer. i would love to play cards with this guy because barack obama folds with everything on iran. we need a leader that will stand up and actually -- >> governor bush, your father was the chief diplomatic envoy to china back when nixon opened relations to china. is scott walker's approach the right one cancelling the state dinner? >> i don't think so but we need to be strong against china. we should use offensive tactics to sent a deterrent signal to china. there should be sanctions than what president obama proposed. there is many other tools we have without cancelling a dinner. that's not going to change anything, but we can be much stronger as it relates to that. as it relates to iran, it's not a strategy to tear up an agreement. a strategy is how do we confront iran? the first thing we need to do is

reestablish our commitment to israel, which has been tattered by this administration. and make sure that they have the most sophisticated weapons to send a signal to iran that we have israel's back. if we do that, it will create a healthier deterrent effect than anything else i can think of. >> i want to turn to governor huckabee, who has been very patient. somebody had to be 11th and he is. >> i would certainly love to get in on this. >> you -- you can use your minute however you want -- but i want to ask this question. >> i've been patiently waiting and i'll say this about iran. >> all right, sir, go ahead. >> it's important. this is really about the survival of western civilization. this is not just a little conflict with a middle eastern country that we have given over $100 billion to, the equivalent in u.s. terms is $5 trillion. this threatens israel immediately and the entire middle east but threatens the united states of america and we can't treat a nuclear iranian

government as if it is just some government that would like to have power this is a government for 36 years has killed americans, they have kidnapped americans, they have maimed americans, they have sponsored terrorist groups, hamas and hezbollah, and they threaten the very essence of western civilization. to give them this agreement, that the president treats like the magna carta but iranians treat like toilet paper and we must simply make it very clear that the next president, one of us on this stage will absolutely not honor that agreement and will destroy it and will be tough with iran because otherwise, we put every person in this world in a very dangerous place. >> jake, i'd like -- >> we're going to turn now to hugh hewitt. >> mr. trump, two years ago, president obama drew a red line that the syrian dictator bashar

assad crossed and president obama threatened to strike. he did not. knees buckled. we now have 4 million refugees. syria is a living hell, and he turned to the congress for the authority to back him up. you have three senators to your right that said no. do they bear responsibility for this refugee crisis and what would you have done when assad crossed the line? >> i wouldn't have drawn the line, but once he drew it, he had no choice but to go across. somehow, he just doesn't have courage. there is something missing from our president. had he crossed the line and really gone in with force, done something to assad, if he had gone in with tremendous force, you wouldn't have millions of people displaced all over the world. >> how much responsibility, mr. trump, do the senators hold? >> they had a responsibility. absolutely. i think we have three of them here. i think they had a responsibility. >> senator -- >> we have zero responsibility

because let's remember what the president said. he said the attack he would conduct would be a pinprick. the united states military was not built to conduct pinprick attacks. if the united states military is going to be engaged by a commander in chief, it should only be engaged in an endeavor to win. and we're not going to authorize use of force if you're not putting men and women in a position to win. people don't trust this president because of that. >> senator paul? >> i think this gets to the point of wisdom on when to intervene and when we shouldn't. had we bombed assad at the time like president obama wanted and like hillary clinton wanted and many republicans wanted, i think isis would be in damascus today. isis would be in charge of syria had we bombed assad. sometimes both sides of the civil war are evil and intervention sometimes makes us less safe. this is the debate we need in the middle east. every time we topple a dictator, we've gotten chaos, the rise of

radical islam, and we're more at risk. i think we need to think before enact and know most interventions have backfired on us. >> thank you, senator paul. i want to turn to dana bash. >> hold on a second, jake. he asked me as well. >> that would be fair. you're right. you're the third senator. >> i think i'm the first senator. >> the number one test for use of military force should be the vital national security interest of the united states. the reason why i opposed president obama bombing syria is because he couldn't answer the question what do you do if chemical weapons end up in the hands of radical islamic terrorists like isis? i want to respond to several folks up here who said we should trust this iranian deal and see if the iranians comply. anyone paying attention knows they will not compile. there is a reason they refer to israel as the little satan and america as the great satan in the middle of negotiating this

treaty, khomeini led the assembled masses in chanting death to america. i'm reminded of a great editorial cartoon. it shows the ayatollah saying death to all americans and john kerry coming back and saying can we meet you halfway. we need a commander in chief to step up and protect the country. i can't wait to stand on the debate stage with hillary clinton and make it clear if you vote for hilary, you're voting for the ayatollah khomeini to possess a nuclear weapon, and if you elect me under no circumstances will those who chant death to america ever be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. >> jake, you haven't heard. >> jake -- >> we'll go to dana bash. >> no, no, no, i want to say something about what senator just said. >> and then it will be my turn. >> let me suggest to you, we believe we operate better when allies work with us.

president bush did it in the gulf war. we work better unified and secondly, nobody is trusting iran. they violate the deal. put on sanctions and have a high moral ground to talk to allies in europe. to get them to go with us. if they don't go with us, we slap sanctions on anyway. if they fund radical groups that threaten israel and the west, we should rip up the deal and put sanctions back on. let me make it clear. if we think they are close to developing a nuclear weapon and we get that information, you better believe that i would do everything in my power as the commander in chief to stop them having a nuclear weapon. we can have it and we can have our allies and we can be strong as a country and we can project across the globe with unity, not just doing it alone. that is not what gets us where we want to get as a nation. >> senator cruz? >> jake, there is no more important topic in 2016 than this topic right here. i listened to serve folks say,

gosh, if they cheat, we'll act. we won't know under this agreement, there are several facilities in iran they designate as military facilities off limit all together. beyond that, the other facilities we give them 24 days notice before inspecting them. that is designed to allow them to hide the evidence and most astonishingly, this agreement trusts the iranians to inspect themselves. that makes no sense whatsoever and let me note, president obama is violating federal law but not handing over the side deals and we ought to see the united states congress stand up together and say hand over this treaty and protect this country. >> thank you, senator. i want to come back to governor huckabee. i want to turn to governor huckabee. you held a rally for a clerk in kentucky jailed for not issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. as i don't need to tell you. you called what happened to kim davis, that clerk, an example of the criminalization of christianity. there are several people on the stage who disagree with you.

governor bush for example says that clerk is sworn to uphold the law. is governor bush on the wrong side of the criminalization of christianity? >> not on the wrong side. jeb is a friend. i'm not up here to fight with jeb or anybody else. but i am here to fight for somebody who is a county clerk elected under the kentucky constitution that 75% of the people of that state voted for that said marriage was between a man and woman. the supreme court in a very, very divided decision decided out of thin air that they were just going to redefine marriage. it's a decision that the other justices in a sense said they didn't have and there wasn't a constitutional shred of capacity for them to do it. i thought that everybody here passed ninth grade civics. the courts cannot legislate. that's what roberts said and that's what we learned in civics. the courts can't make a law. they can interpret one and review one. they can't implement it and they can't force it. here is what happened. because the courts just decided that something was going to be,

and people relinquished it, and the other two branches of government sat by silently, i thought we had three branches of government. they were all equal to each other. we have separation of powers and checks and balances. if the court can just make a dition and we all surrender to it, we have what jefferson was judicial tyranny. >> thank you, governor. >> let me finish this one thought. i haven't got much time i'm going to take what little i can here. we made accommodation to the fort hood shooter to let him grow a beard. we made accommodations to the detainees at gitmo and i've seen the accommodations that we made to the muslim detainees who killed americans. you're telling me you cannot make an accommodation for an elected democrat county clerk from kentucky? what else is it other than the

criminalization of her faith and the exulitation of the faith of everyone else who might be a ft. hood shooter or a detainee at gitmo? >> i'm not telling you that, but mr. bush does. >> i don't think you're stating my views right. there needs to be accommodation for someone acting on faith. relicious conscience is a first freedom. it's a powerful part of our bill of rights, and in a big tolerant country, we should respect the rule of law. allow people in this country, i was opposed to the decision, but you can't just say, well, gays can't get married now. but this woman, there should be some accommodation for her conscience as there should be for people who are florists who don't want to participate in weddings or bakers. we should have accommodations to people so we can solve the problem in the right way. this should be solved at the local level, so we do agree, mike. >> i was --

>> governor, you said quote, she is sworn to uphold the law. >> she is and so if she, based on conscience can't sign that marriage license, then there should be someone in her office to be able to do it and if the law needs changed in the state of kentucky which is what she's advocating, it should be changed. >> let me go to dana bash with a question. >> governor kasich, senator cruz is committed to stripping federal funds from planned parenthood that it could result in shutting down the federal government in about two weeks. do you agree with senator cruz's tactic? >> we should defund planned parenthood. i don't know many people in america who don't believe we should. 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. i think there is a way to get this done by giving governors the ability to be able to act to defund planned parenthood but it comes to closing down the federal government, you have to be very careful about that. when we shut the government

down, if we have a chance at success and it's a great principle, yes. the president of the united states is not going to sign this and we'll shut the government down and open it up and american people will shake their head and say what's the story with these republicans? i think there is a way to get to cutting off the funding for planned parenthood. i was in the congress for 18 years, balanced the budget, cut taxes, got it done, changed welfare, went around the president to get welfare reform done. there are ways to do it without having to shut the government down but i'm sympathetic to the fact that we don't want this organization to get funding and the money ought to be reprogrammed for family planning and other organizations that don't support this tactic. i would not be for shutting the government down because i don't think it's going to work out. >> thank you. senator cruz, on this stage not that long ago senator graham said this tactic you're pushing would tank the republicans' ability to win in 2016. >> well, let me tell you, dana, number one i'm proud to stand for life. these planned parenthood videos are horrifying.

i would encourage everybody to watch the videos. seeing them heartlessly selling and bartering human parts of huming beings and ask yourself are these my values? these are horrifying. on these videos planned parenthood confesses to multiple felonies. it is a felony with ten years jail term to sell the body parts of unborn children for profit. that's what these videos show planned parenthood doing. absolutely, we shouldn't be sending $500 million of taxpayer money to funding an ongoing criminal enterprise, and i tell you, the fact that republican leadership in both houses has begun this discussion by preemptively surrendinger to barack obama and saying we'll give in because obama threatens a veto. you know, obama is committed to his principles. he will fight for them. he says i will veto any budget that doesn't fund planned

parenthood and republicans surrender. we need to stop surrendering and stand for our principles. >> thank you -- >> governor, i want to go to you, is it what senator cruz says, surrenderer by republicans. >> i can tell you this, we didn't surrenderer in new jersey. six years ago at the brand-new first ever pro-life governor of new jersey since roe v. wade, i defunded planned parenthood and defunded it eight times in new jersey. since the day i walked in as governor, planned parenthood has not been funded in new jersey. we stood up and every veto is sustained. here is the problem, we're fighting with each other up here. we agree, let's ask hillary clinton. she believes in the systematic murder of children in the womb to preserve their body parts dana in a way that maximizes their value for sale for profit. it is disgusting and the american people need to hear it. we shouldn't be fighting with each other. she's the real opponent and problem. >> governor, the reality is in

just two weeks time, we're going to be facing a question about whether or not it's enough to shut down the government to make that statement because there's still a democrat in the white house. do you oppose it or support it? >> i'll tell you what i'm willing to fight for. why do we put tax reform on the president's tax. we is simplify the taxes. it's really important, danna. we got to talk about what we would be willing to shut down for. why don't we put tax reform on the desk and make him veto it. why haven't we repealed and replaced obamacare? make him veto that if it's what he wants to do. why don't we do the same thing with planned parenthood? >> republican congress -- they should be doing that and they're not, and we should not be giving the president a pass. >> dana -- >> one more time, i'm sorry, i want to get an answer. >> i put it in the list, dana. we should force the president to take action. >> dana -- >> let's force him -- >> dana, i would like to link these two issues, both of which are incredibly important. iran and planned parenthood. one has something to do with the defense of security of this nation. the other has something to do with the defense of the character of this nation.

