protecting our country against another one of those attacks. you won't worry when i'm president whether it can be done. i have already done it. if you give me the chance and give me your vote i will protect america from the wars brought to our doorstep. >> miss fiorina? >> i, too, remember september 11th. i remember immediately putting into place security procedures all throughout our country that did business in 170 countries where we thought corporate interests would be attacked next. to take our country back, to keep our nation safe, we have to begin by beating hillary clinton. we need to unify our party. we need to be better than our government which 75% of the american people now think is corrupt and incompetent.

we need to be better than our politics. we have 80% of the people who think we have a professional political class. we need to unify our party. we need a conservative in the white house and we need to beat hillary clinton to take our country back and keep our nation safe. i can. i am. and together, if you join me, we will take our country back. governor bush? >> ask yourself, which candidate will keep you and our country safer, stronger, and freer? hillary clinton has aligned herself with barack obama on isis, iran, and the economy. it's an alliance doomed to fail. my plans will fortify our national and economic security. and my record as governor will give you a sense i don't make false promises. i deliver real results. for america to be safe and sound i ask for your support. thank you all very much.

>> senator rubio? >> as we near the end of the year we enter one of the most important elections in a generation. what is at stake is not just who is in charge but our identity as a people and a nation. for over 200 years this is a unique place where anyone from anywhere can achieve anything. and millions of americans feel like they are being left behind insecure in their future and unsafe in the face of terrorism. this is about electing a president so that the american dream can expand and reach more people and change more lives than ever before and rebuild our military so we can remain the strongest nation on earth. i ask for your vote. if you do this, we will rebuild this country and usher in the greatest era in the history of this great land. >> senator cruz? >> judgment.

strength. clarity and trust. barack obama has said he doesn't believe in american leadership or america winning, he is wrong. america can win again and we will win again. ronald reagan reignited the american economy, rebuilt the military and i will do the same. unleashing small businesses and rebuilding the military. our strategy is simple. we win, they lose. we've done it before. and we can do it again. >> dr. carson? >> i have been fortunate enough to travel to 58 different countries. and i thank god every day i was born in this country, the most exceptional country that the world has ever known. and i want to make sure that we

preserve that exceptionalism for the next-generation. my mother told me if i work hard and i believed in the american principles and i believed in god anything is possible. i believe that is true. that's why i'm not anxious to give away american principles for the sake of political correctness. >> our country doesn't win anymore. we don't win on trade. we don't win on the military. we can't defeat isis. we're not taking care of our great people, the veterans, we're not taking care of them. we have to change our whole way, our health care system is a disaster. it's going to implode in 2017. it doesn't work. nothing works in our country. if i'm elected president we will win again. we will win a lot and we're going to have a great, great country, greater than ever before. thank you.

>> thanks to all the republican presidential candidates. that does it for this republican presidential debate. on behalf of everyone at cnn and the venetian, las vegas. we want to wish everyone a very merry christmas, happy holidays especially to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marine protecting us around the world. anderson cooper picks up

>> we have an enthusiastic audience. we've looking forward to spirited discussion about the state of this nation. this debate is airing on cnn networks and around the world. the nine leading candidates, they are here. let's welcome them right now. rand paul, senator from kentucky. new jersey governor, chris christie. former florida governor, jeb bush. senator ted cruz of texas.

>> businessman and real estate developer, donald trump. retired neurosurgeon, dr. ben carson. senator marco rubio of florida. former hewlett-packard ceo, carly fiorina. and ohio governor, john kasich.

ladies and gentlemen, welcome these republican candidates for president of the united states. this is the final republican debate before the election year begins. and we're taking a moment for the photographs of the candidates together on this stage. now, everyone, please rise for the national anthem sung by ayla brown. ♪ o say, can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ what so proudly we hailed

at the twilight's last gleaming? ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪

♪ o'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ and the home of the brave? ♪ >> candidates, please take your places while i explain the ground rules for tonight. i'll guide the discussion and i'll be joined in the questioning by hugh hewitt and dana bash. we also asked republicans and independents nationwide to share their questions for the candidates. we teamed up with facebook to send a campaign camper across the country over the past

several weeks. thousands of people recorded their questions on video. millions more have weighed in on facebook. candidates, i'll try to make sure each of you gets your fair share of questions. you'll have 1:15 to answer, and thirty-seconds for follow ups and rebuttals. we have times lights visible to the candidates to warn them when their time is up, and as the candidates requested, a bell will sound like this [ bell sounding ] >> we know you're eager to debate these important issues, so please wait until you're called on. these nine republicans are positioned on stage based on their ranking in the recent polls so let's begin right now. i'd like to invite each candidate to introduce himself or herself to our audience. you'll have one minute. first, to you, senator paul. >> the question is how do we keep america safe from terrorism?

trump says we ought to close that internet thing. the question really is what does he mean by that? like they do in north korea? like they do in china. rubio says collect american's records all the time. the constitution says the opposite. we defeat terrorism by showing them we don't fear them. if we ban religions or censor the internet, at this point the terrorists win. regime change hasn't won. i think if we want to defeat terrorism, i think if we truly are sincere about defeating terrorism, we need to quit arming the allies of isis. if we want to defeat terrorism, the boots on the ground, the boots on the ground need to be arab boots on the ground.

as commander in chief, i will do whatever it takes to defend america, but in defending america, we cannot lose what america stands for. today is the bill of rights anniversary. i hope we'll remember that and cherish that on the fight in terrorism. >> thank you. governor kasich. >> this last weekend a friend of one of my daughter's said do you like politics. my daughter said no, i don't. the reason i don't like it is because there's too much fighting, too much yelling. it's so loud, i don't like it. i turned to my friend and said, you know, she's really onto something, and when we think about our country and the big issues that we face in this country, creating jobs, making sure people can keep their jobs, the need for rising wages, whether our children, when they graduate from college can find a job, protecting the homeland, destroying isis, rebuilding defense, these are all the

things that we need to focus on, but we'll never get there if we're divided. we'll never get there if republicans and democrats just fight with one another. frankly, we're republicans and they're democrats, but before all of that, we're americans. and i believe we need to unify in so many ways to rebuild our country, to strengthen our country, to rebuild our defense, and for america to secure its place in the world for us, for our children, and for the next generation. thank you. >> america has been betrayed. think about just what's happened today. the second largest school district in america in los angeles, closed based on a threat.

think about the effect that that's going to have on those children when they go back to school tomorrow wondering, filled with anxiety about whether they're really going to be safe. think about the mothers who will take those children tomorrow morning to the bus stop. wondering whether their children will arrive back on that bus safe and sound. think about the fathers of los angeles who tomorrow will head off to work and wonder about the safety of their wives and their children. what is barack obama and hillary clinton done to this country that the most basic responsibility of an administration is to protect the safety and security of the american people. i will tell you this. i'm a former federal prosecutor i've fought terrorists and won. when we get in the white house, we'll fight terrorists again and america will be safe.

>> miss fiorina. >> like all of you, i'm angry. i'm angry at what's happening to our nation. the citizens, it's time to take our country back. insults won't take it back. political rhetoric that promises a lot and delivers little won't take it back. all of our problems can be solved, all of our wounds can be heeled by a tested leader who is willing to fight for the character of our nation. i have been tested. i have beaten breast cancer. i have buried a child. i started as a secretary. i fought my way to the top of corporate america while being called every b-word in the book. i fought my way into this election and onto this debate stage while all the political insiders said it couldn't be done. i've been told no all my life, and all my life i've refused to accept no as an answer. citizens, it is time to take our

country back from the political class, from the media, it can be done. it must be done. join me, and we will get it done. >> governor bush. >> our freedom is under attack. our economy is under water. the leading democrat is under investigation. and america is under the gun to lead the free world to protect our civilized way of life. serious times require strong leadership. that's what's at stake right now. regarding national security, we need to restore the defense cuts of barack obama, to destroy isis before it destroys us. regarding economic security, we need to make power and money away from washington d.c. and empower american families so that they can rise up again. look, america still is an exceptional country.

we love to lead, and we love to win. and we do it when we take on any challenge and when we take on, we support our friends. as president, i will keep you and our country safe, secure, and free. thank you. >> senator rubio. >> thank you, wolf. it's amazing to be back in las vegas. i spent six years as a child here growing up. i used to sit on our porch and listen to my grandfather tell stories. one of the things my grandfather instilled in me is that i was blessed because i was a citizen to the greatest country in the history of all mankind. but there have been people in american politics that wanted america to be more like the rest of the world. and in 20 0 8, one of them was elected as president. today is a disaster. today millions of americans struggle to live paycheck to

paycheck and called bigots because they hold onto traditional values. this president destroyed our military. our allies no longer trust us, and our adversaries no longer -- that's why i'm going to ask you for your vote tonight. if you elect me president, we'll have a president that believes america is the greatest country in the world and we'll have a president that acts like it. >> senator cruz. >> thank you, wolf. america is at war. our enemy is not violent extremism. it is not some unnamed force. it is radical islamic terrorists. we have a president who is unwilling to utter its name. the men and women on this stage, every one of us, is better prepared to keep this nation safe than is barack obama or hillary clinton.

we need a president who understands the first obligation of the commander in chief is to keep america safe. if i am elected president, we will hunt down and kill the terrorists. we will destroy isis. we will stop the terrorist attacks before they occur because we will not be prisoners to political correctness. rather, we'll speak the truth. border security is national security, and we will not be admitting jihadists as refugees. we will keep america safe. >> dr. carson. >> please join me for a moment of silence for the san bernardino victims. thank you.

you know, our country since its inception has been at war. every 15 or 20 years, but the war we're fighting now, against radical islamic jihadist is one we must win. our very existence is dependent upon that. as a pediatric surgeon, i faced situations and had to come up with plans and execute plans frequently with other colleagues. right now the united states of america is the patient, and the patient is in critical condition and will not be cured by political correctness or being timid. and i am asking the congress which represents the people to declare war on isis so we can excise the cancer and begin the healing process and bring peace,

prosperity, and safety back to america. >> mr. trump. >> thank you. i began this journey six months ago. my total focus was on building up our military, building up our strength, building up our borders, making sure that china, japan, mexico, both at the border and in trade, no longer takes advantage of our country. certainly would never have made that horrible, disgusting, absolutely incompetent deal with iran where they get money. they're a terrorist nation. i began it talking about other things, and those things are things i'm very good at and maybe that's why i'm center stage. people saw it. people liked it. people respected it. a month ago, things changed. radical, islamic, terrorism,

came into effect, even more so than it has been in the past. people like what i say. people respect what i say, and we've opened up a very big discussion that needed to be opened up. thank you very much. >> thank you. since you last debated, americans have witnessed terror attacks in paris and san bernardino. the fbi director says the country now faces the greatest terror threat since 9/11. you all have different approaches to keeping the country safe, and that will be the focus of tonight's debate. mr. trump, as you mentioned in your opening statement, part of your strategy is to focus in on america's borders. to keep the country safe, you say you want to temporarily ban nonamerican muslims from coming to the united states, ban refugees fleeing isis from coming here, deport 11 million people, and wall off america's southern border.

is the best way to make america great again to isolate it from much of the rest of the world? >> we are not talking about isolation. we're talking about security. we're not talking about religion. we're talking about security. our country is out of control. people are pouring across the southern border. i will build a wall. it'll be a great wall. people will not come in unless they come in legally. drugs will not pour through that wall. as far as other people, like in the migration where they're going, tens of thousands of people having cell phones with isis flags on them, i don't think so, wolf, they're not coming to this country, and if i'm president, and if obama has brought some to this country, they are leaving. they're going. they're gone. >> governor bush, you called trump unhinged when he proposed banning muslims from the united

states. why is that unhinged? >> we have to destroy isis and the caliphate. that should be our issue. we need to have a no fly zone, safe zones there for refugees and to build a military force. we need to embed our forces, our troops inside the iraqi military and arm directly the kurds, and all of that has to be done. how are we going to get muslims to become part of a coalition to destroy isis. this is not a serious proposal. in fact, it will push the muslim world, the arab world away from us at a time when we need to reengage with them to be able to create a strategy to destroy isis. donald is great at the one-liners, but he's a chaos candidate, and he'd be a chaos president. he would not be the commander in

chief we need to keep our country safe. >> mr. trump? >> jeb doesn't really believe i'm unhinged. he said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign. it's been a total disaster. nobody cares, and frankly, i'm the most solid person up here. i built a tremendous country. i want to make america great again. the policies that we've suffered under other presidents have been a disaster for our country. we want to make america great again, and jeb, in all fairness, he doesn't believe that. >> look, he mentioned me. i can talk. this is the problem. banning all muslims will make it harder for us to do exactly what we need to do, which is to destroy isis. we need a strategy. we need to get the lawyers off

the back of the war fighters. right now under president obama, we've created this standard that is so high that it's impossible to be successful in fighting isis. we need to engage with the arab world to make this happen. it is not a serious proposal to say that to the people that you're asking for their support, that they can't come to the country to engage in a dialogue with us? that's not a serious proposal. we need a serious leader to deal with this, and i believe i'm that guy. >> senator rubio. you have said banning muslims is unconstitutional, but according to a poll, a majority of republicans support mr. trump's idea. why are they wrong? >> well, i understand why they feel that way. this president hasn't kept us safe. the problem is we had an attack in san bernardino and we were paying attention to the most important issue we've faced since 9/11 and then all the talk was about this proposal which isn't going to happen. this is what's important. we must deal with the threat of radical islamist, especially from isis. this is the most sophisticated

terror group that's threatened the world or the united states. they're actively recruiting americans. the attacker in san bernardino was born and raised in this country. he was a health inspector. had a newborn child and left it behind to kill 14 people. this group is growing. it's not just a rock in syria. they're a group in libya and beginning to pop up in afghanistan. they're increasingly involved in attacks in yemen. they need to be confronted with serious proposals. this is a significant threat, and the president has left us unsafe. he spoke to the other night to reassure us. i wish he wouldn't have spoken. he said we're going to keep doing what we're doing, and what we're doing now isn't working. >> hugh hewitt, you have a question. >> senator cruz, you've said you disagree with mr. trump's policy. i don't want a cage match. you've tweeted you don't.

but republican primary voters deserve to know how you disagree. >> listen, everyone understands why donald has suggested what he has. we're looking at a president who's engaged in double speak where he doesn't call radical islamic terrorism by its name. he gives a speech after the san bernardino attack where his approach is to go after the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens rather than to keep us safe. and even worse, president obama and hillary clinton are proposing brings tens of thousands of syrian refugees to this country when the head of the fbi has told congress they cannot vet those refugees. i introduced legislation. and it would suspend all

refugees for three years from countries where isis or al qaeda control substantial territory. >> so you're saying you disagree because he's too broad and you have a narrower to focus? >> i'm reminded of what fdr's grandfather said. he said all horse thieves are democrats, but not all democrats are horse thieves. in this instance, there are millions of peaceful muslims across the world. like in india, there are no problems we're seeing in nations with territory controlled by isis. we should direct the problem, focus on the problem, and defeat radical islamic terrorism. it's not a war on a faith. it's a war on a political ideology that seeks to murder us. >> carly fiorina, this is the

christmas dinner debate. this will be the debate that americans talk about at christmas. and thus far in the first ten minutes, we haven't heard a lot about ronald reagan sitting on a hill. we've heard about keeping americans safe and everyone else out. is this what you want the party to stand for? >> what i think we need to stand for are solutions. i offer myself as a leader to the people of this country, because i think they're looking for solutions, not lawyers arguing over laws or entertainers throwing out sound bites that draw media attention. we need to solve the problem. to do that, we need to do something at home and something over there, in their caliphate. we need to deny them territory. at home we need to do two things. one, we need to recognize that technology has moved on. the patriot act was signed in 2001, roughly. the iphone was invented in 2007. the ipad was invented in 2007. snap chat and twitter, all the

rest of it, have been around just for several years. technology has moved on and the terrorists have moved on with it. soon after 9/11, i got a phone call from the nsa. they needed help. i gave them help. i stopped a truckload of equipment. i had it turned around. it was escorted by the nsa into head quarters. we need the private sector's help, because government is not innovating. technology is leaping ahead by leaps and bounds. the private sector will help, but they must be engaged, and they must be asked. i'll ask them. i know them. >> governor christie. >> americans are clearly more afraid today than at any time since 9/11. as you mentioned in your opening statement, today in los angeles, 650 school children didn't go to -- 650,000 school children didn't go to school because of an e-mail threat. this after 14 people were killed

in san bernardino. is this the new normal, and if so, what steps would you take as president of the united states so ensure that fear does not paralyze america? >> wolf, unfortunately it's the new normal under barack obama and hillary clinton. the fact is that if you listen to hillary clinton the other day, what she said to the american people was as regards to isis, my strategy would be about the same as the president's. just about the same as the president's? we have people across this country who are scared to death, because i can tell you this, as a former federal prosecutor, if a center for the developmentally disabled in san bernardino, california is a target for terrorists, that means everywhere in america is a target for these terrorists. now, i spent seven years of my life doing this work after 9/11. working with the patriot act,

working with our law enforcement to make sure we keep america safe. what we need to do is restore the tools taken away by the presidents and others. restore the tools to the nsa and to our law enforcement community. we need a president who understands what actionable intelligence looks like and act on it. and we need a president and a cabinet who understands the most important priority is to protect the safety of americans as someone who has done it, i will make sure it gets done again. >> thank you. governor kasich. >> one of the killers in san bernardino was an american who was not on anyone's watch list. how are you going to find that radicalized person and stop another such attack? >> well, first of all, wolf, i said last february that we needed to have people on the ground, troops on the ground, in a coalition similar to what we had in the first gulf war.

i remember when the egyptian ambassador to the united states stood in the rose garden and pledged arab commitment to removing saddam hussein to kuwait. before we came out here tonight, i'm told the saudis have organized 34 countries who want to join in the battle against terrorism. first and foremost, we need to go and destroy isis, and we need to do this with our arab friends and our friends in europe. when they have a climate conference, they should have been talked about destroying isis. you destroy isis in a coalition. you get joint intelligence with our european friends, and at home, there's a joint terrorism task force headed by the fbi and made up of local law enforcement including state police. they need the tools and the tools involved encryption where we can't hear what they're

planning and when we see red flags, someone who says we have a problem here, then we have to give law enforcement the ability to listen so they can disrupt these terrorist attacks before they occur. we can do this, but we have to get moving. pay me now or pay me a lot more later. this is the direction we need to go. >> thank you. dana bash, you have the next question. >> a crucial question is how to balance surveillance with privacy in keeping americans safe. thank you. dana bash, you have the next question. >> the question is how to cash balance privacy in keeping america safe. senator cruz, you voted for bill, president obama signed into law last june that made it hard for americans to access phone records. in light of the san bernardino attacks, was your viet mistake? >> well, da that the premise of your question is not accurate. i am proud with the senate to

reform how we target bad guys. what the usa freedom act did two things, number one, it ended the federal government phone metada that. number two, the second half that is critical. it strengthened the tools to go after terrorists. we are seeing those tools work in san bernardino, what it did the prior program covered a relatively narrow slice of phone calls, when you had a terrorist, you could only search primarily land lines. the usa freedom act expands that, now we have cell phones. now we have internet phones. now we have the phones terrorists are likely to use the focus of law enforcement is on targeting the bad guys, when anything happens, obama ma administration focuses on the citizens. instead of the bad guy, we need

to focus on islamic terrorists and stop them before they carry out terrorism. >> there was bipartisan support for that, you voted against that, so is senator cruz wrong? >> he is, also those that voted for it. some wanted to keep it alive. here's the world we live in. this is a radical jihadist group that is increasingly sophisticated. if its ability to radicalize american citizens and exploit loopholes in our legal organization. this is not just the most capable, it is the most sophisticated terror three. we are at a time we need more tools, fought less tools. that tools we lost the metadata program was a valuable tool we no longer have at our disposal. >> senator cruz. >> marco know what is he says isn't true. mark levin wrote an article, the attack ads are knowingly false,

they are, in fact, a linski-like attack like barack obama the old program covered 30% of phone cnbc to search for terrorists. the new program covers 100%. >> that gives us greater ability to stop terrorism. he knows that him. >> senator. >> let me be very careful in answering, i don't think national television in front of 15 million people is the place to discussion classified information. let me be very clear. there is nothing we are allowed to do under the bill we could not do before. this bill, however, did take away a valuable tool the national security agency and other intelligence agencies to quickly access phone records and match them up to see who terrorists are targeting. i promise you, the next attack the first thing people want to know is, why didn't we know about it and why didn't he stop