you haven't heard a plan about iran from any politician up here, here is my plan. on day one i will make two phone calls, the first to my good friend netanyahu to reassure him weez rr stand with the state of israel. the second to the supreme leader to tell him unless and until he opens every military and nuclear facility to real anytime anywhere inspections by our people, not his, we the united states of america will make it as difficult as possible to move money around the global financial system. we can do that. we don't need his cooperation to do it. ally and adversary in the world will know that the united states in america is back in the leadership business, which is how we must stand with allies. as regard to planned parenthood, anyone who has watched this videotape, i dare, hillary clinton, barack obama to watch these tapes. 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. this is about the character of our nation, and if we will not stand up and force president obama to veto this bill, shame on us. [ applause ] >> i want to continue on the subject, governor bush, you recently said while discussing planned parenthood, quote you're not sure we need a half billion for women's health issues but you since said you misspoke, you didn't mean to say women's health issues, but donald trump said that quote, that comment, will haunt you the same way mitt romney's 47% video haunted him. tell him why he's wrong. >> he's wrong because i'm the most pro-life governor on the stage. i got to act on my core beliefs. it's part of who i am. life is a gift from god and from beginning to end, we need to

respect it and err on the side of life. we have parental notification and the only state to fund crisis pregnancy centers and totally focused on this and i would bring that philosophy to washington d.c. here is a solution to this. title ten of the hhs funding, there was something called the reagan rule, passed in 1988. in that rule, it was defined and the courts approved this, that a planned parenthood, you couldn't separate the money between the actual abortion procedures and there are 330,000 abortions that take place in this clinic, and their promotion of it. he interpreted the right way, the courts ruled in his favor and planned parenthood did not get funding during that time until president clinton came in. when i'm elected president, we'll restore that interpretation and this deal will be finished. >> thank you, governor bush. donald trump -- >> i just -- >> i'm not sure we need half a billion dollars for women's health issues, he said he

misspoke. you said that's going to haunt him. >> i think it will haunt him. i think it's a terrible statement. i think it's going to haunt him absolutely. he came back later and said he misspoke. in question because i heard when he said the statement. i was watching and i said wow, i can't believe it. i will take care of women. i respect women. i will take care of women. one thing we will say and i would like to get back to the iran situation, we're talking about iran. the agreement was terrible. it was incompetent. i've never seen anything like it. one of the worst contracts i've seen and nobody ever mentioned north korea where you have a maniac sitting there and has nuclear weapons and somebody better start thinking about north korea and perhaps a couple other places but certainly north korea and ted and i have spoken. a lot of us have spoken. we're talking about iran. they are bad actors, bad thing are going to happen. in the meantime, you have somebody right now in north korea who's got nuclear weapons

and who is saying almost every other week, i'm ready to use them, and we don't even mention it. >> governor bush? >> there are 13,000 community-based organizations that provide health services to women. 13,000 in this country. i don't believe planned parenthood should get a penny from the federal government. those organizations should get funding. just as i increased funding as i was governor of the state. that's the way you do this. improve the condition for people and donald, when i was governor, we increased opportunities for women. women's income grew three times faster than the national average when i was governor. >> why did you say it? why did you say it? i heard it myself. why did you say it? >> we increased child support. >> you said you're going to cut funding for women's health issues. you said it. >> i have a proven record. >> except you said it. >> we're going to get to -- >> just one more moment. there's something bigger to this. like some of the other governors here, i defunded planned parenthood four and a half years

ago in a blue state, but it's bigger than that. we did that in a blue state and took the money and put it in women's health. i think the bigger issue is we should be able to do this nationally and this is why so many republicans are upset with washington. they see the house and senate and say whey can't we pass this? why can't we defund it? forget about the 60 vote rule. pass it with 51 votes. put it on the desk of the president. >> thank you, governor. >> go forward and make a point. >> thank you, governor. >> this is why people are upset with washington. >> we're going to get to many of this issues. we're still in the first block, believe it or not. i want to ask you about this, in an interview last week in "rolling stone" magazine, donald trump said, quote, look at that face. would anyone vote for that? can you imagine that the face of our next president? mr. trump later said he was talking about your persona, not your appearance. please feel free to respond what you think about his persona?

>> you know, it's interesting to me, mr. trump said that he heard mr. bush very clearly and what mr. bush said. i think women all over this country heard very clearly what mr. trump said. [ applause ] >> i think she's got a beautiful face and i think she's a beautiful woman. >> all right. on that note, in less than two minutes, we'll take a very quick break. the most contentious issue on the campaign trail and the candidates on the stage are split over how to handle it. that's coming up next, please give some applause to the candidates. [ applause ] just might be the one. to clean the oceans,

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welcome to cnn's republican presidential debate. >> no topic perhaps has been more compubustible in this campaign than the issue of immigration. mr. trump, you have called for deporting every undocumenting immigrant. governor christie has said, quote, there are not law enforcement officers, local, county, state, and federal

combined to forcibly deport 11 to 12 million people. tell governor christie how much your plan will cost and how you will get it done. >> correct. first of all, i want to build a wall, a wall that works so important and it's a big part of it. second of all, we have a lot of really bad dudes in this country from outside and i think chris knows that maybe as well as anybody. they go, if i get elected, first day they are gone. gangs all over the place, chicago, baltimore, no matter where you look. we have a country based on laws. i will make sure that those laws are adhered to. these are illegal immigrants. i don't think you would be asking this question if i didn't run because when i ran at my opening remarks at trump tower, i took heat like nobody has taken heat in a long time, and then they found out with the killing of kate from san francisco and so many other crimes, they found out that i was right, and most people, many people apologized to me. i don't think you'd even be talking about illegal

immigration if it weren't for me. so, we have a country of laws. they will go out and come back, if they deserve to come back. if they've had a bad record, been arrested, if they've been in jail, they are never coming back. we're going to have a country again. right now we don't have a country. we don't have a border and we're going to do something about it and it can be done with proper management and it can be done with heart. >> governor christie, you and i have talked about this in an interview. you say that his big wall, his plan to deport 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants sounds great but it's never going to happen. tell him why you're skeptical of his plans. >> i don't yield to anybody on how to enforce the law. i'm the only person on the stage who spent seven years as the united states attorney after september 11th. and i know how to do this. the fact is, though, that for 15,000 people a day to be deported, every day for two

years is an undertaking that almost none of us could accomplish given the current levels of funding and the current number of law enforcement officers. here is what we need to do and this is where donald is right. we need to secure the boarder and do it with more than just a wall. we need electronics, drones, fbi, dea and atf and take the fingerprint of every person that comes into this country on a visa and when they over stay their visa, we need to tap them on the shoulder and say you have overstayed your welcome. you're taking advantage of the american people. it's time for you to go. if we had that system in place we wouldn't have the 11 million people we have now. >> thank you, governor christie. >> i agree with chris but i will say this, illegal immigration is costing us more than $200 billion a year, just maintaining what we have. >> i want to bring in dr. carson because he, too, is skeptical of your plan to immediately deport 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants. he said people that say that

have no idea what this entails. why do you say that, dr. carson? >> first of all, recognize that we have an incredible illegal immigration problem. i was down in arizona a few weeks ago at the border. i mean, the fences that were there were not manned and those are the kind of fences when i was a kid that would barely slow us down. i don't see any purpose in having that. what we need to do is look at something that actually works. arizona, they stop 97% of the illegal immigration there. they put in a double fence with a road so there was quick access by the enforcement people. if we don't seal the border, the rest of the stuff really doesn't matter. it's kind of ridiculous all the other things we talk about. we have the ability, we don't have the will. there was one area where they cut a hole in the fence and to repair it they put a few strands of barb wire across. photographers wanted to

photograph us from the side of the mexicans and went through there and they weren't physically fit people, and they took their cameras and things with them and shot us from the other side. that's how easy it is to get across. and the drugs, it goes on and on and on. i.c.e. tells them to release these people. 67,000 criminals released. >> dr. carson. >> with all due respect, you said the plan, people that say that have no idea what this entails, why not? >> i have also said if anybody knows how to do that, that i would be willing to listen, and if they can, you know, specify exactly how that will be done and the cost and sounds reasonable, then i think it's worth discussing. >> let's continue the conversation about illegal immigration with dana bash. >> governor bush, mr. trump has suggested that your views on immigration are influenced by your mexican-born wife.

he said that quote, if my wife were from mexico, i think i would have a soft spot for people from mexico. did mr. trump go too far in invoking your wife? >> he did. he did. you're proud of your family as i am. to subject my wife into the middle of political conversation was completely inappropriate and i hope you apologize for that. >> i have to tell you, i hear phenomenal things. i hear your wife is a lovely woman. >> she's fantastic. she's absolutely the love of my wife and right here and why don't you apologize to her. >> i won't do that because i said nothing wrong. i do hear she's a lovely woman. >> here is the deal, my wife is a mexican-american. she's an american by choice. she loves this country as much as anybody in this room. and she wants a secure border. she wants to embrace the traditional american values that make us special and make us unique. we're at a cross roads. are we going to take the reagan approach, the hopeful,

optimistic approach, the approach that says you come to our country legally, you pursue your dreams with a vengeance, or the donald trump approach, everything is bad, everything is coming to an end. i'm on the reagan side of this. >> jeb said that they come into our country as an act of love. with all of the problems that we have in so many instances, we have wonderful people coming in but with all of the problems, this is not an act of love. he's weak on immigration. by the way, in favor of common core, which is also a disaster, but weak on immigration, he doesn't get my vote. >> dana -- >> mr. trump -- >> with all due respect, immigration did not come up in 2016 because mr. trump brought it up. we talked about it in 2012. we talked about it in 2008. we talked about it in 2004. >> not with this intensity. >> we've been talking about it for 25 years. this is why people are tired of politicians. >> i want to get governor bush a chance to respond to what mr. trump said. >> first of all, i wrote a book

about this four years ago now and laid out a comprehensive conservative approach for immigration reform, and it does require securing the border. no one disagrees with that. but to build a wall and to deport people, half a million a month, would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, donald, hundreds of billions of dollars. it would destroy community life, tear families apart, and send a signal to the rest of the world that the united states values that are so important no longer matter. >> as i said, we are spending $200 billion. we are spending $200 billion a year on maintaining what we have. we will move them out. the great ones will come back. the good ones will come back. they will be expedited. they will come back legally. we'll have a country. they'll come back legally. >> on that note, you have criticized governor bush for speaking spanish on the campaign trail. you said quote, he should really set an example by speaking

english in the united states. what's wrong with speaking spanish? >> i think it's wonderful and all, but i did it a little bit half-heartedly. but i mean it to a large extent. we have a country you have to speak english and where he was and the way it came out didn't sound right to me. we have to have assimilation to have a country. we have to have assimilation. i'm not the first one to say this, dana, we've had many people over the years for many, many years saying this is a country where we speak english, not spanish. [ applause ] >> well, i've been speaking english here tonight and i'll keep speaking english but the simple fact is of a high school kid asked me a question in spanish, a school by way of voucher program created under my watch. the largest voucher program in the country where kids can go to a christian school, and they ask me a question in spanish, i'm going to show respect and answer

that question in spanish even though they do speak english and even though they embrace american values. >> this was a reporter, not a high school kid. >> i agree english is the unifying language of our country. everyone should learn to speak it and it's important. i want to tell you about someone who didn't speak english well, and that was my grandfather. he came in the 1960s escaping cuba and lived with us growing up and my grandfather loved america. he understood who was so special about this country. he loved ronald reagan and would be proud of the fact we're here this evening. my grandfather instilled in me the belief i was blessed to live in one society where even i, the son of a bartender and a maid could aspire to have anything and be anything i was willing to work hard and achieve, but he taught me that in spanish because it was the language he was most comfortable in, and he became a conservative even though he got his news in spanish. i believe that free enterprise and limited government is the best way to help people who are trying to achieve upward mobility and if they get news in spanish, i want them to hear that from me, not from a translator at univision.