it? the answer better fought be because we didn't have access to records or information that would have allowed us to identify these killers before they attack. [ applause ] >> senator paul, this has been a very big issue for you. you hear many of your colleagues are calling for increased under surveillance by law enforcement. you call that hogwash. why is that hogwash? >> i think marco gets it completely wrong. we are not any safer to the collection of all america's records. in fact, i think we're less same. we get so distracted. we're not getting specific information on terrorists. the other thing is the one ting that might have stopped san bernardino or 9/11 would be stricter controls of those that came here. more ka has every point border security for foes that come to our country. on his gang of eight bill, he would have liberalized

immigration. he steadfastly opposed any new peermts for refugees or students. last week i introduced another bill saying we need more security, more scrutiny. once again marco can't have it both ways. he is the weakest of all of the candidates on imgrangs. he is the one for an open border. few want to defend the country, you have to defend who is coming in. marco has more of an allegiance to chuck schumer and the liberals than he does to conservative policy. >> senator rubio. >> i want to thank rand for another 30 second, number one, he is pointing to a bill that only ten people voted for. you know why? it would have banned anyyun one, anyone from taiwan. this metadata program is more

strict than what a raeg regularly law enforcement agency has now. if a regular law enforcement wants your phone records, they issue a subpoena. now a intelligence has to look at those who are calling. the terrorist in san bernardino was a person born in this country. i wish we had phone records to see who he was working with. >> can i respond? marco still understands immigration issues, what i put forward was an amendment that would have temporarily halted immigration from high risk countries. this program will do background checks. the thing is every terrorist attack we've had since 9/11 has been illegal immigration. marcops to expand. that i want more rules, more

scrutiny. to defend the country you have to defend the border. >> you heard senator paul, senator cruz, talk about how important it is to protect american privacy in the time of grave danger, what is wrong with that? >> i want to talk to the audience, if your eyes are glazed over like mine, this is what it's like on the floor of the senate. endless debates for people who never had to make a decision. for seven years ago i had to make these decisions after 9/11, make a decision on how to pull back, whether to use actionable intelligence or whether not to. yet they continue to debate about the bill and the subcommittee. nobody in america cares about that. what they care about is, are we going to have a president who actually knows what they're doing to make these decisions and for the seven years afterwards, new jersey was

threatened like no other region in this country. we took actions within the constitution to make sure that law enforcement has all the information they needed. we prosecuted two of the biggest her tick cases in the world that stopped fort dix attacked by six radical muslims, because we worked with the muslim community to get intelligence and used the patriot act. this is the difference between actually being a federal prosecutor and doing something or spending your life as one of the hundred debating it. let's talk about how we do it. which bill one of these guys like more. the american people don't care about that. >> thank you. >> dr. carson, you are in favor of mosques and school with anti-american send imt. what do you call anti-american? >> let me complain, this is the first time i've spoken.

several people had multiple questions. please try to pay attention to that. now, as far as monitoring is concerned. what my point is, we need to make sure that any place, i don't care whether it's a mosque, a school, a supermarket, a theater, it doesn't matter. if there are a lot of people getting there, engaging in radicalizing activities. then we need to be suspicious over. we have to get rid of this stuff and people are worried about something is going to stay or is islam joe, phobic or what have you. this is crazy, we are at war. that's why i asked congress to go ahead and declare war. we need to be on war footing. we need to understand our nation is in grave danger. what the muslim brotherhood said discovered during the holly land foundation trial is that they will take advantage of our pc

attitude to get us. which have to be better than that. we have to be smarter than that. >> who was right when we heard between senators rubio and palm in. >> i think you have to ask them. i don't want to get in between them. let them fight. >> well, hold on, we have a lot more to come. governor bush, six days after 9/11, your brother visited a mosque and said, quote, islam is peace. the conversation tonight is about banning muslims and under surveillance of mosques. are problem's words still relevant in today's republican party? >> they are relevant if we want to destroy icircumstance if we want to destroy radical terrorism. we can't separate ourselves from peace loving muslims. if we expect to do this often our own, we will fail. if we do it with people also at

risk and threatened by islamic terrorism. we will be far more successful. look the fbi has the tools necessary to monitor unamerican activities in our country. it goes on. we shouldn't be talking about it to be honest with you out in the public. of course, they have those capabilities. we should give the fbi the nsa, our intelligence communities, all the resources they need to keep us safe. but the main thing we should be focused on is a strategy to destroy isis. i laid out a plan at the reagan library before the tragedy of paris and before san bernardino to do just. that it requires leadership. it's not filing an amendment and calling it success. it is developing a strategy, leading the world, funding it to make sure we have a military that's second to none and doing the job. and making sure that we destroy isis is there. that's how you keep america safe. >> miss firy. as you pointed out, you were the ceo-of-on silicon valley on

9/11, those companies say they won't help encrypting isis, should they be forced to? >> you know, listening to this conversation, let me just say, we have a lot of argument about laws, but none of it solves the problem. let's examine what happened. why did we miss the tsarnaev brothers? why did we miss the san bernardino couple? it wasn't because we stopped collecting metadata, it was because i think someone that comes from the technology world, we were using the wrong algorithms. this is a place where the private sector could be helpful, because the government is woefully behind the technology curve. secondly, secondly the bureaucratic processes have have been a in place since 9/11 are woefully inaccurate as well t.da vets people going into databases of known or suspected terrorists. we know isis is recruiting people not in those databases,

so, of course, we're going to miss them. then we now learn the dhs says, no, we can't check your social media. for heaven sakes, every parent in america is checking social media. every employer is as well. our government can't do it. the bureaucratic procedures are so far behind our government has become incomp ternlths unresponsive, corrupt. >> that lack of account saeblt now dangerous. it is why we feed a different kind of leadership in the white house that understands how to get bureaucracies competent again. >> but my question was, should these silicon valley companies be forced to cooperate with the fbi? >> they do not need to be forced. they need to be asked to bring the best and brieft, the most recent technology to the table. i was asked as a ceo. i complied happily. they will as well. but they have not been asked. that's why it costs billions of dollars to build an obama website that failed.

because the private sector wasn't asked. >> mr. trump, you recently suggested closing that internet up, your words, as a way to stop isis if recruiting online. are you referring to closing down actual portions of the internet, some say that would put the u.s. in line with china and north korea? >> well, look, this is so easy to answer. isis is recruiting through the internet. isis is using the internet better than we are using the internet. it was our idea. what i wanted to do is i wanted to get our brilliant people from silicon valley and other places and figure out a way that isis cannot do what they're doing. you talked freedom of speech, freedom of anything you want. i don't want them using our internet to take our young impressionable youth and watching the media, talking

about how their mastermind. these are masterminds, they shouldn't be using the word mastermind. these are thugs, terrible people. not masterminds. we have to change it from every standpoint. but we should be using our brilliant people, our most brilliant minds to figure a way that isis cannot use the internet. then on second we should be able to penetrate the internet and find out exactly where isis is and everything about isis and we can do that if we use our good people. [ cheers ] >> let me follow up, mr. trump, are you opened to close parts of the internet? >> i would certainly be opened to close areas where we are at war with somebody. i sure as [ bleep ] don't want to let people that want to kim us and kill our nation use our internet, yes, sir, i am. >> thank you, governor kasich. is shutting down any part of the internet a good idea? >> no, i don't think it is. i want to go back to two other issues. one is the metada that.

we know we have to hold this data for a longer period of time. in a lot of way, chris is right. what the president has to do is stake a position. we don't want to err on the side of having less. we want to err on the side of having more. that's good for our families. in addition to that, there is a problem. it's called encryption. the people in san bernardino were communicating with people who the if ib fib had been watching but because their phone was encrypted. because the intelligence officials could not see who they were talking to it was lost. we have to solve the encryption problem. it is not easy. a president of the united states again has to bring people together, have a position. we need to be able to penetrate these people when they are involved in these plots and these plans and we have to give the local authorities the ability to penetrate and disrupt. that's what we need to do. encryption is a major problem and congress has got to deal with this.

so does the president to keep us safe. >> thank you, governor. the fight against radical islamic terrorists and isis has been called the war of our times. so let's talk about how each of you as commander in chief would fight this war and win it. senator cruz, you have head you would quote carpet bomb isis into oblivion, testing whether quote sand can glow in the dark. does that mean leveling the isis capital of raqqah and syria, where there are hundreds of thousands of civilians? >> what it means is using overwhelming air power to utterly and completely destroy isis. in the first persian gulf war, we launched roughly 1,100 air attacks a day. we carpet bomb them for 37 days, saturation bombing, after which our troops went if, in a day-and-a-half mopped up what was left of the iraqi army. right now obama is launching 15

to 30 agree tacks. it is photo op foreign policy. we need to be arming the kurds. we need to be fighting and killing isits where they r. let me go back to the earlier discussion a minute ago. it's not a lack of competence that is preventing the obama administration from stopping these attacks. it is political correctness. we didn't monitor the facebook posting of the female san bernardino terrorist because the obama dhs thought it would be inappropriate. she made a public call to jihad and they didn't target it. the tsarnaev brothers, the elder brother made a public call to jihad and the obama administration didn't target it. nadal hasan communicated with a known radical cleric asked about wageing jihad against his fellow soldiers. the problem is because of political correct inside, the obama administration like a lot of folks here want to search everyone's cell phones and e-mails and not focus on the bad guys and political correctness

is killing people. >> thank you. to be clear, senator cruz, would you carpet bomb raqqah, the isis capital, where there are a lot of civilian, yes or no? >> you would carpet bomb where isis is, not a city, but the location of the troops. you use air power directed. you have embedded special forces to direct the air power. but the object isn't to level a city t. object is to kill the isis terrorists to make it, listen, isis is gaining strength because the perception is that they're winning. president obama fuels that perception. >> that will change when militants across the globe see that when you join isis, that you are giving up your life, you are signing your death warrant. we need a president who is focused on deefth every single isis terrorist and protecting the homeland which should be the first priority. >> thank you, senator. senator rubio. you have been critical of senator cruz's strategy you say

his voting record doesn't match his rhetoric. why? >> let me begin by saying, we have to understand who isis s. isis is a radical sunni group. they can fought just be defeated through airstrikes. that i are a key component. but they must be defeated og by ground forces, primarily made up of sunni arabs and confront them militarily. we will have to embed additional special operates or alongside them to help them with training and conduct special mixens and to help improve the airstrikes. the airstrikes are important. we will be left with the oldest and smallest air force. we have to reverse those cuts, in addition to the cuts to the navy and our army as well. and beyond that, i would say we must win the information war against isis. every war we have been involved in has had a propaganda inspirational access.

isis is recruiting americans, to join them, with the promise they are going to defeat the wet. we have to show what life is like in isis territory. we have to show them why isis is not invincible. by going out, publicizing these attacks to those they recruit. >> i asked the question, senator, because you said this, you said he, referring to senator cruz, voted against the defense authorization act every year that it came up. aassume if he voted against it, he would veto it as president. that's the bill -- >> that is accurate. three times he voted against the defense authorization act. which is a bill that funds the troop and the iroven dome and other important programs. industry to assume if you vote against it in the 123459, you would veto it as president. he voted against a containment budget that radically reduces the money. you can't carpet bomb isis if you don't have bombs and planes.

if we have additional cuts, we will be left with the oldest and smallest air force this country has ever had. >> senator cruz. >> well, marco has continued these attacks. he knows they're not true. yes, it is true i voted against the national defense authorization act because when i campaigned if texas, i told voters in texas i would oppose the federal government having the authority to di tain u.s. sides i have repeatedly supported the effort to honor that commitment. somehow he has tossed more than a few insults this direction, let's be absolutely clear isis and radical terrorism, we will target them by targeting the bad guys. one of the problems is he has

far too attacked hillary clinton and obama, we need to focus on killing the bad guys, not getting stuck in middle eastern war. >> the first is if you are an american citizen and you decide to join up with isis. we're not going to read you your rights, you will be treated as an enemy attacking this country. number two, we do need our capabilities. it is a fact the cuts we face today and senator cruz would have supported would leave us with a smaller air force and navy than the one we will be left with. the final point is hillary clinton and barack obama's strategy is to lead from behind. it sound like what he is outlining is not to lead at all. we cannot continue to outsource foreign policy. we are the most powerful nation in the world. we need to act like it again. >> we will have much more on this i want to move back to mr. trump. >> well, this legislation.

>> hold on. we have a lot -- >> it deserves a lot of attention. >> i want to move to mr. trump right now. we have a question on isis and how you would fight the war. here's the question from facebook. >> i'm josh jacob, recently donald trump mentioned that we must kill the families of isis members. however, the violates the distinction between civilians and combatants in international law, my question is how intentionally killing civilians hurt us? >> mr. trump. >> we have to be much tougher. we have to be much stronger than we have been him we have people that know what's going on. you take a look at yu the attack in california the other day. there were numerous people including the mother that knew what was going on. they saw a pipe bomb sitting all over the floor. they seen ammunition. they knew what was going on. when you had the world trade center go, people were putting the planes, that were friends, families, girlfriends, they were

put into planes and isn't it back for the most part to saudi arabia. they knew what was going on. they went home and they wanted to watch their boyfriends on television. i would be very, very firm and frankly that will make people think, because they may not care much about their lives, but they do care, believe it or fought, about their family's lives. >> governor bush. >> this is another example of the lack of seriousness. look, this is troubling, because we're at war. they declared war on us. we need to have a serious strategy to destroy isis. but the idea that that is a solution to this is just crazy. it makes no sense to suggest this. look. two months ago, donald trump said that isis was fought our fight. just two months ago. he said that hillary clinton would be a great negotiator with iran and he gets his foreign policy experience from the shows. >> that is not a serious kind of candidate. we need someone that thinks this through, that can lead our

country to safety and security. >> mr. trump. >> look, the problem is we need toughness. honestly, i think jeb is a very nice person. a very nice person. but we need tough people. we need intelligence and we need tough. jeb said when they come across the southern border, they come as an act of love. >> you said on september 30th isis was not -- >> am i talking or are you jeb? >> i'm talking. >> you can go back. you interrupted me again, are you going to apologize, jeb, no? am i allowed to fin snish. >> one at a time. >> am i allowed to finish? >> go ahead, mr. trump. >> so again. >> build up your energy, jeb. one at a time. >> look. we feed a toughness. we need strength. we're not respected as a nation anymore. we don't have that level of respect that we need and if we don't get it back fast, we're just going to go weaker, weaker and just disintegrate.

we can't allow that to happen. we need strength. we don't have it. when jeb comes out. he talks about the border. i saw it. i was witness and so was everyone else. i was standing there, they come across as an act of love. he is saying the same thing right now with radical islam. we can't have that in our country. we need strength. >> governor bush. >> donald, will you not be able to insult your way to the presidency. that's not going to happen. and i do have the strength. leadership is not, leadership is not about attacking people and discouraging people. leadership is about creating serious strategy to deal with the threat of our time and i laid out that strategy before the attacks in paris and before the attacks in san bernardino and it is the way of the way forward. we need to increase our military spending. we need to deal with a no-fly zone in syria, a safe zone. we need to focus on building a military that is second to none. >> thank you.

>> so that we can destroy islamic terrorism. >> with jeb's attitude, we will never be great again, that i can tell you. >> hugh, dana bash, hugh, go ahead with the next question. >> dr. carson, you mentioned in your opening remarks you are a neurosurgeon. and people admire and respect and are inspired by your life story, your kindness, evangelical core support. we're talking about ruthless things tonight, carpet bombing. toughness, war, people wonder, could you do that? could you order airstrikes that would kill incident children not scores but the hundreds and thousands, could you wage war as a commander-in-chief? >> well, interestingly enough, you should see the eyes of some of those children when i say to them, we're going to have to open your head up and take out your stomach. they're not happy about it, believe me.

they don't like me very much at that point, but later on they love me. sometimes you, i sound like him, you know later on, you know, they really realize what's going on. and by the same token, you have to be able to look at the big picture and understand that it's actually merciful if you go ahead and finish the job rather than death by a thousand critics. >> so you are okay with the death of thousands of innocent children andcismians, it's like. >> you got it. >> that is what war gets. can you be as ruthless as church hymn was in prosecuting the war against nazis? >> ruthless is not necessarily the word i would use, but tough, resolute, understanding what the problems are, and audienceing that the job of the president of the united states is to protect

the people of this country and to do what is necessary in order to get it done. >> senator palm. you said isis grew stronger because of the hawks in your party. do you think that republicans have fueled the rise of isis? >> i think by arming the allies of isis, the islamic level of assad, we created that space bigger, i think those that wanted regime change have made a mistake. when we topple gadhafi and libya, that was a mistake, isis grew stronger. we were more at risk. i'd like to also go back to another question, which is, is donald trump a serious candidate? the reason, that entails getting rid of the first amendment. it's no small featment realize

there is a geneva convention, it would defy every norm, if you ask yourself, who you think you are, i think you need to believe in the constitution. are you going to change the constitutio constitution? >>. >> so they can kill us, but we can't kill them. that's what you are saying and as far as the internet is concerned, i'm not talking about closing the internet. i'm talking parts of syria, parts of iraq, where isis is, spotting it. now, you could close it. what i like better than that is getting our smartest and getting our best to infiltrate their internet. so that we know exactly where they go, exactly where they're going to be. i like that better. but we have to, who would be, i

just can't imagine somebody booing. these are people that want to kim us, folks. you are objecting to us infiltrateing their conversations? i don't think so. i don't think so. >> senator paul. >> senator palm, i want to go back to my initial question, which is you saying that isis grew stronger because of hawks in your party and do you think that your own parties of people who you are describing are responsible for the rise of isis? >> i think that if you believe in regime change, you are mistaken. in 2013, we put 600 tons of weapons, us, saudi arabia and qatar into the war against assad. by pushing assad back, we did create a safe space. we had people coming into our formal relations committee and saying, we need to arm the allies of al qaeda. they are still saying this. this is a crazy notion. this is the biggest debate we should be having tonight is, is regime change a good idea? has it been a good idea?

there are still people the ma jert on the stage, they want to topple assad and there will be chaos and i think isis will be in charge of syria. >> we will talk about regime change in a bit. governor kasich, would you like this respond to senator paul? >> let me suggest to everybody. last february, i said we needed to have people on the ground in a coalition with europe and our allies. this is not going to get done just by working with the sunnis and it is not going to get done if we embed a few people. we have to go massively like we did in the first gulf war, where we destroyed so only's ability to take kuwait. we need to have a coalition that will stand for nothing less than the total destruction of isis and we have to be the leader. i served on the armed services committee 18 years. we must lead the job.

>> thank you, senator. >> senator rubio. >> let's continue this conversation. this is a critically important issue. >> i hope you ask me my strategy for defeating isis. >> we have a lot of time. i want to go to senator rubio right now. let's talk about one of the aspects that your strategy, you sigh the only way to defeat isis is with ground forces made up primarily of sunni-arab forces. those arab nations, though, as you well know,itative conducted less than 5% of the airstrikes and actually none since august. what makes you think they are willing to fight on the ground if they're not even willing to fight from the air? >> they most certainly will have to be worked on to provide more than they are now. there is no doubt about it. there is one major reason why they have not been a broader part of the coalition thanks is because they have complete trust and confidence in this president. this president cut a deal with our mortal enemies the shia, this is no reason they no longer trust this president they have as much invoted as we do.

more so. it is the king of saudi arabia they want to behead first and the king of jordan they want to dethrone. they want to go into egypt like they did in libya. assad is one of the main reasons isis begins. assad is a participate of iran. he hass been so brutal that he created the space that led to the people of syria themselves to stand up and try to overthrow him. >> that led to the chaos, which allowed isis to come in and take advantage of that situation and grow more powerful. the fact that this president led from behind meant there were no alternative groups on the ground to be empowered leaving ice sis in the prime operating space they needed to become the force they have become. >> thank you. standby. miss fiorina. the former defense secretary bob kasich says the chances of getting sunni arab forces on the ground to get the job done, his words, chances very remote. what's your strategy? >> first, i'll point out that

talking tough is not the same as being strong. and to have a commander if chief accountable not two term senators that never made an executive decision in their life. one of the things i will immediately do in addition to defeating them here at home is bring back the warrior class, petraeus, mcchrystal, mad discuss, keen, flynn, every single one senator retired early because they told president obama things that he didn't want to hear. we must have sunni arabs involved in this coalition. we must commit leadership, strength, support and resolve. i'll just add that margaret thatcher once said if you want something talked about, ask a man, if you want something done, ask a woman. >>. >> thank you. governor christie, what's your

strategy? >> you sit up here and listen to this stuff. so many people had so much to do in this national debate. they talk like they were bystanders. we talk about our military being degraded i don't have time, yet we had folks on the stage who have been a part of congress who have participated in the sequester, who participated in the degrading of this military over time and that's why i think people get so frustrated with washington, d.c. now, that's why they're so angry with the electorate is angry with everybody involved in government in washington, d.c., if you listen to the folks up here, you would think they weren't even there, they had nothing to do with this. this is the difference between being a governor and being in the legislature. when something doesn't work in new jersey. they look at me. they say, why didn't it get done? you have to be responsible and accountable. so on isis, let's be clear, the president need to be a force that is trusted in the world and on this i agree with marco.