>> thank you, senator rubio. senator cruz, this week, we learned more about dr. carson's plan for the 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country. dr. carson proposed giving these undocumented immigrants a six-month grace period to pay back taxes, then to let them become guest workers and only to deport people who failed to do that. >> not exactly what i said. >> how would you say it. i was just reading the "wall street journal" quote, but please tell us. >> after we secure the borders, after we turn off the spigot to dispense all the goodies. people who have a pristine record, we should consider allowing them to become guest workers primarily in the agricultural sphere because that's the place where americans don't seem to want to work.

that's what i said, and they have a six-month period to do that. if they don't do it in that time period, they become illegal, and as illegals they would be treated as such. >> from the horse's mouth, sen tomorrow cruz does that fit your definition of amnesty? >> jake, i'm very glad that donald trump is being in this race has forced the mainstream media finally to talk about illegal immigration. i think that's very important. i like it and respect ben carson. i'll let him talk about his own plans, but i will say this, the natural next question that primary voters are asking after we focus on illegal immigration is okay, what are the records of the various candidates and this is an issue of which there are stark differences. 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 and in fact, who helped lead the fight to stop a massive

amnesty plan in 2013 when barack obama and harry reid joined the washington republicans in a massive amnesty plan. i stood shoulder to shoulder with jeff sessions helping lead the fight. folks here have talked about how do you secure the borders? i've been leading the fight in the senate to triple the border patrol, put in place fencing and walls, a strong biometric -- >> thank you, senator. senator rubio -- >> can i just correct -- >> we'll come back to you in one second. senator rubio, i'm not sure whose plan he's saying constitutes amnesty but he has said it about your plan in the past. we'll give you a chance to respond. >> illegal immigration, all the good aspects of immigration and negative ones i live with. my family is immigrants, my neighbors are immigrants. i have seen every aspect of it. and i can tell you america doesn't have one immigration problem. it has three.

first, despite the fact that we have are the most generous country in the history of the world in allowing people to come here legally, we still have people coming here illegally. second, we have a legal immigration system that no longer works. it primary is built whether you have a relative living here instead of merit and 11 or 12 million people who have been here longer than a decade who are here illegally. we must deal with all three of these. we cannot deal with all three problems in one massive piece of legislation. i learned that. we tried it that way. here is the way forward, first, we must, we must secure the border, the physical border or the wall, absolutely but we need an entry exit tracking system. 40% of the people that come here illegally come legally and then they overstay the visa. we ultimately need a mandatory e verify system. after we've done that, step two would be to modernize the legal immigration system so you come to america on the basis of what you can contribute economically, not whether or not you have a relative living here and after we've done that the american

people will be reasonable and responsible about what you do with someone who is here and isn't a criminal. if you're a criminal, obviously, you won't be able to stay. >> dr. carson, i would like you to answer the question, senator cruz describes plans such as yours as amnesty. why is is not amnesty? >> number one, i've talked to farmers and they said they cannot hire americans to do the job i'm talking about and the second reason is because the 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. so that's key. but the other thing that i want to bring up is i mentioned something earlier, i think it was just sort of glossed over. i talked about the success in yuma county, i mean, incredible success, and the department of justice said, no, we don't want

to do that. that's too successful. we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel. all we have to do is look at things that work. use a little commonsense. >> thank you, dr. carson. i want to talk about the issue of birthright citizenship, which emerged as a major issue in the campaign. mr. trump, you say that babies born in the united states to undocumented immigrants should not any longer get automatic american citizenship. ms. fiorina says you are pandering and acting like the politicians you rail against. what's your message to ms. fiorina on birthright citizenship? >> the 14th amendment says clearly to a lot of great legal scholars, not television scholars but legal scholars it is wrong. it can be corrected with an act of congress, probably doesn't even need that. a woman gets pregnant. she's nine months, walks across the border, has the baby in the united states and we take care of the baby for 85 years. i don't think so. by the way, mexico and almost

every other country anywhere in the world doesn't have that. we're the only ones dumb enough, stupid enough to have it. and people and by the way, this is not just with respect to mexico, they are coming from asia to have babies here and all of a sudden, we have to take care of the babies for the life of the baby. the 14th amendment, it reads properly, you can go and it's probably going to have to be checked or process through court, probably ends up at the supreme court but a lot of great legal scholars that say that's not correct and in my opinion, it makes absolutely no -- we're the only country, one of the only countries. we're going to take care of those babies for 70, 75, 80, 90 years? i don't think so. >> ms. fiorina, the majority of countries don't have birthright citizen ship. donald trump is right about that. why is it pandering when he says this? >> we have just spent a good bit of time discussing as republicans how to solve this problem. i would ask your audience at home to ask a very basic

question. why have democrats not solved this problem? president obama campaigned in 2007 and 2008 on solving the immigration problem. he entered washington with majorities in the house and the senate. he could have chosen to do anything to solve this problem. instead, he chose to do nothing. why? because the democrats don't want this issue solved. >> ms. fiorina -- >> they want it to be an issue to use. as to birthright citizenship, the truth is you can't wave your hands and say the 14th amendment is going to 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, and meanwhile, what will continue to go on is what has gone on for 25 years, with all due respect, mr. trump, we have been talking about illegal immigration for 25 years.

san francisco has been a sanctuary city since 1989. there are 300 of them. meanwhile, what has happened, nothing. the border remains insecure. the legal immigration system remains broken. look, we know what it takes to secure a border. we've heard a lot of great ideas, manpower, money, technology, leadership -- mostly apparently leadership, the kind of leadership that understands how to get results. >> thank you. mr. trump -- >> i agree 100%, by the way. with carly on the fact that the democrats do not want to solve this problem for obvious reasons. i believe a reading of the 14th amendment allows you to have an interpretation where this is not legal and where it can't be done. i have seen both sides. some of the greatest scholars agree with me, without having to go through congress. if you do go through congress, you can absolutely solve the problem. >> you would stipulate, mr. trump, not everyone agrees with you. >> that's true, sure. >> where do you stand on the

issue of birthright citizenship? >> i hate to say it but donald trump has a bit of a point here. the case that was decided around 1900 is people had a green card, were here legally and they said that their children were citizens. there has never been a direct supreme court case on people who were here illegally, whether or not their kids are citizens. it hasn't really been adjudicated. the 14th amendment says those that were here and under the jurisdiction, the original author of the 14th amendment said on the senate floor that this was applying to slaves and did not specifically apply to others. >> all right. senator paul, thank you. let's turn to another topic. we received a lot of questions on social media about the economy and jobs. we have two ceos on stage now, ms. fiorina you were ceo of hewlett packard. donald trump said, quote, you ran hp into the ground, you fires tons of people, you got viciously fired.

for those looking to create jobs, why should they pick you and not donald trump? >> i led hewlett packard throw a very difficult time, the worst technology recession in 25 years. the nasdaq stock index fell 80%. it took 15 years for the stock index to recover. we had very strong competitors who literally went out of business and lost all of their jobs in the process, despite the difficult times. we doubled the size of the company. we quadruples its top line growth rate, quadruples the cash flow. yes, we had to make tough choices. and in doing so, we saved 80,000 jobs, went on to grow to 160,000 jobs, and now hewlett-packard is now almost 300,000 jobs. we went from lagging behind to leading in every market segment. we must lead in this nation again and tough calls are going to be required. as for the firing, i have been very honest about this from the day it happened.

when you challenge the status quo you make enemies. i made a few. steve jobs told me that the day i was fired to say hey, been there, done that twice and it's true that the man that led my firing, tom perkins, just took out a full-page ad in the "new york times" to say he was wrong, i was right. i was a terrific ceo. the board was dysfunctional, and he thinks i will make a magnificent president of the united states. >> thank you, ms. fiorina. mr. trump, why would you be better at creating jobs than carly fiorina? >> let me just explain. the head of the yale business school wrote a paper recently, 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 is a disaster and continues to be a disaster, they still haven't recovered. in fact today on the front page of "the wall street journal" theirified another 25,000 or 30,000 people, saying we still

haven't recovered from the catastrop catastrophe. when carly says the revenues went up, it's because she bought compac, it was a terrible deal, and it led to the destruction of the company. one other company before that was lucid. it turned out to be a catastrophe. i only say this. she can't run any of my companies. that i can tell you. >> msdz fiorina, i want to give %-p clintonite and had it out for me from the moment i arrived at hewlett-packard. i find it quite rich you would talk about this. you know, there are a lot of us americans that believe that we are going to have trouble some day paying back the interest on our debt because politician have run up mountains of debt using other people's money. that is in fact precisely the way you ran your casinos. you ran up mountains of debt as well as losses using other people's money and were forced to file for bankruptcy not once, not twice, four times. a record four times.

why should we trust you to manage the finances of this nation any differently than you managed the finances of your casinos? >> carly. >> mr. trump? >> i've made over $10 billion. i had a casino company, ceasers just filed for bankruptcy. chris will tell you, it's not chris' fault either, but almost everybody in atlantic city is in trouble or filed for -- maybe i'll blame chris. but atlantic city is a disaster -- wait a minute, carly, wait. i let you speak. atlantic city is a disaster. and i did great in atlantic city. i knew when to get out. my timing was great and i got a lot of credit for it. many of the great business people you know and carl icahn will work with me on making great deals with this country, whether it's carl or so many others that we read about all the time, they have used the laws of the land -- >> thank you, mr. trump. governor christie's name has been invoked. >> i'm as entertained with this personal back and forth by the history of donald and carly's

career, for the 55-year-old construction worker out in the audience who doesn't have a job, who can't fund his college's education, they could care less about your careers. they care about theirs. let's start talking about that on the stage and stop playing the games. >> governor kasich -- >> john, i'm not done yet, john. stop -- >> not a game, it's the issue in this election. >> carly, listen, you can enter interrupt everybody else on the stage, you can't interrupt me. the fact is that we don't want to hear about your careers. back and forth and volleying back and forth who did well and poorly. you're both successful people. congratulations. you know who is not successful? the middle class people. getting plowed over by barack obama and hillary clinton. let's stop the childish back and forth between the two of you. [ applause ] >> jake? >> governor kasich, you next but ms. fiorina's name was mentioned. i have to give her the opportunity to respond if she wants it. >> i thought we were hearing

about governor christie's record as governor, actually. track records are important. i completely agree. what's at stake here is the future of this nation and the future of every american, but i do think that a track record of leadership is vital because in the end, this election is about leadership. let's talk about leadership. it's not about bragging, it is about challenging the status quo, solving problems, producing results, and the highest calling of leadership is to unlock potential in others. >> thank you. >> problems have festered in washington for too long and the potential of this nation is being crushed. >> thank you, ms. fiorina. governor kasich, i'm coming to you. let me ask the question. you can use the time however you want. >> okay, jake. >> donald trump says the hedge fund guys are getting away with murder with the tax rate. he wants to raise the tax rates. do you agree?