you know, the president is not trusted. if are you the king of jordan, if you are in the royal family in saudi arabia andese made this deem with iran, which gives him $150 billion to wage a war and try to extend theorem pire across the middle east, why would you want to do it now? i will tell you this, when i stand across from king hussein of jordan, you have a friend against sir who will stand with you to fight this fight. he'll change his mind. >> dr. carson, what's your strategy? >> first of all, i have been talking about this for over a year. we have to destroy their caliphate because that gives them legitimacy to go ahead with the global jihad. we have to take their energy because isis is the richest terrorist organization there is, take their oil, shut down all the mechanisms whereby they can disperse money because they go after disaffected individuals from all over the place and they are able to pay them.

>> that makes a difference, as far as the command centers are concerned, in raqqah and to a lesser degree, mosul. cut those off. do the same things we did a few weeks ago. working with our embedded special forces, with the kurd, shut off the supply route. soften them up. then we go in with special ops, followed by our air force to take them over. those are things that work. but also, you know, this whole concept of boots on the ground. you know, we got a phobia about boots teg e on the ground. if our military experts say, we feed boots on the ground. we should put bother oak and recognize we will put boots oak. they'll be over here if we don't get them over there now. >> everybody stand by. which candidates on this stage tonight want to move u.s. foreign policy in a dramatically new direction? we'll be right back.

we danced in a german dance group. i wore lederhosen.man. when i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasn't finding all of these germans in my tree. i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. the big surprise was we're not german at all. 52% of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. so, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. get started for free at ancestry.com.

>> the war against isis will pose a challenge and the last president supported toppleing dictators to try to promote democracy. senator cruz, you have said the world would be safer today if saddam hussein were in power in iraq. moammar gadhafi ruled libya, would it be your policy to preserve dictator 147s rather than promoting democracy in the middle east? >> well, if i believe in an america first foreign policy that far too often president obama and hillary clinton and unfortunately more than a few republicans have gotten distracted from the central focus of keeping the country safe. let's go back to the beginning of the obama administration, hillary clinton and barack obama led nato in toppling the

government in libya. they did it because they wanted to promote democracy. a number of republicans supported them. the result of that, we were told then that there were these moderate rebels that would take over. well, the result is, libya is now a terrorist war zone run by jihadists, once again, toppled mubarak who had been a reliable allie of the united states and israel and morsi and the muslim brotherhood came in, a terrorist organization. and we need to learn from history. these same leaders, obama, clinton and far too many republicans want to top him assad, assad is a bad man, gadhafi was a mad ban, mubarak had a terrible human rights record. they were assisting us, at least gadhafi and mubarak in fighting radical terrorists. the we top him assad, the result

will be isis will take over syria. it will worsen u.n. national security interest and the approach, instead of being a woodrow wilson democracy promoter, we ought to hunt down our enemies and kill isis rather than creating opportunities for sis to take control. >> thank you, senator. senator rubio. you supported the removal of moammar gadhafi in libya. now that country is in turmoil as isis is clearly growing there. senator cruz says you haven't learned your lesson. do have you any regrets for supporting president obama's intervention in libya? >> to begin with, moammar gadhafi and the revolt was not started by the united states. it was started by the libyan people t. reason i argue we need to get involved is he was going to go one way or the other. my argument for them has proven true, that is the longer that civil war took the more militias would be formed, the more unstable the country would be after the fact. as far as moammar gadhafi is concerned, he is the man that

killed those people over lockerbie, scotland. she also the man that bombed that cafe in berlin and killed those marines, and you want to know why moammar gadhafi started cooperating on his nuclear program? because it got rid of saddam hussein. he got scared he would be next. that's why he started cooperating. we will have to work around the world with less than ideal governments t. government in saudi arabia is not a democracy, but we will have to work with them t. government if jordan is not perfect, but we will have to work with them. but anti-american dictators like assad who helped he's bomb la and helped get those ieds into iraq. if they go, i will not shed a tear. >> senator cruz. >> well, it's more than not shedding a tear. it's actively getting involved to topple a government. we keep hearing from president obama and hillary clinton and washington republicans, they're searching for mythical moderate rebels. it's like a perfect unikorns. the rebels ends up being

jihadists. it's prime minister netanyahu, has said, israel doesn't have a dog in that fight. because assad is a puppet of iran a. shia radical islamic terrorist. but at the same time, prime minister netanyahu doesn't want to see syria govern by isis and we need to focus on american interests. >> thank you. >> not on global -- >> standby, everybody standby, governor kasich. go ahead. >> i don't understand this thing about assad. he has to go. assad is aligned with iran and russia. the one thing we want to prevent, is we want to prevent iran being able to extend a shia prent presence all across the parkway east. assad's got to go. there are moderates there. there are moderates in syria, who we should be supporting. i do not support a civil war. i don't want to be policeman of the world, but we can't back off of this let me tell you at the end, the saudi versus agreed to put together a coalition inside a syria to stabilize that

country. he must go. it would be a proceed to eastern and to russia. >> thank you. we will dot-com about assad in a moment. mr. trump, are americans safer with dictators running the world in the middle east? >> in my opinion -- >> go ahead, mr. trump. >> in my opinion, we've spent $4 trillion dollars trying to topple various people, frankly, if they were there and we could have spent that $4 trillion in the united states to fix our roads, our bridges and all the other problems our airports and all of the other problems we have, we would have been a lot better off. ki tell you that right now. we have done a tremendous disservice not only to the middle east, to humanity the people that have been killed the people that have been wiped away. for what? it's not look we have a victory t. middle east is totally destabilized a. total and

complete mess. i wish we had the $4 trillion or $5 trillion. i wish it was spent right here in the united states on our schools, hospitals, roads, airports and everything else, that are all falling apart. thank you. >> wow, that is exactly what president obama said. >> go ahead. >> that's exactly what president obama has said. i'm amazed to here that from a republican presidential candidate. let's just start with who got it wrong? who really got it wrong? hillary clinton has gotten every foreign policy challenge wrong. recall she called bashar al-assad a positive reformer and opened an embassy and later said over and over asen bashar al-assad must go, although she wasn't prepared to go about it. hillary clinton was all for toppling moment ma gadhafi and didn't is listen to her people oak and when she lied about the

terrorist attack if benefit gaedz, she invited more terrorist attacks. >> mr. trump. >> there is nothing to respond to. the fact is benghazi was a disaster, because of libya. everything just fell into place. it could not have been worth it. what do we have now? we have nothing. we spent $3 trillion and probably much more. they have no idea what we spent, thousands and thousands of lives. we have nothing. wounded warriors all over the place, whom i love. we have nothing for it. by the way benefit said correctly. not a knock. he's one of the finest men, you will not find a finder man. i have been talking about oil for three years, take the oil. take the oil. i didn't say just bomb it. i said take it. use it. and distribute it. so that the wound warriors and people, but i have been saying this now for many years. now all of a sudden everybody is saying take the oil. it wasn't so fashionable to take the oil six months ago. i have been saying this for years. >> dr. carson. >> we missed going into iraq.

we missed coming out of iraq. >> dr. carson, is the middle east better off with dictators? >> no one is ever better off with dictators. but there comes a time, you know, when are you on an airplane, they always say, in case of an emergency, oxygen maps will drop down, put yours on first, then administer help to your neighbor. we need oxygen right now. we need to start thinking of the needs of the american people before we go and try to solve everybody else's problem t. fact of the matter is the middle east has been in turmoil for thousands of years. for us to think we're going in there and fix that with a couple little bombs and a few declarations is relatively foolish. >> governor bush. >> i think we're focusing. >> governor bush, here's the question. you said getting rid of saddam hussein in your words was a pretty good deal. in light of what has happened in iraq, do you still feel that way? >> i do.

i think lessons learned is we need a strategy to get in, a strategy to get out. which means you create a stable situation. this president and this is what the focus ought to be. it's not the differences between us. it's barack obama does not believe american's leadership is a force for good. he does not believe our strength is a place where security can take place. he leads from behind. he creates an environment that now we are creating the most unstable six we had since the world war ii era. the focus ought to be on the simple fact that hillary clintonps to double down on a failed foreign policy. we need to be united to defeat that. we will be in a place far less secure than it is today. >> you will agree, senator paul, senator paul. was getting rid of saddam hussein a pretty food deal? >> too es are the fundamental questions of our time, whether or not regime change is a good idea or a bad idea. i don't think because i think the regime change was a bad idea, it means that hussein was

necessarily a good idea. there are variations of evil on boat sides of the war. what we have to decide is whether or not regime change is a good idea. it's what the neo-conservatives have wanted. it's what the vast majority of those on the stage want. they want regime change. i wanted it in iraq. they wanted it in libya. it has not worked. out of regem change you get chaos. you see repeated will i the rise if radical islam. so we get this profession of oh my goodness, they want to do something about terrorism. yet there is a problem because they allow terrorism to arise out of that chaos. >> thank you. thank you, senior. >> go ahead. >> wolf, the question -- >> hold on. >> the question of -- the question of what we can become in a dictatorship is asking the wrong question. we sho you would be defeating our enemies. so the problem is -- >> senator, we will get to you. we have two hours debate. we'll have plenty of time.

let hugh ask this question. >> let me explain. >> senator, please. >> the focus should be on deefkt our enemies. >> you will have an opportunity. >> is iran because iran has declared war on us. we shouldn't be. >> senator. >> that are fighting radical islamic trim that, are helping. >> these are the rules, all of you agreed to, hugh, go ahead with your question. >> mr. trump, we are talking about the most important thing, you're okay with mr. assad staying in power. you a release in favor of winning. if he stays in power, iran is winning, hezbollah is winning. iran is winning in yemen. they are winning everywhere. if they're winning, how can we be winning if. >> i think assad is a bad guy, a very bad guy, all right. lots of people killed. i think we are backing people, we have no idea who they are. the rebels, the patriotic rebels. we have no idea. a lot of people think they're sis. we have to do one thing at a time. we can't be fighting isis and

fighting assad, he's fighting isis and russia is fighting isis, iran is fighting isis. we have to do one thing at a time. i watched lindsey graham. i have been here ten years fighting. he will be there with that thinking for another 50 years. he won't be able to solve the problem. we have oget rid of isis first, after we get rid of isis, we will be thinking about it. we can't be fighting assad. when you fight assad, you are fighting russia. a lot of different groups. we can't be fighting everybody at one time. >> governor christie, he right, because if we step back, iran goes nuclear. is donald trump right? >> i think we have to focus on what the priorities are. what i've always said is the president set up an awful situation to deal with iran. because when the deal with iran has done is empowered them and enriched them. >> that itself way isis has been created and informed here. isis is created and informed

because of the abuse assad and his iranian sponsors have reigned down on the sunnis in syria. so, when we empower iran, this is why this president. when hillary clinton says, her theory against isis will be just about the same as the president, get ready for more unrest and more murder and more violence in the middle east. on iran.to if cuss our attention if you miss iran, you are not going to get isis t. two are inextricably connected because one causes the other. >> senator paul, you heard president kasich say assad must go. do you agree? >> i think it's a huge mistake. regime change in syria, in 2013, when we first went in, i said, will you give arms to the allies of al qaeda to radical jaut jihadist. >> that itself crazy. the oitself thing is you will be back fighting against your own weapon. had assad been bombed when he used capital weapons two years ago, isis would be in charge of all of syria now. we have to have a more realistic

foreign policy and not a utopian won u one where we say we will spread democracy and freedom and everybody in the middle east will love it. they will not love it. >> in foreign policy, you have to know how to pick and choose. there is no way that saddam halls not had weapons of mass destruction, i would have gone. i don't believe the u.s. should be involved directly in civil wars. i opposed the u.s. involvement in lebanon. we ended up having to withdrawn our marines after our barracks were blown. there is a difference between iraq, have you sunni, shia and kurds put together after first world war by the western powers. it doesn't work. it needs to break up into three parts and finally, hugh, in regard to syria, understand that assad is an allie of iran, who wants to extend that shia radicalism all across the middle east. he has to go.

for the russians, frankly, it's time we pun were them in the nodes. they have gotten away with too much. we need to there's, but if eastern europe, where they tlent our most precious allies. >> we have another question from facebook. listen in, watch. >> my name is ashley, miss fiorina, in november you said after you were elected you would be elected from a sign of weakness. >> miss firy narcs as you know, u.s. and russian warplanes are flying all over syria, with so many lives on the line, this a good time for the united states not to talk to putin? >> what i said was the president of the united states now is not the time to talk with him him reagan walked. there is a time and a place for everything. there is a time and a place for

august and action i know vladmir putin, he expects strength. he lied to our president's face, didn't bother to tell him about warplanes and troops going into syria. we need to speak to him from a position of strength. so as a commander-in-chief,ly not speak to him, until we set up that no-fly zone, until we gather our sunni allies and deny isis territory. until i called the supreme leader of iran and told him new deal. new deem. we, the united states of america, are going to cut off the money flow. which we can do. and i will not speak to him personally until we've rebuilt this a bit. rebuilt the missile defense program in poland right under his nose and conducted a few military exercises in the united states. let us remember one other thing. hillary clinton and barack obama are responsible for the growth of isis. they precipitously withdraw from iraqi in 2011, against the

advice and for political expediency. it's not these people up here. it's hillary clinton. >> thank you, police miss fiorina. >> governor christie, if the u.s. opposed a no-fly zone over syria and a russian plane encroached and dated that no-fly zone, would you be prepared to shut down that russian plane and risk war with russia. >> not only prepare to do it. a no-fly zone means no-fly zone, washington, that's what it means. in new jersey, i have this plain language hang judgment i would not talk to voodz vladmir. i would talk to him a lot. i'd say, listen, mr. president, we have a no-fly zone in syria. you fly in, it flies for you. yes we would south shoot down the planes if they were stupid enough to think he was the weak link we have as the president in the oval office is right now.

>> senator palm. . senator palm, i want you to respond to what we just heard from governor christie, if there was a no-fly zone, you say that potentially could lead to world war iii, why? >> well, i think if are you in favor of world war iii, you have your candidate. here's the thing, my goodness, what we want in a leader is someone with judgment. not someone who is so reckless as to stand on the stage and say, yes, i'm jumping up and down, i'm going to shoot down russian planes. russia already flies in that airspace. it may not be something we're in love with the fact that they're there. they are invited by iraq. if we announce a no-fly zone, others v said this, hillary clinton is also for it. it is a recipe for disaster. a recipe for world war iii. we need to confront of the russia from a position of strength, but we don't need to confront russia from a point of

recklessness that would lead to war. this is something. this type of judgment. you know, it's having that type of judgment. who you would appoint, how you will conduct affairs. it is incredibly important. i think when we think about the judgment, someone who might want world war iii, we might think of someone that will shut down a bridge, because they don't like their friend, a democrat. >> governor christie. >> well, i'll tell you what reckless is, what reckless is is calling assad what reckless is allowing russia to come into cameia and ukraine, reckless is inviting russia into syria to team with iran thampl is reckless the reckless people are the folks in the white house right now, barack obama and hillary clinton are the reckless people if you think a no-fly zone is a reckless policy, you are welcome to your opinion. how is it working so par? we have 250 syrians murdered, slautsdz, millions runsing around the world. it's not working.

>> that is not reckless. >> let's go back, hugh. >> governor bush, the xavender in chief question, you said mr. trump is not qualify to be president because he's fought qualified to deal with vladmir putin. why are you better qualified to deal with mr. putin than mr. trump? zblirs of all, i know what i don't know. i would seek out as i have the best advice that exists. i won't get my information from the shows. i don't know if that's saturday morning or sunday morning. i don't know which one. i will seek out the bist advice. i will create a strategy and persuade the american people what the roam of america should be. i have laid out a policy of rebuilding our military. all of the talk we are seeing here, most i agree on, requires a much stronger military. we now have a lack of railroadness that is kuwait scary. we have planes that harry truman inaugurated t.b-52. we have the navy has been gutted an decimated. the readiness of the marines is

way down. if we're serious about america's leadership in the world, we need to make sure we have the back of the arm forces the radio is here listening to this today. i hope they know if i'm president, i'm be a commander-in-chief, not an agitator in chief or a divider in chief. ly lead this country in a way that will create greater security and greater safety. >> mr. trump. >> i think it's very sad that cnn leads jeb bush, governor bush, down a road by starting off with virtually all the questions, mr. trump this, mr. trump that. frankly, i watch, i think it's very sad and, frankly, i watched the first debate and the first long number of questions, mr. trump said this, mr. trump said that, mr. trump. these poor guys, although, i must tell you, santorum, a good guy, governor huckabee, good guys. they were nice, i respect them

greatly. i thought it was very unfair that virtually the entire early portion was trump this, trump that, in order to get ratings like this. i think it's very unfair. excuse me, i think it's very unprofessional. >> it wasn't me. i watched you -- >> i think it was very unprovincial. >> it's not cnn. it's america is watching you. >> okay. fine. >> america is watching. >> i was mentioned. so i can bring up something. the simple fact is, you think this isn't tough you aren't trited unfairly. imagine. we're dealing with the islamic terrorists. this is a tough business to run for president. >> oh, you're a tough guy, jeb. you're tough, your real tough. >> you will not insult your way to the presidency. >> i'm at 42, you're at 3. >> it doesn't matter. >> you started off, are you moving over further and further, pretty soon you will be off the

end. >> you solve the problem. it doesn't do a thing to solve the problem. >> it's not more and more what my daughter said that i said in the begin, all the fighting and arguing is not advancing us. >> it will not solve the problem. >> it is not the way to strengthen our country. we will strengthen our country when we come together. look you got rand palm, you got ted cruz, marco. a lot of people on this stage that studied these issues. who know what a leader does? a leader has a sound program, has a good policy, then brings people together to solve problems. guess what, both in congress and balancing the budget and in ohio fixing the economy. by the way, we talk about the fence. the first thing we better get going is strengthening our economy. because if we don't have a strong economy, we can't pay for all of this. and the world wants us to be able to function from strength. believe it or not, get our economy going.

get these people towing in a room. we can fix this, ladies and gentlemen. we don't have to feet all the time. it can be done. we will be great when we join together. thank you, hugh. >> dr. carson, commander in chief question again. you have been the head of neurosurgery for a big hospital. you have been traveling the world. you are traveling again next week. does that prepare to you command troops from jibou the i, average, iraq the many people watching on the armed services network today? >> well, there is a false narrative that only the political class has the wisdom and the ability to be a commander-in-chief. but if dpou back and study the design of our country, it's really designed for the sid statesmen. we need to be talking about, where does your experience come from? and i've had a lot of experience bilk things, organizing things.