>> i don't at this point in terms of changing the incentives for investments in risk taking. let's stop for a second. there's one person on the stage who has a record. i have one of the few who led the effort of the chief architect the last time we balanced the federal budge. we also cut taxes. when i left washington in 2000, we had a $5 trillion surplus and the economy was booming. i spent ten year fz of my life to get us to that point, went out in the private sector, a great experience, and went into ohio and took an $8 billion hole and turned it into a $2 billion surplus. we had the largest amount of tax cuts of any sitting governor, we have grown over 300,000 jobs. you see, i've done it in both places. i'm the only one here that's done it in both places. it took a lot to get us to a balanced budget. it was legitimate and real and we negotiated it. a lot of what we're talking about here tonight as we take this position and that position, you know what? at the end of the day america has to work. we got to figure out how to come

together to deal with this, with our fiscal problems because we when we deal with that, we create a stronger economy for everybody, people have a chance to rise. so when we think about how we make a choice, it's the person that lands that plane. it's not somebody that talks about it. it's about the person who has done it, and i have done it in both places and i did it including people in the other party, and that's how we were successful. and that's how i will be president. using that experience to drive this country forward. >> i want to bring you in on the question of hedge fund managers and taxes them. you have said that you are bothered by the fact hedge fund managers pay a low tax rate and make 2500 times what people who work for them make. do you agree with donald trump and governor bush have proposed, raising the tax rates? >> we ought to get rid of the taxes on people who produce. why should we penalize productivity?

it's why i'm a supporter of the fair tax, which would be a tax on our consumption, rather than a tax on our productivity. in other words, you're not going to tax anybody for what they earn, whether it's a worker who's working by the hour or whether it's a hedge front manager. if they can create jobs, we need some jobs. and i think the fair tax makes more sense. now jake, i've been listening to everybody on the stage and there is a lot of back and forth about i'm the only one whose done this and great things. we've all done great things or we wouldn't be on the the stage but it occurs to me as we're sitting here in the reagan library that most of us would like to pay tribute to a guy who went he got elected didn't get elected telling everybody how great he was. he got elected telling everybody how great the american people were, and he empowered them to live their dreams which is what i would love to see us do by no longer penalizing the people who are out there working because

they're taking a gut punch right now. >> thank you, governor. >> dr. carson, support slashing the tax code and replacing it with a flat tax, based on tithing from the bible. if you make $10 billion, you pay $1 billion in taxes, if you make $10, you pay $1 in taxes. donald trump believes in progressive taxation. he does not believe it's right rich people pay the same as the poor. tell donald trump why his ideas on taxes are wrong. >> it's all about america. you know, the people who say the guy who paid a billion dollars because he had 10, he still has $9 billion left. that's not fair. we need to take more of his money. that's called socialism. that doesn't work so well. what made america into a great nation was the fact that we said that guy just put in $1 billion, let's create an environment that's even more conducive to his success so next year he can

put in $2 billion and that's the thing that helps us to grow. we can't grow by continuing to take a piece of pie and dividing it and redistributing it but i'm also looking at what governor huckabee talked about -- >> you don't want me operating on you, i assure you that. >> the fair tax. looking at both of them, we're evaluating them both and i'm talking to the american people because one of the things we must recognize is that this country is of for and by the people. and it's really time that the government get out of the way and let the people be the ones who decide how they want to run their country. >> mr. trump -- >> i'd like to respond -- >> what do you think of the flat tax? is it fair? >> the thing about the flat tax that i don't like is if you make $200 million a year, you pay 10%, you're paying very little relatively to someone who is making $50,000 a year and has to hire h & r block because it's so

complicated. one thing i'll say to ben is we've had graduated tax system for years. it's not a socialistic thing. what i'd like to do and i'll be putting in the plan in about two weeks and i think people will like it, it's a major reduction in taxes, a major reduction for the middle class. the hedge fund guys won't like me as much as they do now. i know them all but they will pay more. i know people making a tremendous amount of money and paying virtually no taxes and it's not fair. >> thank you, mr. trump. senator paul. >> i'm glad we're having a discussion about taxes. everybody lumments we lose jobs overseas. our companies and jobs are being chased overseas by a 70,000-page tax code. so that's why we have a single rate, 14.5%, for everybody, business, korptd income and personal income. we also get rid of the payroll tax and the working close would get a break. a flat tax, eliminating the tax code and loopholes is the way to go and get america going again. >> governor walker, dr. carson wants to raise the federal minimum wage.

you called it a lame idea. why is raising the federal minimum wage lame? >> the best way to help people see their wages go up is get them the education, the skills they need to take on careers they pay more than minimum wage. you want to help people get jobs and that's why on the last question we try to jump in on taxes, to me not just about taxes, cutting taxes, i've cut income taxes, property taxes, property taxes are lower in my state. than they were before we took office. the real issue is about jobs. 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. all the things we should be talking about tonight are how to create jobs. helping people get the skills and education qualifications they need to succeed. that's the way you help people create jobs, part of our larger plan to reform the tax code, to cut taxes, to put in place an education system that gives people the skills and education they need, to put in place an

all of the above energy policy, but you start by repealing obamacare. i'm the only one on the stage that has a plan introduced a plan to repeal obamacare on day one. i'll send a bill to congress and make sure they actually enact it and sign an order that makes congress live by the same rules as everybody else. >> dr. carson, governor walker didn't really answer the question but i'll let you respond. he called raising the federal minimum wage lame. what do you think? >> i was asked should it be raised? i said probably or possibly. but what i added which i think is the most important thing is i said we need to get both sides of this issue to sit down and talk about it and negotiate a reasonable minimum wage and index that so that we never have to have this conversation again in the history of america. i think we also have to have two minimum wages, a starter and a sustaining.

because how are young people ever going to get a job if you have such a high minimum wage that it makes it impractical to hire them. >> thank you, i want to turn -- >> you said i didn't answer and i did. i said to me i think the real focus -- hillary clinton talks about the minimum wage. that's her answer to grow the economy. the answer is to give people the skills and education so they make far more. i don't want to argue about how low things are going to be. i want to talk about how do we lift everyone up in america. that's what regan talked about. now how bad things were but ho to make it better for everybody. that's what we've done in wisconsin. >> let me bring in our participant near from cnn radio network hugh hewitt. >> i want to talk about winning because i think all of you were more qualified than senator clinton as in the first debate. but there are different styles. carly fiorina and governor kasich you've been on my show a lot and refuse to attack hillary clinton, you don't want to do that. you want to do the go ohio

campaign. i like that. carly fiorina, i don't have to bring up the secretary of state, you bring her up. which one of you is wrong? governor kasich? >> look, people still have to get to know me so i want to spend my time talking about my experience reforming welfare, balancing budgets, providing economic growth in washington, turning ohio around, $8 billion in the hole, $2 billion surplus. up over 300,000 jobs, big tax cuts, strengthening our credit. all those things matter but, you know, as a young man in my first election in 1978 i defeated a incumbent democrat. i defeated an incumbent democrat en1982, running on a reagannly republican in america to defeat an incumbent democrat that year, and when i won for election of governor, i was the first republican to defeat an incumbent democrat in 36 years and the first pem to have never

run state-wide out of politics for ten years to beat an incumbent that hadn't happened. we'll get to the point to talk about hillary clinton or wherever the nominee is record. right now, i want to give people sense of hope, purpose, sense of unity, sense that we can do it. so -- >> governor. >> at the end of the day, i'll continue to talk about my record because there is, did you ever notice when people run for office, president, they make promises and don't keep them. i don't intend to do that and i'll be out there -- don't worry about me and hilary that will work out and i'm from ohio. she will not beat me there, i can promise that. >> carly fiorina, your style? >> you see, governor christie, people spend time talking about their track records and mr. trump and i have every right to do the same and mrs. clinton has to defend her track record. her track record of lying about benghazi, of lying about her e-mails, about lying about her servers. she does not have a track record of accomplishment like mrs. clinton, i, too, have travels hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe but unlike mrs. clinton, i know flying is an activity, not an

accomplishment. mrs. clinton, if you want to stump a democrat, ask them to name a accomplishment of mrs. clinton's. >> governor christie, your name was mentioned. i want to give you a chance to respond. >> it's an important point and the question is who will prosecute hillary clinton? the obama white house seems to have no interest. the justin department seems to have no interest. it's time to put a former federal prosecutor on the same stage as hillary clinton and i'll prosecutor her in the debate on the stage for the record that we're talking about, the fact she had a private e-mail server using national security secrets running through it, could have been hacked by the russians, the chinese, or two 18 year-olds wanting to have fun. she knows she's wrong and she can't look in the mirror at herself and she can't tell the american people the truth. >> there's a whole lot more coming up ahead. a world of trouble, the challenge that one of these candidates may face in the oval office and how hoe or she will

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welcome back to cnn's republican presidential debate. let's turn to some issues now in foreign policy.

mr. trump, senator rubio said it was, quote, very concerning to him that in a recent interview you didn't seem to know the details about some of the enemies the u.s. faces. rubio said, if you don't know the answers to those questions, you will not be able to serve as commander in chief. please respond to senator rubio. >> well, i heard hugh hewitt, nice man, he apologized because he said we had a misunderstanding and he said today donald trump is maybe the best interview there is that he's done. unless he was just saying that on cnn to be nice, but he did say that. >> you're the best interview in america. >> we had a legitimate misunderstanding in terms of his pronunciation of a word, but i would say just -- i think it was. he actually said that. didn't you say that? >> makes an interesting point. >> i will say this, though, he was giving me name after name, arab name, arab name, and there are few people anywhere, anywhere that would have known those names. i think he was reading those off

a sheet. and frankly i will have -- i told him -- i will have the finest team that anybody has put together and we will solve a lot of problems. you know, right now they know a lot and look at what is happening. the world is blowing up around us. we will have great teams and great people. i hope that answers your question. you are on the senate, but i hope this answers your question. >> it does. in the following way, this is an important question. i think if you're running for president, these are important issues. because look at around the world today, there is a lunatic in north korea with dozens of nuclear weapons and long range rocket that can already hit the very place in which we stand tonight. the chinese are rapidly expanding their military, they hack into our computers, they're building artificial islands in the south china sea, the most important shipping lane in the world. a gangster in moscow not just threatening europe, threatening to destroy and divide nato. you have radical jihadists in dozens of countries across multiple continents and recruit americans using social media to try to attack us here at home. now we have this horrible deal

with iran where a radical shia cleric with an apocalyptic vision of the future will have long range rockets. these are extraordinarily dangerous times we live in. and the next president of the united states better be someone that understands these issues and has good judgment about them because the number one issue that a president will ever confront and the most important obligation that the federal government has is to keep this nation safe and today we are not doing that. we are eviscerating our military, and we have a president that is more respectful to the ayatollah in iran than he is to the prime minister of israel. >> mr. trump? senator rubio seemed to be suggesting that you don't know information that -- >> i don't think he's suggesting that at all. >> senator rubio. >> why don't we have a debate? we should have a deeper debate about these issues. there is no more important decision that a president will make. >> are you saying you have the knowledge to be the president that mr. trump does not have? >> you should ask him questions in detail about the foreign policy issues our president will

confront. because you better be able to lead our country on the first day. not six months from now, not a year from now, on the first day in office, our president could very well confront a national security crisis. you can't predict it. sometimes you cannot control it. and it is the most the federal government does all kinds of things it shouldn't be doing. it regulates bathrooms, but the one thing the federal government must do, the one thing that only the federal government can do is keep us safe and the president better be up to date on those issues on his first day in office, on her first day in office. >> mr. trump? >> you have to understand, i am not sitting in the united states senate with, by the way, the worst voting record there is today. number one. i am not sitting in the united states senate. i'm a businessman doing business transactions. i am doing business transactions. i will know more about this and as you said that was very acceptable and when you listen to that whole interview, a great interview , you said it, i didn't. now i did.

but -- >> he addresses -- >> just one second. >> i never get to address -- >> i'll know more about the problems of this world by the time i sit and you look at what is going in this world right now by people that supposedly know this world is a mess. >> senator rubio, he -- >> i'm proud to serve in the senate. when i ran five years ago, the entire leadership of my party in washington lined up against me, but i'm glad i won and i'm glad i ran. because this country is headed in the wrong direction. and if we keep electing the same people, nothing is going to change. and you're right, i have missed some votes and i'll tell you why, mr. trump. in my years in the senate i figured out very quickly that the political establishment in washington, d.c. and both political parties is completely out of touch with the lives of our people. you have millions of people in this country living paycheck to paycheck, and nothing is being done about it. we are about to leave our children with $18 trillion in debt, and they're about to raise the debt limit again. we have a world that grows increasingly dangerous and we are eviscerating our military spending and signing deals with iran.