you know, a national scholarship program. one of the things you will notice if you look through my mic is that i don't do a lot of talking. i do a lot of doing. and really it says more about a person than how much they talk. some people say you are weak. because you know are you fought loud. are you not boisterous. you are fought rude. but the fact of the matter is look and see what i've done. >> that speaks volumes about strength. >> thank you, dr. carson. we have been talking tonight about programs and policies, proposals you all have to keep americans safe and it's a big discussion on the campaign trail. les a about border security and immigration. so let's talk about imgrangs. senator rubio. you co-authored a bill with democrats, two years ago that, allowed a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. do you still support that path to citizenship, which means

giving those immigrants rights like the right to vote? >> immigration is not an issue that i read ab in the newspaper or watch a documentary on cbs and cnn. it's an issue i lived around my whole life. my family are immigrants. all of my neighbors are immigrants. i see every aspect of this problem, the good the bad the ugly. here's ba we learned in 2013 the marine people don't trust the federal government to enforce our immigration laws. we will not be able to do anything before we first prove to the american people that illegal immigration is under control. we can do that. we know what it takes to do that. at least 20,000 more additional border agencies, it takes a mandatory e-verify system and mandatory exit tracking system him after we've done that the second thing we have to do is reform and modernize the legal immigration. after we've done those two things, i this i the american people will be very ronl with what do you do with someone in this country ten ore 12 years,

who hasn't otherwise violated the criminal jurisdiction and start paying tacks and ultimately they are given a work permit. that's all they will be allowed for at least ten years. but you can't get to that third step until have you done the other two things. that was the lesson we learned if 2013. there is no trust the federal government will enforce the law. they will not support you until they see it done first. >> senator, you haven't answered the question. you just described a long path, but does that path end at citizenship? >> i answered that question repeatedly. i am personally opened. after all that has happened and ten years in that probationary status, they have is the work permits, i personal liam opened to people applying for a green kampltd it may not be a majority poth. that's down the road. you can't begin that process, until you prove to people, not just pass a law that says you will bring illegal immigration under control. that was the lesson of 2013. it's more true today than it was then.

after a mieg dpratory crisis on the border with minors coming over. seeing startup again now after all these executive borders the president has issued, more than ever, we need to prove to people illegal imgraex is under control. >> thank you, senator. senator cruz, senator cruz, on the campaign trail, senator rubio said his immigration plan isn't that different from yours. is that true? >> well, he has attempted to muddy the waters. i think anyone that watched the battles that we had. you know, there was a time for choosing as reagan put it where there was a battle over amnesty and some shows, like senator rubio, to stand with barack obama and chuck schumer and support a massive amnesty plan. others shows e chose to stand with jeff session and steve king and the men people and secure the border. let me mention, this issue is directly connected to what we have been talking about. ba us the front line with isis isn't just if iraq and syria, it's also in kennedy airport and the rio grande. border security is national

security. you know, one of the most troubleing aspects of the schumer deal is it gave president obama blanket authority to admit refugees, without mandating any background checks whatsoever. we've seen what happened in san bernardino when you are letting people if, when the fbi can't vet them, it puts american citizens as richl risk. i tell you, if i am the president, we will trip testimony border patrol. we will build a wall that works and i'll get donald trump to pay for it. >> dana. >> senator rubio, please. >> in 2013, we have never faced a crisis, up until that point, a refugee made isn't p someone fleeing oppression, communityism, like it is in my community. as far as ted's record, i am puzzled by his attack. ted, you support legalizing people more in this country

illegally. ted cruz supported a 500% increase in visas that gets workers into this country and supports doubling the number of green cards. i think it's important for us to understand, there is a way forward to bring our countries towing on. if i am president, i will do it. it will begin by bringing illegal immigration under control and proving it to the american people. >> look, i understand that marco wants to raise confusion. it is not accurate what he said that i supported legalization. indeed, i led the fight against his legalization and amnesty bill and you know there was one commentator that put it this way, for marco to suggest our records are the same is like suggesting the firemen and the arsonists have the same record because they're both at the scene of the fire. he was fighting to grant amnesty and not to secure the border. i was fighting to secure the border and this also goes to trust. listen, on the campaign trail, candidates all the time make promises. marco said he learned that the

american people didn't trust the federal government. he campaigned in florida promising to lead the fight against amnesty. he campaigned promising to lead the fight against amnesty. >> standby. senator cruz, can you answer that question, lose? >> does ted cruz rule out ever legalizing people in this country now? >> nor santa cruz cruz. >> i have never supported legalization and i do not intend to support legalization. and let me tell you how to do this. what you do is you enforce the law. you enforce the law. >> miss fiorina, please answer. we will get to you on this. >> sorry, you haven't gotten to me. this is what is set up with the political class. >> what you do is you enforce the law. i've laid out a very, very detailed immigration plan on my website, ted cruz.org. it's 11 pages, existing federal law. in particular the question of what to do with people here now. you enforce the law. >> that moons you stop the obama

administration's policy of releasing criminal illegal aliens. do you know how many illegal aliens bill clinton deported? 12 million. do you know how many illegal alienss george w. bush supported? 10 million. we are enforce the laws, if we secure the border that, solves the problem. as president i will solve this problem and secure the border. >> mr. trump are, you like to say you restarted this conversation in the complain i campaign. >> i think i did. >> so owho do you side with gh this, senator rubio or cruz? >> i have a very hard line position. we have country or we don't have a country. people that have come into our countries illegally, that i have to go, come back in through a legal process. i want a strong border. i want a wall him walls have to work. you have to speak for the people in israel. they work if they're properly constructed. believe me i know how to build. i feel a very, very strong bind and really on balancing this country. we either ver a border or we

don't. people can come into the country. we with el come people to come in. they have to come in legally. >> governor bush, let's get to this. you think this is the tone this immigration debate that republicans need to take to win back hispanics, into your party, especially states where we are in nevada that has a pretty large hispanic community? >> no, it isn't. but it's an important subject to talk about for sure. and i think if people have good ideas on this. clearly, we need to secure the border. coming here legally needs to be coming here easier than illegally. if you don't have that, you don't have a rule of law. we have public health issues, an epidemic of heroin overdoses, in all places of this country because of the ease of bringing heroin in. we have to secure the border. it is a serious undertaking. yeah, we need more fencing and we do need to use technology and border control and we need to have better couldn't, by the way, with local law enforcement.

there are 800,000 cops on the beat. they august u ought to be trained to be the is and years for law enforcement. for the threat against terror as well as immigration. this is a serious challenge. if we get it right, we will start winning votes again t. real problem isn't establish e anybody on this stage t. real problem is barack obama has had six years to advocate a position to fix this. he's done nothing. congress has funded these programs of building more fencing, doing all this he hasn't done it. 4e wants to maintain it as a wedge issue, so does hillary clinton. republicans need to fix it. when we do, we will be better off. >> thank you very much. dr. carson, you recently visited a refugee camp in jordan. you deemed it in your words really quitifies, saying they didn't want to come to the united states. do you think these camps are a along-term solution to the problem of syrian refugees. >> it was interesting having an opportunity to talk to is irans

themselves, i asked them what do you want? what is your supreme desire? his supreme desire was to be settled back in their own countries. i said what can americans and other countries do? they said support the efforts of those who are trying to provide safety for us, including the jordanians, of course, they had a brand-new hospital, for instance, that was unstaffed because there wasn't enough money to do it. but here's what's really neat. if you go into the province in northeastern syria, that's an area as big as lebanon. it's controlled by the kurds the christian and the moderate sunnis, and there are air strips and hotel, you could settle a lot of people there. all we would have to do is be willing to provide them with some weaponry. some defensive weaponry. we seem to be afraid to give the kurds weaponry. we like to send it for some strange reason to baghdad, then they only get a tenth of it. if we would support them, we'd

have a perfect ideal there him we don't feed to step this up as we either take a bunch of refugees who will be infiltrated with terrorists. i guarantee you, tore them not to be, or trifrt malpractice. we need to choose the right choice. not the false choice. >> senator palm. you oppose letting in syrian refugees at this time into the united states. the u.s. has already accepted 2,000 syrian refugees, including 13 living here in las vegas right now. would you send them back? what would do you with these people? >> i think we need to set the record straight on this. i think marco misspoke about the bill. on the gang of eight bill, there was no provision really for extra scrutiny or safety for refugees. at the time the bill came up, two iraqi refugees came to my homedown town, bowling green, kentucky. tear finger prints were on a bomb. they were in the database. we didn't pick them up. we relocated them here.

got them on food stampls. we began providing for them. we didn't have adequate security. on marco's bill, we had an opportunity. it was a conservative consensus for an amendment, trust or verify that, would have strengthened border security on beet refugee students and those coming here and marco sided and was i guess more sympathetic schuk schumer and the president than principles. if he wants to run as a national defense conservative, he's got to explain why he hasn't stepped up to secure the border? >> he's just admitted the reason why those rnls were allowed in, they messed up. they should have known. they didn't run the actual laws that exist now. it didn't work well. as far as the refugees are concerned, it's not that america doesn't want to accept refugees, washington. it's that we may not be able to. this is an issue we have to be

100% right on. all of them are good people. we allow one person if that's an isis killer. we get one problem wrong, we got a serious problem. there is not a single person in this country that can guarantee you we will be 100% right. as president i will take this serious. >> senator paul, you didn't answer the questions about the syrians here, will you sent sends them back or let them say? >> my bill would be for refugees going forward. i haven't taken a position on sending anyone home. i have a position that we have a lot of problems in our country. one of the things we do charity is about giving your money, not everyone else's money, i think it's a mistake. to give of your own money. i have given to my church. my church has given to people that came from bosnia. that's a good thing. we shouldn't have a program that says we will take care of the world's refugees, nobody in the

middle east is doing anything. saudi arabia, qatar, kuwait, all the gulf nations are doing nothing. they need to step up. >> we have another question. we have another question from facebook. let's listen. >> my name is carla hernandez. my question is directed to all the candidates, if the bible states we need to embrace those in need and not fear. how can you justify not accepting refugees? >> governor christie. you say there should be a pause in allowing new refugees to come in to the united states, including orphans under the age of 5. what do you say to carla? >> what i say to carla ist first job to the president of the united states is to protect your safety and your security and the security and safety of your family and this debate stops with me in the discussions with the fbi director. now, listen, i'm a former federal pros schedule i know jim comey. we worked toelt together. when jim comey gets up before congress and says, we cannot

effectively vet these people, for me as president, that itself the end of the conversation. we have to put america's security first. the american people, we on this stage need to open our ears. we need to open the ears t. american people are not whispering to us. they're screaming to us, it's our job to actually make this government work. it's so dysfunctional under barack obama and hillary clintonment it's so ineffective. so ineffectual that the american people say we don't trust them to do anything i don't remember. so i'm not going to let any syrian refugees, it was widows and/or fans, we know from watching the san bernardino attack, women can commit heinous, heinous acts against humanity just the same as men can do it. so i don't back away from that position in a minute. when the fbi director tells me he can vet those people. we will consider, not a moment before, your safety and security is most important to me. >> governor kasich.