and these -- this thing continues, we're going to be the first americans to leave our children worse off than ourselves, that's why i'm missing votes because i am leaving the senate, i'm not running for re-election, and i'm running for president because i know this, unless we have the right president, we cannot make america fulfill its potential, but with the right person in office, the 21st century can be the greatest era that our nation has ever known. >> thank you, senator rubio. i want to turn now to hugh hewitt. >> thank you, jake. i've done a lot of great interviews with all of you. governor bush i talked to you in february about the biggest elephant in the room full of elephants which is your last name. you said you would not be burdened by your brother or your father's legacy in the middle east, and then a week later you rolled out your list of foreign policy advisers, and it was a lot of the band getting back together again. so on behalf of the military that is watching -- >> yeah. >> the active duty military at the end of the sphere, what kind of commander in chief is jeb bush going to be and who are the advisers that are new to your team? >> first of all, hugh, if you're looking at republican advisers,

you have to go to the last two administrations that happened to be 41 and 43. so just by definition if you're -- many of the people here that are seeking advice from the foreign policy experts on the republican side, they served in my dad's administration, my brother's administration. of course that's the case. but i'm my own man. i'm going to create a strategy that is based on the simple fact that the united states needs to lead the world. the first thing we need to do is to stop the craziness of the sequester. rebuild our military so our -- so we don't deploy people over and over again without the necessary equipment to keep them safe, to send a signal to the world that we're serious. if we're going to lead the world, we need to have the strongest military possible. we need to rebuilt our counterintelligence and intelligence capabilities. we need to focus on the fact that the next president is going to start in 2017, not in 1990, you know, 30 years ago, or when my brother started. the world is dramatically different. i believe we need to restore america's presence and leadership in the world. name a country where our relationship is better today

than it was the day that barack obama got elected president. under hillary clinton, and barack obama, we have seen a weakness that now creates huge problems for the next president of the united states. so i'll have a team that will be -- that will be following the doctrine i set up and it will be peace through strength. we're sitting here in this library, which is a wonderful place to talk about this, because that's exactly what happened in the 1980s and the worlds with a lot safer because of the leadership of ronald reagan and -- >> i want to ask you a question, though, you promised us great leaders. and i believe that. but jeb bush has laid out 20 different people that have experience, 190 countries, you can't run the world by yourself. when are we going to get some names on your military and foreign policy advisers? >> i'm meeting with people that are terrific people, but i have to say something because it is about judgment. i am the only person that fought very, very hard against us and i wasn't a sitting politician going into iraq because i said

going into iraq that was in 2003, you can check it out, check out -- i'll give you 25 different stories. in fact, a delegation was sent to my office to see me because i was so vocal about it. i'm a very militaristic person but you have to know when to use the military. i'm the only person up here that fought against going into iraq. >> can i make a response to that? >> excuse me, one second, if you don't mind, you are on the last -- you do have your 1%. i would like -- i think it is very important -- i think it is important because it is about judgment. it is about judgment. i didn't want to go into iraq and i fought it because what i said to you -- >> may i respond to that? >> -- you're going to destabilize the middle east and that's what happened. >> he referred to -- >> may i make a response. >> right after me. i'll yield the floor. what are you saying in the senate when you're talking and debating? >> absolutely, go ahead. >> here's the facts. when had donald trump talks about judgment, what was his position on who would have been the best negotiator to deal with iran?

it wasn't a republican. it was hillary clinton. that's what you believe. i mean, the lack of judgment and the lack of understanding about how the world works is really dangerous in this kind of time we're seeing. so is that the judgment that you bring to the table, that hillary clinton is a great negotiator, that she could bring about a better -- >> your brother and your brother's administration gave us barack obama because it was such a disaster those last three months that abraham lincoln couldn't have been elected. >> you know what? as it relates to my brother, there is one thing i know for sure, he kept us safe. i don't know if you remember, donald. you remember the rubble? you remember the firefighter with his arms around it? he sent a clear signal that the united states would be strong and fight islamic terrorism and he did keep us safe. >> i don't know. you feel safe now? i don't feel so safe. >> may i respond? >> that's because of barack obama. that's because of barack obama.

we had a president who called isis the jv squad, yemen a success story, iran a place we could do business with. it is not because of george w. bush, it is because of barack obama. >> on that point, though, whether we're talking about national security, foreign policy, or we're talking about domestic policy -- >> or the collapse of the economy. >> -- the key issue is talking about leadership. this is a lot great people up here. you heard a lot of great ideas. i ask the american people, look who has been tested. when there were protesters at my capital, i didn't back down. when they issued threats against me and my family, didn't back down. when they tried to recall me, i didn't back down. when they made me a target last year, i didn't back down. give me a chance to be your president, i won't back down. >> the remark was there wasn't anyone else on the podium opposed to the iraq war. i made my career as being against the iraq war. i was opposed to the syrian war. i was opposed to arming people who are our enemies. iran is now stronger because

hussein is gone. hussein was the great bulwark and counterbalance to the iranians. so when we complain about the iranians, you need to remember that the iraq war made it worse. originally governor bush was asked, was the iraq war a mistake and he said no, we would do it again. we have to learn sometimes the interventions back fire, the iraq war backfired and did not help us. we're still paying the repercussions of a bad decision. we have to make the decision now, in syria. should we topple assad? many up here wanted to topple assad and it is, like, i said no because if you do, isis will now be in charge. >> thank you. i understand that governor bush's name has been invoked and we can go to you, senator rubio. >> here is the lessons of history. when we pull back, voids are created. we left iraq, we should have had a forces agreement to stay there with a small force, and instead of that we politically and militarily pulled back and now we have the creation of isis. 36 days ago, in this very library, i gave a speech with a comprehensive strategy how to take out isis.

and it requires american leadership and engagement. we don't have to be the world's policemen, but we certainly have to be the world's leader. we need to make sure the world knows we're serious, we're engaged, we're not going to pull back, our word matters. if we do that, we can create a force that will take out isis both in iraq and in syria which will take a lot longer time now because of what president obama has done by pulling back. >> thank you. >> i want to go deeper in that direction. i think the belief by somehow retreating makes america safer has been disproven every time it has been tried. syria is a perfect example of that. the uprising in syria was not started by the united states. it was started by the syrian people. i warned at the time, three and a half years ago, i openly and repeatedly warned that if we did not find moderate elements on the ground that we could equip and arm, that void would be filled by radical jihadists. the president didn't listen. the administration didn't follow through and that's exactly what happened. that's why isis grew. that is why isis then came over

the border from syria and back into iraq. what is happening in that region is the direct consequence of the inability to lead and of disengagement. the more we disengage, the more airplanes from moscow you're going to see flying out of damascus and out of syria as you asked earlier today. >> thank you. dr. carson. >> i haven't had an opportunity to weigh in on foreign policy and i just want to mention that when the war -- when the issue occurred in 2003, i suggested to president bush that he not go to war. okay. so i just want that on the record. and, you know, a lot of people are very much against us getting involved right now with global jihadism and they refer back to our invasion of iraq and they seem to think that was what caused it. what caused it was withdrawing from there and creating a vacuum which allowed this terrible situation to occur. but it is very different from what is going on today. we're talking about global jihadists who actually want to destroy us.

they are an existential threat to our nation. and we have to be mature enough to recognize that our children will have no future if we put our heads in the sand. we have to recognize we have two choices. we either allow them the continue to progress and appear to be the winners, or we use every resource available to us to destroy -- >> it is interesting you say that. i want to ask governor christie about something else you've said. governor christie, we marked the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. dr. carson has said that if he had been president at the time, the united states would not have gone to war in afghanistan. what does that say to you about how dr. carson would respond as president if america were attacked again? >> jake, i was named u.s. attorney by president bush on september 10th, 2001. and that next day my wife mary pat did what she did every day, she traveled through the world trade center and went to her office two blocks from the world trade center.

and after those planes hit for five and a half hours after that i couldn't reach her, didn't know whether she was dead or alive, we have three children at the time, 8, 5 and 1, and i had to confront what so many thousands of others in my region had to confront, the idea i might be become a single parent, the idea that my life and my children's life might be changed forever, we lost friends that day, we went to the funerals. and i will tell you that what those people wanted and what they deserved was for america to answer back against what had been done to them. and i support what president bush did at that time. going into afghanistan, hunting al qaeda and its leaders, getting its sanctuary out of place, and making it as difficult around the world for them to move people and money. and then he went to prosecutors like us, and he said, never again. don't prosecute these people after the crime is committed. intervene before the crime happens. i absolutely believe that what the president did at the time was right and i am proud to have been one of the people on the stage who was part of making

sure that what governor bush said before was the truth. america was safe for those seven years and barack obama has taken that safety away from us. >> dr. carson? >> well, recognize that, you know, president george w. bush is a great friend of ours, and we spent many wonderful days at the white house. i haven't been there in the last seven years. i probably have to have a food tester, but at any rate i didn't suggest that nothing be done. what i suggested to president bush is to kennedy-esque in the sense that when the russians got ahead of us in the space race, we used a bully pulpit to galvanize everybody, business, industry, academia behind a national goal to put a man on the moon and bring him back safely. i said you can do the same kind of thing. declare that within five to ten years we'll become petroleum independent.

the moderate arab states would have been so concerned about that, they would have turned over osama bin laden and anybody else you wanted on a silver platter within two weeks. there are smart ways to do things and there are muscular ways to do things. and sometimes you have to look at both of those to come up with the right solution. >> let me say this, jake, while that may have been a fine idea that dr. carson had, these people were out to kill us. i stood in that region, with my family, and every time a plane went overhead in the weeks after that, people's heads jerked to the sky because they thought it was happening again. you do not need to go through subtle diplomacy at that point. that could be handled later on. what you need is a strong american leader who will take the steps that are necessary to protect our nation. that's what i would do as commander in chief in this circumstance and that's what president george w. bush did in 2001. >> dr. carson?

>> i have no argument with having a strong leader. and to be aggressive where aggression is needed. but it is not needed in every circumstance. there is a time when you can use your intellect to come up with other ways to do things and i think that's what we have to start thinking about. there is no question that a lot of the problems that we have been talking about in terms of the international situation is because we are weak, it is because our navy is so small, it is because our air force is incapable of doing the same things that it did a few years ago, it is because our marine corps is not ready to be deployed. there are a lot of problems that are going on and we need to solve those problems, we need to build up our military -- >> terrorism cannot be solved by intellect. they require -- what they need is they need an operating space. that's what afghanistan was for al qaeda. it was a vacuum that they filled and they created an operating space. that's why they had to be drawn out of there. that's why they had to be destroyed. it is the reason why isis has grown as well.