>> you know, obviously, as president of the united states, you got to keep the people safe. that's first and foremost. as governor of ohio, i have an obligation to keep 11.5 million people in ohio sait safe. we have been very effective with our joint terrorism task force, being able make busts. in fact, we made one three or four weeks ago against a person favorable to isis live income akron. let me tell you what's interesting about this administration. we had central american minors placed in ohio and we never knew a thing about it. we didn't know where they were. and, in fact, we know now that some of them, there is a case going on where some of them may have been human traffic. so when the administration tells me, we have a great vetting process, the proof is in the pudding. they sent these minors to us. our schools were disrupted. we didn't know where they were. bad things happened to them. now they tell me that we ought to be able to admit these syrian refugees, wolf, look, people

have accused me at times of having too big a heart. that's okay. but i have to also say, i must keep the people of my state safe. we take a pause. >> thank you, governor. there is much more coming up. we are only just beginning. coming up, what other global hot spots await the next president of the united states. dave'morning double bogie. game, hey, three putt. and starting each day with a delicious bowl of heart healthy kellogg's raisin bran. how's your cereal? sweet! tastes like winning. how would you know what winning tastes like? dave loves the two scoops and that kellogg's raisin bran is one more step towards a healthy tomorrow. you eat slower than you play. you're in a hurry to lose, huh? oh, ok! invest in your heart health, with kellogg's raisin bran. no crying today...

>> welcome back to the cnn republican presidential debate in the venetian in las vegas. let's turn to other world threats that you will potentially face as commander-in-chief. miss fiorina. candidates here call the north korean leader jim congress eun a

maniac who is mentally unstable. last week he said he now has a hydrogen bomb. you are elected president, what will you do about kim jong-un? >> first, kim jong-un is a dangerous leader, without a doubt. both republican and democrat administrations have been completely ineffective in dealing with him. so we must continue to isolate him. we will need china as part of that strategy. china is a rising adversary. one of the things we have to do if we want want china's support is to push back on china. they, too recognize strength and their on interest. i have done china for 25 years. i know in order to get them this cooperate, we must retaliate against their cyber attacks, so they know we're serious. we have to push back on their desire to control the trade route through the south china sea, through which flows 5 billions of goods and services.

we must work with the australians, the south koreans, the japanese and filipinos to contain china. then we must ask for tear support and help with north korea. believe it or not, china is as concerned about kim jong-un as we are. >> dr. carson, what will you do about kim jong-un? >> well, i definitely believe he is unstable. i do, in fact, believe china has a lot more influence with him than we do. we also recognize that north korea is in severe financial straits and they have decided to use their resources to build the military, rather than to feed their people. and to take care of the various humanitarian responsibilities that they have. we can capitalize upon that. you know, we should use our economic power in lots of different ways. i think we can use that in order to keep putin contained. because he's a one force show, energy. we have an abundance of energy.

we have our.com kick, energy exportation rules. we need to get rid of those. allow ourselves to make europe dependent on us and other parts of the world on energy. put him in a box where it belongs. we need to do a lot of ought things with the resources that we have. so economic power works just as well. perhaps even better. and speaking of that, our military needs to be upgraded. you look at things like,000 class submarines are 25 years old. our minuteman three missiles, they are 34-years-old, b-52 bombers 52-years-old. if we don't get the military right, nothing else matters. >> dana and hugh you have questions as well. >> governor christie, you said if china launches a cyber attack aaens begins the u.s. on your watch, they will see cyber warfare like they have never seen before. what exactly would that response look like in. >> what it would look like we

have one of the greatest advantages, we are not hiding anything from the american people. china every day is conducting business in a way it hides things from people. so if they want to come in and they alt personnel records in the federal government, which they've done and have my social security number and my finger prints as well as maybe other folks around this state t. fact is, they need to be fought back on. and what we need to do is go into things they are most sensitive and most embarrassing to them. get that information and put it out in public. let the chinese people digest how corrupt the chinese government is. how they steal from the chinese people. how enriching all throughout china, they need to understand that. we need to take those types of steps. this president has seen personnel records of people who have sacrificed for the american people and for the next stolen by the chinese. he's done nothing in return. this is why, this is why i said at the beginning, does this administration, barack obama and

hillary clinton, through their foreign policy betrays the american weak t. weakness led to putin's incursion into the most and in eastern europe and has led to significant problems in the middle east as well and the death and murder of lots of folks. >> governor bush, what you just heard from governor christie. are you concerned that could really escalate with china, they would retaliation and as for example a as the nsa said, attacked the u.s. and the power grid, the chinese have the capability to do? >> i completely agree with chris. this administration has been so lax. think about it. hillary clinton is using a private server for classified information goes by. this is a serious administration? >> the president receives a report the office could be in the hand of chinese, allegedly, including, by the way, members of the press, it turns out last

week. maybe that's the only part that's food news, so you guys can get a feel for what it's like now to see this type of attack. this is something we have to have the best defensive capabilities. we need to coordinate all of our efforts with the private sector. we need to give them reliability relief. offensively, we need capabilities second to none. we need to create a situation where they know there will be adverse impacts that they continue to do what they're doing, they'll respect. that they'll respect the united states to be serious about protecting our infrastructure. if we don't do it, we'll continue to see exactly what's happening, not just from the chinese, by the way the russians and rocky actors, including isis. this is a serious part of the 21st century security challenge that we tase. >> mr. trump. >> dr. carson just referenced the sping subpoenaingle most important part of the president. to command and control our nuclear force. he mentioned the tried as, they're older than aim, the missiles are old the submarines

are aging out. it's an executive order, a commander in chief decision. what's your executive order among our nuclear tried a? >> first of all, i think we need somebody we can trust, totally responsible works really know what is he or she is doing that is so powerful and so important and one of the things that i'm frankly most proud of is that in 2003, 2004, i was totally against going into iraq because you are going to destabilize the middle east. i called it. i called it very strongly. and it was very important. but we have to be extremely vigilant and extremely careful when it comes to nuclear. nuclear changes the whole paul game. frankly, i would have said get out of syria, if we didn't have the power of weaponry today t. pow sir so massive we can't leave areas 50 years ago or 75 years ago we wouldn't care. it was hand-to-hand combat. the biggest problem this world is not president obama with global warming, which is

inconceivable. this is what he is seeing. the biggest problem we have today is nuclear, nuclear proliferation. and having some maniac, some mad man go out and get a nuclear weapon. that's in my opinion, that is the single biggest problem that our country faces. >> the three legs of the tried a, do you have a priority? >> i think to me, nuclear, the power, the devastation is very important to me. >> for rubio you have a response? >> i do. let's explain what a tried a is. the tried a is our ability of the united states to conduct nuclear attacks, using missile laurens, islos, from the ground and our nuclear subs. all three are critical. it gives us ability at the turn him some have become more critical than others, for example the submarines, that's the ohio chas submarine. the air component needs

modernized. the b-52 someone earlier point outside was an outgrown model flying by our grandparents. we need a program on our cyber launch missiles. all three are critical for defense. >> some of you on this stage have questioned whether your opponents have the temperament to be in control of the nuclear codes. dana, you have a question on this. >> mr. trump, just this weekend, you said senator cruz is not qualified to be president because he doesn't have the right temperament and acted like a maniac when he arrived in the senate. last month, you said you were open to naming senator cruz as your running mate? >> i did. >> why would you put somebody as a maniac. >> i have got on the know him over the last three or four days. he has a wonderful temperament. he is just fine. don't worry about it. >> okay. >> senator cruz. >> senator cruz, you have not been willing to attack mr. trump

in public. but you did. >> you better not attack. >> to question his judgment in having control of america's nuclear arsenal during a private meeting with supporters. why are you willing to say things about him in private and not in public. >> dana, what i said in private is exactly what i will say here the judgment that every voter is making and every one of us up here is who has the experience, who has the vision, who has the judgment to be commander-in-chief. >> that is the most important decision for the voters to make. it's a stands i'm held to. it's a standards everyone else will be hold to in the whole course of the this discussion, it actually illustrates the need for clarity of focus. you know, my daughters, caroline and katherine came tonight. they're 7 and 5. you think of the los angeles schools can selling their schools today. every parent is wondering, how do we keep our kids' safe, we dmeed a commander in chief that

ronald reagan did with communism. he set out a global strategy to defeat soviet communityism. i'm answering the question, he directed all of his forces to defeating communism. one of the things we've seen here is how easy it is for barack obama and hillary clinton to get distracted from dealing with radical islamic terrorism. they won't call it by its name. we need a president who stand up, number one, says we will defeat isis, number two, says the greatest national security threat facing america and iran they need to be focused on beating radical islamist terrorists. >> what are you saying is you do believe mr. trump has the judgment to be commander-in-chief? >> what i'm saying, dana, that is a judgment for every vote tore make. what i can tell you is all nine of the people here would make an infinitely better commander in chief than barack obama or hillary clinton. [ cheers [ cheers ] >> and there is a real danger,

when people debt distracted. i'm answering the question, washington. there is a real danger when people get straktd by pro live ral issues, distracted about military conflicts. we need to focus on defeating jihadism. isis and iran have declared war on america. we need a commander in chief who will do everything necessary to keep our children safe. ly do everything necessary to keep our children safe. >> thank you, senator. we are a month-and-a-half away now from the first real test. who will be at the presidential nominee. hugh. you have a question scombl mr. trump, my listeners say they are worried hillary clinton will win if you one as an independent. are you ready to assure you will run as a republican and agree abide by the decision of the republicans. >> i am. i really am. people have been putting me to test. i will. [ cheers ] >> dr. carson. >> excuse me.

>> please. >> i have gained great respect for the republican leadership. i have gained great respect for many, in different forms, for the people on the -- different forms, but i have great respect for the people i have met through this process. i have never done this process before. i have never been a politician. for the last six months, i have been a politician. i will tell you, i am totally committed no the republican party. i feel very honored to be the front runner. i think i'll do very well, if i'm chosen, if i'm so fortunate to be chosen. i think i will do very well him polls came out recently that said i will beat hillary. i will do everything in my power to beat hillary clinton. >> mr. trump just committed to stay distance, roorlsst regardless of the result. how about you? >> the statement that i made last week that i would leemp the party was contingent upon wlrn whether, in fact, the party acts like they have in the past with

a lot of subtrifuge and dishonesty or like they will act now, i spoke to the vice president. he assured me the washington post writer had it wrong, that's why i got into the race. >> candidates, we have more coming upp, when we come back, everyone will have an opportunity to explain why this particular candidate. each of you on the stage, believes he or she should be the republican presidential nominee.