we allowed a vacuum to emerge in syria. they used it as an operating space to grow and today they're not just in iraq and syria anymore, they're now in libya, conducting operations in the sinai. they're now in afghanistan trying to supplant the taliban as the most powerful radical jihadist group on the ground there as well. you cannot allow radical jihadists to have an operating safe haven anywhere in the world. >> just today there was a new report that 50 different intelligence analysts have said that what they sent up the ladder was doctored by senior officials so that they could give some happy talk to the situation that we face. i love the idea of a good intellectual capacity to deal with our enemies, but the fact is, you don't have good intelligence that is reliable and honest, you won't have good intelligence and you cannot make good decisions. the next president is primarily elected not just to know things, but to know what to do with the things that he knows. and the most dangerous person in any room is the person who

doesn't know what he doesn't know. and the reason barack obama has been dangerous to this country and we better elect someone who had some executive experience is because we cannot afford another eight years having a person in the office who doesn't know what he does not know. >> thank you, governor, i want to turn to isis. governor walker -- >> just spent the last ten minutes -- >> governor walker, there is a big debate now, we have been talking about isis here and there in that discussion, a big debate right now about whether or not to send more u.s. troops to fight isis in iraq and syria. in the first debate earlier this evening, senator lindsey 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 as part of a coalition to syria. governor walker, you say, you just told me a few days ago that the 3,000 u.s. troops there right now are enough as long as the rules of engagement are changed. what do you know that senator graham doesn't know? >> to be clear, what i said the other day was that we need to

lift the political restrictions that are already in play. barack 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, not the political forces in the white house, but our military experts about how many more we sent in, and we certainly shouldn't have a commander in chief who sends a message to our adversaries as to how far we're going to go and how far we're willing to fight, so i'm not putting a troop number. i'm saying lift the political restrictions. when you do that, you empower our military personnel already there to work with the kurd and the sunni allies, to reclaim the territory taken by isis, and to do so in a way that allows that isis doesn't go back. we're talking about here, that is the fundamental problem going forward. we have a president and hillary clinton was a part of this, by the way, who made political decisions for our men and women in uniform. i want the men and women at home to know if i'm commander in chief, i will only send you into harm's way when our national

security is at risk. and if we do, you know you'll have our full support, the support of the american people, and you'll have a clear path for victory. >> senator paul, i want to go to you. you have said that the boots on the ground to fight isis need to be arab boots. we just learned today that despite the obama administration spending $500 million to help create those arab boots, there are only four or five u.s. trained fighters in syria fighting isis. what does that say to you about the effectiveness of the idea of the boots on the ground need to be arab boots? >> if you want boots on the ground, and you want them to be our sons and daughters, you got 14 other choices. there will always be a bush or clinton for you if you want to go back to war in iraq. the thing is the first war was a mistake. and i'm not sending our sons and our daughters back to iraq. the war didn't work. we can amplify those who live there. the kurds deserve to be armed and i'll arm them. we can use our air force to amplify the forces there. but the boots on the ground need to be the people who live there.

my goodness, i'm still upset with the saudi arabians for everything they do over there. they funded the arms that went to the jihadists. they're not accepting any of the people, any of the migrants that have been -- the refugees that are being pushed out of syria. saudi arabia is not accepting one. why are we always the world's patsies that we have to go over there and fight their wars for them? they need to fight their wars, we need to defend american interests, but it is not in america's national security interests to have another war in iraq. >> we're going to turn to domestic issues now. i want to bring in my colleague dana bash. >> thank you. >> can i make one point on this whole military discussion? >> sure. >> i called for boots on the ground many months ago in a coalition with our friends who share our interests. you know, you win a battle with the military. and when we go somewhere, we need to be mobile and lethal. we need to take care of business and we need to come home. but we face also a bigger war. and you win the bigger war with the battle of ideas. you wonder why young people and

educated people, rich people, schooled people, have tried to join isis. western civilization, all of us, need to wake up to the fact that western civilization, all of us, need to wake up to the fact that those murderers and rapists need to be called out and in western civilization we need to make it clear that our faith in the jewish and christian principles force us to live a life bigger than ourselves to be centers in justice so that we can battle the radicals, call them out for what they are and make sure that all of our people feel fulfilled in living in western civilization. a giant battle in the world today. >> since everyone has gotten to weigh in on this military issue, i would like to be able to do the same. we spent probably 12 minutes talking about the past. let's talk about the future. we need the strongest military on the face of the planet and everyone has to know it. and specifically what that means is we need about 50 army brigades, we need about 36 marine battalions, we need somewhere between 300 and 350

naval ships, we need to upgrade every leg of the nuclear triad, we need to form the department of defense, we need as well to invest in our military technology. >> thank you, we're going to turn to domestic issues now with dana bash. >> and care for our veterans so 307,000 of them aren't dying waiting for health care. >> thank you. dana bash. >> governor bush, let's talk about an issue that is very important to republican voters and that's the supreme court. after chief justice john roberts voted to uphold obamacare twice, senator cruz criticized your brother for appointing john roberts to the supreme court. looking back on it, did your brother make a mistake? >> i'm surprised that senator cruz would say that since he was a strong supporter of john roberts at the time. i will talk about what i will do as president of the united states as it relates to appointing supreme court justices.

we need to make sure that we have justices that with a proven, experienced record of respect for upholding the constitution. that is what we need. we can't have the history in recent past is appoint people that have no experience so that you can't get attacked. and that makes it harder for people to have confidence that they won't veer off on this issue. >> is john roberts one of those people? >> john roberts has made some really good decisions, for sure, but he did not have a proven extensive record that would have made clarity the important thing. that's what we need to do. i'm willing to fight for those nominees to make sure that they get passed. you can't do it the politically expedient way anymore. this is the most important thing the next president will do. >> have you liked what you just heard, senator cruz? >> yes, it was a mistake when he was appointed to the supreme court. he's a good enough lawyer that he knows in the obamacare cases

he changed the statute, changed the law in order to force that failed law and millions of americans for political outcome. and you know, we're frustrated as conservatives. we keep winning elections and then don't get the outcome we wanted. let me focus on two moments in time. number one in 1990, in one room was david souter, another room was edith jones, the conservative on the 5th circuit court of appeals. george herbert walker bush appointed souter. in 2005 was john roberts and then my former boss, mike luttig, on the 4th circuit court of appeals. >> thank you. >> george w. bush appointed john roberts. let me give you the consequences of that. if instead president bush had appointed edith jones and mike luttig, who i would have appointed, obama care would have been struck down three years ago and the marriage laws of all 50 states would be on the books. these matter and i fought to defend the constitution my whole life and i will as president as well. >> mr. bush, i'll let you respond as well. >> he supported john roberts publicly. you can rewrite history i guess,

ted, but the simple fact is you supported him because he had all the criteria that you would have thought would have made a great justice. and i think he is doing a good job. but the simple fact is going forward, what we need to do is to have someone that has a long-standing set of rulings that consistently makes it clear that he is focused, exclusively on upholding the constitution of the united states, that they won't try to use the bench as a means by which to legislate. and that's what we should do. and i hope i'll be working with members of the united states senate to fight hard for the passage of people that have that kind of qualification. >> senator cruz, 30 seconds. >> it is true that after george w. bush nominated john roberts i supported his confirmation. that was a mistake and i regret that. i wouldn't have nominated john roberts and indeed governor bush pointed out why. it wasn't that president bush wanted to appoint a liberal to

the court. it is that it was the easier choice. both souter and roberts didn't have a long paper trail. if you nominated edith jones or mike luttig, you would have had a bloody fight and they weren't willing to use capital to put a strong judicial conservative on the court. we have an out of control court and i give you my word, if i'm elected president, every single supreme court justice will faithfully follow the law and will not act like philosopher king in imposing their liberal policies on millions of americans who need to be trusted to govern ourselves. >> thank you, senator. governor huckabee, i want to bring you in very quickly if you could. will you have a litmus test when it comes to appointing supreme court nominees? >> you better believe i will. i'm tired of liberals having a litmus test and conservatives are supposed to pretend we don't.

i would ask, do you think the unborn child is a human being or is it just a blob of tissue? i would want to know the answer to that. i would want to know, do you believe in the first amendment? do you believe religious liberty is the fundamental liberty around which all the other freedoms of this country are based? and i would want to know, do you really believe in the second amendment? do you believe that we have an individual right to bear arms, to protect ourselves and our family and to protect our country? do you believe in the fifth and 14th amendment. do you believe a person before they're deprived of life and liberty should in fact have due process? and equal protection under the

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welcome back to cnn's republican presidential debate at the reagan library here in simi valley, california. many people on social media wanted us to ask about marijuana legalization. senator paul, governor christie recently said, quote, if you're

getting high in colorado today, where marijuana has been legalized, enjoy it until january 2017 because i'll enforce the federal laws against marijuana. will you? >> i think one of the great problems and what american people don't like about politics is hypocrisy. people have one standard for other and not for themselves. there is one prominent example on the stage of someone who says they smoked pot in high school and yet the people going to jail for this are poor people, often african-americans and often hispanics and the rich kids who use drugs aren't. i personally think this is a crime for which the only victim is the individual, and i think that america has to take a different attitude. i would like to see more rehabilitation and less incarceration. i'm a fan of the drug courts

which try to direct you back towards work and less time in jail. but the bottom line is the states. we say we like the tenth amendment, and until we start talking about this. i think the federal government has gone too far, i think the war on drugs has had a racial outcome. and really has been something that has really damaged our inner cities. not only do the drugs damage them, we damage them again by incarcerating them and then preventing them from getting employment over time. so i don't think that the federal government should overridethe states. i believe in the tenth amendment and i really will say that the states are left to themselves. >> i want to give that -- i want to give the person that you called a hypocrite an opportunity to respond. do you want to identify that person? >> i think if we left it open, we could see how many people smoked pot in high school. >> is there somebody you were specifically thinking of? >> well, you know, the thing is -- >> he was talking about me. >> yeah, i was talking about -- >> i'll make it easier for him and i just did. >> governor bush, please. >> 40 years ago i smoked marijuana and i admitted it. i'm sure other people did it and didn't want to admit it in front of 40 million people. here's the deal. here's the deal.

we have a serious epidemic of drugs that goes way beyond marijuana. what goes on in colorado as far as i'm concerned, that should be a state decision. if you look at the problem of drugs in the society today, it is a serious problem. rand, you know this because you're campaigning in new hampshire like all of us and you see the epidemic of heroin, the overdoses of heroin taking place. people's families are being torn apart. it is appropriate for the government to play a consistent role to be able to provide more treatment, more prevention, we're the state that has the most drug courts across every circuit in florida. there are drug courts, to give people a second chance. that's the best way to do this. >> let me respond. the thing is is that in florida, governor bush campaigned against medical marijuana. that means that a small child like morgan hints that has seizures is not allowed to use cannabis oil and if they do that, they'll take the child away and put the parents in jail. you'll actually put them in jail. and in the current

circumstances, kids who had privilege like you do don't go to jail, but the poor kids in our inner cities go to jail. i don't think that's fair. and i think we need to acknowledge it and it is hypocritical to still want to put poor people in jail -- >> i don't want to put poor people in jail. here's the deal. i did not oppose when the legislature passed the bill to deal with the issue. it was opened up, there was a huge loophole, it was the first step to getting to a colorado place. as a citizen of florida, i voted no. >> that means you put people in jail. >> i want to go right now to -- >> you brought my issue up. >> governor christie, please. >> i enjoy the interplay. thank you, gentlemen. i'll just say this, first off, new jersey is the first state in the nation that now says if you are nonviolent, nondealing drug user, you don't go to jail for your first offense. you go to mandatory treatment. you see, jake, i'm pro life. i think you need to be pro life for more than just the time in the womb. it gets tougher when they get out of the womb. and when they're the 16-year-old drug addict in lockup, that life is just as precious as the life in the womb.

and so that's why i'm for rehabilitation, why i think the war on drugs has been a failure. i'll end with this, that doesn't mean we should be legalizing get way drugs. if you think the only victim is the person, look at the decrease in productivity, look at the way people get used and move on to other drugs when they use marijuana as a gateway drug, it is not them that are the only victims, the families are the victims too, children are the victims too, and their employers are the victims also. that's why i'll enforce the federal law, while you can still put an emphasis on rehabilitation. >> you respond and i'll bring in you, ms. fiorina. >> understand what they're saying, if they're going to say we are going to enforce the federal law against what the state law is, they're really believing in the tenth amendment, governor christie would go into colorado, and if you're breaking any federal law on marijuana, even though the state law allows it, he would put you in jail. if a young mother is trying to give her child cannabis oil for medical marijuana for seizure treatment, he would put her in jail if it violates federal law. i would let colorado do what the tenth amendment says. we were never intended to have crime dealing at the federal level. crime was supposed to be left to

the states. colorado made their decision. and i don't want the federal government interfering and putting moms in jail who are trying to get medicine for their kid. >> and senator paul knows that's simply not the truth. we have medical marijuana laws which i supported and implemented. this is much different. while he would like to use a sympathetic story to back up his point, it doesn't work. i'm not against medical marijuana. we do it in new jersey. i'm against the recreational use against marijuana. if he wants to change the federal law, get congress to pass the law to change it and get a president to sign it. >> may i respond?

>> yes, senator paul. >> here is the thing, he doesn't want to make it about medical marijuana, but what if new jersey's medical marijuana cries the federal law. he's saying he'll send the federal government in and he will enforce the federal law. that's not consistent with the tenth amendment. it is not consistent with states' rights. and it is not consistent with the conservative vision for the country. i don't think we should be sending the federal police in to arrest a mother and separate them from their child for giving a medicine to their child for seizures. >> i'm not going to -- >> i want to bring in ms. fiorina into this issue. >> i very much hope i am the only person on this stage who can say this, but i know there are millions of americans out there who will say the same thing.

my husband frank and i buried a child to drug addiction. so we must invest more in the treatment of drugs. i agree with senator paul. i agree with states' rights. but we are misleading young people when we tell them that marijuana is just like having beer. it is not. and the marijuana that kids are smoking today is not the same as the marijuana that jeb bush smoked 40 years ago. we do -- sorry, barbara. we do need -- 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 nonviolent offenses. mostly drug related. it is clearly not working. but we need to tell young people the truth. drug addiction is an epidemic. and it is taking too many of our young people. i know this sadly from personal experience. >> hugh hewitt, i'd like to -- >> thank you.

tomorrow is -- tomorrow is constitution day. we have been talking about the tenth amendment. let's talk about the second amendment. governor bush, one of the things the supreme court has gotten right is that it is an individual right, it is protected for individuals. last week you said the next step in gun issues is to make sure they're not in the hands of mentally ill. in this state, there is a controversial law that allows guns to be taken away from people without a hearing. where does it go and the problem of violence is endemic, but where does it go from what you said last week, how far into people's lives to take guns away from them? >> not very far. i think we need to do this state by state. there are places that get this right and we need to make sure we protect the privacy laws. this is a complicated place. i do think the natural impulse on the left, hillary clinton immediately after one of these horrific violent acts took place, immediately said we need to have federal gun laws. president obama almost

reflexively almost always says the same thing. the net result is you're going to take away rights of law abiding citizens, the 99.99% of the people that are law abiding citizens. that's not the right approach to do it. in florida, we have a background check. we have concealed weapon permit holders. we have a reduction in violent crime because we put people behind bars when they use a gun in the commission of a crime. that's the better approach. but we're living in a society today where despair grows in isolation. >> if a family member calls and says my child, my brother, my sister is disturbed, ought the state be able to go and get their weapon without a hearing? >> i think there needs to be a hearing, but we need to encourage that kind of involvement. that's exactly what we need to do. >> there is a broader issue here as well. first of all, the only people that follow the law are law abiding people. criminals by definition ignore the law. so you can pass all the gun laws in the world like the left wants, the criminals will ignore it because they're criminals. here is the real issue. the real issue -- the real issue

is not what are people using to commit violence, but why are they committing the violence and here is the truth. because you cannot separate the social, moral well-being of your people from their economic and other well-being. you cannot separate it. you can't have a strong country without strong people. you cannot have strong people without strong values. and you cannot have strong values without strong families and the institutions in this country that defend and support those families. today we have a left wing government under this president that is undermining all of the institutions and society that support the family and teach those values. >> senator cruz, i want to go to you. your constitutional litigant, are you afraid of the next step theory of what happens to the second amendment rights? >> i am not and you mentioned that the u.s. supreme court had rightly upheld the individual right to keep and bear arms. i was proud to lead 31 states before the u.s. supreme court defending the second amendment, and we won that landmark victory. and indeed just a couple of years ago when harry reid and barack obama came after the right to keep and bear arms of

millions of americans, i was proud to lead the fight in the united states senate to protect our right to keep and bear arms and for that reason i was honored to be endorsed by gun owner of america as the strongest supporter of the second amendment on this stage today. >> thank you, senator. >> i'll fight every day to defend the bill of rights. >> i'd like to turn to dana bash. >> mr. trump, you said once or twice you're really rich and by far the richest person on this stage. chris christie says billionaires like you and even people who make and earn far less should no longer get social security or at least there should be limits based on their income. you think he's wrong and if so, why? >> speaking for myself, i'm okay with it. i think there is a certain truth to it. i know people that frankly it has no impact on their life whatsoever. there are many people, i would almost say, leave it up to them, but i would be willing to check it off and say i will not get social security. i do not -- >> what about as a policy? >> as a policy, i would almost leave it up to the people. don't forget they pay in and pay in and maybe they do well and maybe some people want it. but the fact is that there are people that truly don't need it and there are many people that

do need it very, very badly. and i would be willing to write mine off 100%, dana. >> is it voluntary program a way to get the social security system solvent again, like this? >> no, it is not. but with donald, that's a good start. that's very good. no, listen, this is an issue that we have got to talk about. and we haven't talked about yet. 71% of all federal spending is on entitlements and debt service. when john kennedy was elected president in 1960, it was 26%. harvard and dartmouth says social security will go insolvent in seven to eight years. what i say is very simple. we need to save this program for the good people out there who have paid into the system, and need it. and if that means making sure that folks like donald and many of us on the stage don't get it, that's the right thing to do because here's what hillary

clinton is going to want to do she's going to want to put more money into a system that lied to us and stolen from us. this government doesn't need more money to make social security solvent. we need to not pay out benefits to people who don't really need it. we need to protect the people who social security means the difference between picking between heat and rent and food. that's why i put out the proposal and that's the people -- >> governor christie -- >> i'm coming to you right now on a separate issue. we received a lot of questions from social media about climate change. senator rubio, ronald reagan's secretary of state john schultz reminds us when reagan was president he faced a similar situation to the one we're facing now, dire warnings from the mass consensus of the scientific community about the ozone layer shrinking. schultz says ronald reagan urged skeptics in industry to come up with a plan. he said, do it as an insurance policy in case the scientists are right.

the scientists were right. reagan and his approach worked. secretary schultz asks, why not take out an insurance policy approach climate change the reagan way? >> we're not going to destroy our economy the way the left wing government -- that we are under now wants to do. >> citing george schultz. >> he may have line up with our positions on this issue. here is the bottom line. every proposal they put forward will be proposals that make it harder to do business in america that will make it harder to create jobs in america. single parents are already struggling across this country to provide for their families. maybe a billionaire here in california can afford an increase in their utility rates, but a working family in tampa florida or anywhere across this country cannot afford t we're not going to destroy our economy. we're 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 economy, to change our climate, our weather, because america is a lot of things, the greatest country in the world, absolutely. but america is not a planet. we are not even the largest carbon producer anymore, china is. they're drilling a hole and digging anywhere in the world

that they can get a hold of so the bottom line is, i am not in favor of any policies that make america a harder place for people to live, or to work, or to raise their families. >> governor christie, you have said that climate change is real, and that humans help contribute to it. without getting into the issue of china versus the united states, which i understand you've talked about before, what do you make of skeptics of climate change such as senator rubio? >> i don't think senator rubio is a skeptic of climate change. what senator rubio said i agree with. we don't need this massive government intervention to deal with the problem. look what we have done in new jersey. we have already reached our clean air goals for 2020. when i was governor, i pulled out of the regional cap and trade deal, the only state in the northeast that did that. we still reached our goals. why? 53% of our electricity comes from nuclear. we use natural gas. we use solar power. we're the third highest solar power using state. you know why? we made those economically feasible. we shouldn't be destroying our economy to chase some wild left wing idea that somehow us by

ourselves is going to fix the climate. we can contribute to that. and be economically sound. we have proven we can do that in new jersey. nuclear needs to be back on the table. and in a significant way in this country if we want to go after this problem. >> for the record, i was citing secretary of state george schultz. ronald reagan's secretary of state. i don't think anybody would call him left wing. >> everybody makes a mistake every once in a while, jake. even george schultz. if that's a representation of what he believes we should be doing, with all due respect to the former secretary of state, i disagree with him. >> jake, you mentioned -- call me a denier -- >> i called you a skeptic. >> a skeptic. you can measure the climate. you can measure it. that's not the issue we're discussing. here is what i'm skeptical of. i'm skeptical of the decisions that the left wants us to make. because i know the impact those are going to have and they're all going to be on our economy. they will not do a thing to lower the rise of the sea.

they will not do a thing to clear the drought here in california. what they will do is make america a more expensive place to create jobs and today with millions of people watching this broadcast that are struggling paycheck to paycheck that do not know how they're going to pay their bills at the end of this month, i'm not in favor of anything that is going to make it harder for them to raise their family. >> a lot of -- >> i want to go to another question. >> i'll echo what senator rubio just said. this is an issue, we're talking about my state, thousands of manufacturing jobs. thousands of manufacturing jobs for a rule the obama administration -- the epa has said will have a marginal impact on climate change. so we're going to put thousands and thousands of jobs in my state, i think something like 30,000 in ohio. other states across this country. we're going to put people -- manufacturing jobs, the kind of jobs that are far greater than minimum wage, this administration is willing to put at risk for something that its own epa says is -- >> thank you, governor. i'm turning to another issue right now. i'm turning to another issue right now, senator cruz. i think we heard from several this evening. a backlash against vaccines was blamed for a measles outbreak here in california. dr. carson, donald trump has publicly and repeatedly linked vaccines, childhood vaccines to

autism. which as you know the medical community adamantly disputes. you're a pediatric neurosurgeon. should mr. trump stop saying this? >> well, let me put it this way, there have been numerous studies and they have not demonstrated that there is any correlation between vaccinations and autism. this was something that was spread widely 15 or 20 years ago. and it has in the been adequately, you know, revealed to the public what is actually going on. vaccines are very important. certain ones. the ones that would prevent death or crippling. there are others, a multitude of vaccines which probably don't fit in that category and there should be some discretion in those cases. but, you know, a lot of this is pushed by big government. and i think that's one of the things that people so vehemently

want to get rid of big government. you know, we have 4.1 million federal employees. 650 federal agencies in the department, that's why they have to take so much of our taxes. >> should he stop saying it, should he stop saying the vaccines cause autism? >> you know, i just explained it to him. he can read about it if he wants to. i think he's an intelligent man and will make the correct decision after getting the real facts. >> mr. trump, as president, you would be in charge of the centers for disease control and the national institutes of health, both of which say you are wrong. how would you handle this as president? >> autism has become an epidemic. 25 years ago, 35 years ago, you

look at the statistics, not even close. it has gotten totally out of control. i am totally in favor of vaccines. but i want smaller doses over a longer period of time. because you take a baby in and i've seen it, i've seen it, i had my children taken care of over a long period of time, over two or three year period of time, same exact amount, you take this little beautiful baby, and you pump -- i mean, it looks just like it is meant for a horse, not for a child, and we had so many instances, people that work for me, just the other day, 2 years old, beautiful child went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic. i only say it is not -- i'm in favor of vaccines, do them over a longer period of time, same amount. >> thank you. >> just in little sections. >> dr. carson? >> i think you're going to have -- i think you're going to see a big impact on autism. >> dr. carson, you just heard his medical take. >> he's an okay doctor. but, you know, the fact of the matter is we have extremely well documented proof that there is no autism associated with vaccinations.

but it is true that we are probably giving way too many in too short a period of time. and a lot of pediatricians now recognize that. and i think are cutting down on the number and the proximity in which those are done. >> that's all i'm saying, jake. that's all i'm saying. >> dr. paul, i'd like to bring you in. >> a second opinion? one of the greatest -- one of the greatest medical discoveries of all time were the vaccines, particularly for smallpox. if you want to read a story called "the speckled monster," amazing story, it was done voluntary. people came in by the droves. i'm all for vaccines. but i'm also for freedom. i'm also a little concerned about how they're bunched up.

my kids had all of their vaccines and if they say bunching them up isn't a problem, i should be able to spread out my vaccines at the very least. >> coming up -- >> jake. >> governor huckabee, please. >> we need to remember there are maybe controversies about autism, there is no controversy about the things that are driving the medical cause in this country. i believe the next president ought to declare a war on cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and alzheimer's because those are the four things that are causing the greatest level of cost. john kennedy said we'll go to the moon in a decade and bring a man back and we did it. i grew up in the '50s. i remember the polio vaccine. we saved billions of dollars since that time because we haven't had to treat for polio. why doesn't this country focus on cures rather than treatment? why don't we put a definitive focus, scientifically on finding

the cure for cancer, for heart disease, for diabetes, and for alzheimer's, a disease alone that will cost us $1.1 trillion by the year -- >> thank you, governor. >> we change the economy and the country. >> we have to take another quick break. coming up, ronald reagan looming large over this debate. how reagan-esque exactly are these republicans? we'll find out next. we value sticking with things. when something works, people stick with it. more people stick with humana medicare advantage. because we stick with them. humana medicare advantage. the plan people stick with.

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welcome back to cnn's republican presidential debate at the reagan library in simi valley, california. we have a few last questions for you. two of them a little light hearted. the other one more serious. we'll start with one of the more light questions. senator paul, i'll start with you. we'll go down the line. earlier this year the treasury department announced that a woman will appear on the $10 bill. what woman would you like to see on the $10 bill? >> that's a tough one. you know, i'm big on -- i love what carly said about woman suffrage. i think susan b. anthony. >> that's an easy one. i would put my wife on there. i've been married to her for 41 years. she fought cancer and lived through it, raised three kids, five great grandkids and put up with me. who else could possibly be on that money other than my wife and then that way she could spend her own money. >> senator paul? senator rubio, sorry. >> we all look alike. >> just the senators.

>> rosa parks. everyday american that changed the course of history. >> senator cruz. >> i wouldn't change the $10 bill. i would change the $20 take jackson off and leave alexander hamilton where he is as one of our founding fathers. and i very much agree with marco that it should be rosa parks. she was a principal pioneer that helped change this country, helped remedy racial injustice. and that would be an honor that would be entirely appropriate. >> dr. carson? >> i put my mother on there. she was one of 24 children, got married at age 13, had only a third grade education, had to raise two sons by herself, refused to be a victim, wouldn't let us be victims and has been inspiration for many people. >> mr. trump? >> well, because she's been sitting for three hours, i think my daughter ivanka who is right here. other than that, we'll go with rosa parks. i like that. >> governor bush.

>> i would go with ronald reagan's partner, margaret thatcher, probably illegal, but what the heck, since it is not going to happen. a strong leader is what we need in the white house. and she certainly was a strong leader that restored the united kingdom to greatness. >> governor walker. >> to huckabee, thank you for making the rest of us look like chumps up here. clara barton. i worked for the red cross. she was a great founder of the red cross. >> ms. fiorina. >> i wouldn't change the $10 bill or $20 bill. honestly, it's a gesture. i don't think it helps to change our history. what i would think is we ought to recognize that women are not a special interest group. women are the majority of this nation. we are half the potential of this nation. and this nation will be better off when every woman has the opportunity to live the life she chooses. >> governor kasich? >> probably not maybe legal, but i would pick mother theresa. the lady that i had a chance to meet, a woman who lived a life so much bigger than her own, an

inspiration to everyone when we think about our responsibility to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. >> governor christie? >> i think the adams family has been shorted in the currency business. our country wouldn't be here without john adams and he wouldn't have been able to do it without abigail adams. so i would put abigail adams on the $10 bill. >> some good entries if anybody at the mint is listening. the next light hearted question. the secret service uses code names for the president and his family, ronald reagan's code name was raw hide, homage to his performances in westerns. nancy reagan's was rainbow. you don't have to come up with one for your spouse. but what would you want your secret service code name to be? >> you know, i've been called a lot of names by a lot of different people i got to get called names by the secret service. i would say true heart. >> i have one now. it was my detail, they called me unit one, my wife says you'll never be unit one.

i'm unit one. you're unit two. >> secretariat. >> governor walker? >> harley. i love riding harleys. >> ever ready, very high energy, donald. >> mr. trump? >> humble. >> that's a good one. >> back to carson. >> one nation. >> senator cruz? >> as a cuban, i might go with coheba. i would go with for heidi, angel. because she is my angel. >> senator rubio. >> there is some people in florida upset at me over a joke

i made about florida state, but what the heck, i want my code name to be gator. >> governor huckabee? >> i would go with duck hunter. >> senator paul? >> justice never sleeps. >> that's a mouthful, but okay. okay. here is the more serious question. ronald reagan, the 40th president, used the plane behind you to accomplish a great many things. perhaps most notably to challenge mikhail gorbachev to tear down the wall and then ultimately to make peace with the ussr. how will the world look different once your air force one is parked in the hangar of your presidential library? senator paul? >> i met ronald reagan as a teenager. and my family were big supporters of him when he ran against gerald ford. it was a big deal because he was

the grassroots running against the establishment. and i'll never forget that. and how we stood up and said, you know what, this is something new that our country needs and our party needs. if i were president, i would try to be one who says, you any what, i'm a reagan conservative. i'm someone who believes in peace through strength and i would try to lead the country in that way. knowing that our goal is peace, and that war is the last resort, not the first resort, and that when we go to war, we go to war in a constitutional way, which means we have to vote on it, war is initiated by congress, not by the president, and that we go to war reluctantly, but then when we go to war, we don't fight with one arm tied behind our back, we fight all out to win, but then we come home. >> at the end of my presidency, i would like to believe the world would be a safe place and there wouldn't be the threats not only to the u.s., but to israel and our allies because we would have the most incredible well trained, well equipped, well prepared military in the history of mankind and they would know that the commander in

chief would never send them to a mission without all the resources necessary, but people because they would know that that would be an invitation to their destruction. domestically we would be operating under a tax system that eliminated the irs, people wouldn't be punished for their work, and for what they produced. and life would be really deemed precious. abortion would be no more. it would be as much of a scourge in our past as slavery is. and we would have a peaceful country where people respected each other and people respected law enforcement. and we would focus on cures. and we would make this country not only safe from our enemies without, but safe from the enemies within. and it would be a good place to raise our kids and our grandkids. >> one of the things that made ronald reagan a great president is he understood that america was a unique nation, like any other that existed throughout

human history. he knew it was founded on universal principles that were powerful, dignity of all people, human rights, the rights of all live to live in freedom and liberty and choose their own path in life. he didn't believe it, he acted on it. that's why 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 first and foremost to our allies in israel, south korea, japan. they know we stand with them. that america can be counted on. it would also fly to china, not just to meet with our enemies, not just to meet with those adversaries of ours that are there, but also to meet with those that aspire to freedom and liberty within china. i would even invite them to -- we would fly to moscow and russia and not just meet with the leaders of russia, but also meet with those who aspire to freedom and liberty in russia and i hope my air force one, if i become president, will one day land in a free cuba, where its

people can choose its leaders and its own destiny. >> ronald reagan believed in america. if i'm elected president our friends and allies across the globe will know that we stand with them, the bust of winston churchill will be back in the oval office, and the american embassy in israel will be in jerusalem. enemies across this world will know the united states is not to be trifled with. isis will be defeated. we will have a president willing to utter the words radical islamic terrorism and the ayatollah khomeini will understand that he will never, ever, ever acquire nuclear weapons. here at home, we'll reignite the promise of america. young people coming out of school, with student loans up to their eyeballs, will find instead of no jobs, two, three, four, five job opportunities. how will that happen? through tax reform. we'll pass a simple flat tax and abolish the irs. and through regulatory reform, we will repeal every word of obama care. you want to know what i'll do as president, it is real simple.

we'll kill the terrorists, we'll repeal obamacare and we will defend the constitution every single word of it. >> well, you know, i was a radical democrat before i started listening to ronald reagan. and he didn't sound like what they said republicans were. he sounded logical. and i hope that i sound logical also. because when i look at what is going on with the united states of america, i see a lot of things that are not logical. i see us allowing people to divide us when in fact our strength is in our unity. i see people exercising the most irresponsible fiscal habits that anyone could possibly do. and hiding it from the american people so that the majority of people have no idea what our financial situation is, so when someone comes along and says, free college, free phones, free this and that, and the other, they say, wow, that's nice, having no idea that they're destabilizing our position. and i think also that ronald reagan was a master at understanding that a pinnacle nation has to be a nation that leads, if we learn to lead in the middle east right now, a coalition will form behind us, but never do it if we just sit there and talk about it. real leadership is what i would

hopefully bring to america. >> if i become president, we will do something really special. we will make this country greater than ever before. we'll have more jobs. we'll have more of everything. we were discussing disease, we were discussing all sorts of

things tonight, many of which will just be words, it will just pass on. i don't want to say politicians, all talk, no action. but a lot of what we talked about is words and it will be forgotten very quickly. if i'm president, many of the things that we discussed tonight will not be forgotten. we'll find solutions. and the world will respect us. they will respect us like never before. and it will be actually a friendlier world and i have to say it is a great honor to be here tonight. >> 6 million more people are living in poverty than the day that barack obama got elected president. 6 million more people. the middle class has had declining income, workforce participation rates lower than 1977. for the first time in modern history, more businesses are failing than are being created. that is what the next president will have to deal with. and i believe we can reverse course by creating a strategy of high sustained economic growth, not the new normal of 2% that all the left says we have to get used to, but a 4% growth strategy where we reform how we

tax, fix the broken regulatory system, embrace the energy revolution in our midst, fix the immigration system so we can turn it into an economic driver, deal with the structural fiscal problems that exist because of our entitlement problems that will overwhelm and create way too much debt. if we grow at 4%, people will be lifted out of poverty. the great middle that defends our country will have a chance to be able to pursue their dreams as they see fit. that should be the great challenge and the great opportunity for the next president of the united states. to forge consensus to go back to a high growth strategy and then be able to lead the world. without a high growth strategy, we'll never have the resources or the optimism to be able to lead the world, which the world desperately needs our leadership. >> well, i turned 13 years old two days before ronald reagan was first elected. a lot of people forget this, but just a few days before that election 1980 he was behind in the polls. and i think what changed things was people in america realized they didn't want to hear what

was bad about america, they wanted to know how it was going to be better. ronald reagan wasn't just a conservative republican. he was an eternal optimist. we need to live in a world where our children are free from the threats of radical islamic terrorism. we need to live in america where we have an economy, where everyone can live their piece of the american dream, no matter what that dream is. and we need to live in a america where we have a federal government that is not too big to fail, but ultimately small enough to succeed. where we send powers back to the states and the people. that's what i did in wisconsin. we took on the big government union bosses, the big government special interests, many of whom came in from washington, to spend millions of dollars to try and take me out because we stood up to them, we didn't back down. if you give me the chance as your next president, i won't back down any day, any way, anyhow. i'll fight and win for you and your families every single day

i'm in office. >> i think what this nation can be and must be is symbolized by lady liberty and lady justice. lady liberty stands tall and strong. she is clear eyed and resolute. she doesn't shield her eyes from the realities of the world, but she faces outward into the world nevertheless as we always must. and she holds her torch high. because she knows she is a beacon of hope in a very troubled world. and lady justice, lady justice holds a sword by her side. because she is a fighter, a warrior for the values and the principles that have made this nation great. she holds a scale in her other hand, and with that scale she says all of us are equal in the eyes of god. and so all of us must be equal in the eyes of the law and the government. power full and power less alike.

and she wears a blindfold. and with that blindfold she is saying to us that it must be true, it can be true that in this country, in this century, 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, here in this nation, every american's life must be filled with the possibilities that come from their god given gifts, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> as president, i will make this a nation that will solve problems. and how? by having the elected officials and the leaders realize they're americans before they're

republicans or democrats. i did it in washington. and i've done it in ohio by having the elected officials realize that they're ohioans before anything else. secondly, i will rebuild a relationships and show the respect to our allies around the world. we have no choice but to do that. we will be stronger when we are unified. and we'll fight for freedom and for human rights. and finally, a little bit of what carly said. the people that are out there listening, 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. one more time in america, we