the shorts. >> you were looking like you were with the kennedys drinkinging an hour before. >> all right. i may or may not have been drinking. follow us on twitter and facebook and tell us what you think. thanks for watching, and i'm watt ers and this is my world. 9:00 p.m. on the east coast, and 8:00 here in des moines, iowa, and welcome to the seventh republican presidential debate of the 2016 campaign. i'm bret baier along with megyn kelly and chris wallace. >> we are coming the you are the the downtown the of des moines in the shad doef state capital, and in four days, the e people here in the hawkeye state will caucus and cast the first votes

of the 2016 election. >> tonight, we are partnering with google for a special on screen access for content that you can have exclusive content a you can see the campaign's response, and you can weigh in on the topics being discussed. just go to google.com or type in your fox news.google.debate. >> and now a spike of more than 440% on average as the voters across america are seeking to know more on what is happening on the live debate stage. >> seven candidate s as are on stage tonight, and the position on the stage is determined by the standings in the latest national poll, as well as polls in iowa and new hampshire, and here they are. texas senator ted cruz. florida senator marco rubio. and neurosurgeon dr. ben carson.

former florida governor jeb bush. new jersey governor chris christie. ohio governor john kasich. and kentucky senator rand paul. apparently, several people are from kentucky. and now, 30 seconds for each l follow up are response after the first two-minute are response. and if you go over, you will be hearing this one. >> and the double is the one that we want. pleasing. and we have a crowd of 1,600 here, a while they have a agrto listen to candidates and lis ent intent ly, they are very -- listen intently, they are very excited to be here. am i right? >> well, let's get started. senator cruz, before we get to the issues, let's address the

elephant not in the room tonight. donald trump has chosen not to attend this evening's presidential debate, and what message do you think that sends to the voters of iowa? >> well, megyn, let me say to the outset of the men and women of iowa, thank you for the incredible hospitality this year. by monday, you will have welcomed me in all 99 county, and welcome d my dad in to preah in your churches and my wife and daughters into your homes. i am so grateful for the diligence and the seriousness in which the men and women of iowa approach this process is. if i am elected president, keep an eye on the tarmack because i will be back, because iowa in 2017 is not flyover country, but it is fly-to country. now, secondly, let me say i'm a

maniac. and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly, and ben, you are a terrible surgeon. and now that we have the donald trump portion out of the way -- i want to thank everyone here for showing the men and women of iowa the respect to show up and make the case to the people of this state and the people of the country why each of us believe that we would make the best commander in e chief. >> the divide between you and mr. trump has turned into one of the biggest stories in the country. and for six months, your campaign, during this campaign, you have praised mr. trump as somebody that you thought was an effective voice against the washington car tell atel, and tn

he started to criticize you, you started to portray him as the voice of the washington cartel, and he would start to do the democrats' bidding, and which is it? >> well, if donald engages in insults or anybody else, i don't intend to reciprocate. i don't want to attack donald, and i am glad he is running, because he has produced very much enthusiasm, and i hope to earn your support. and even on the stage hopes to, and there is a difference of personal insults and attacks and with going into the mud withed a homonyms, and substance, and policy and record, because that should be be the meat of politics. that is fair game. that is how i will focus and how i have focused on the beginning of the campaign and how i intend to go forward. >> senator rubio, i want to explore this larger issue, and the campaign has turn d oed inte

battle of the soul of the republican party, and the establishment versus the grass roots, and prague mmatic ver ars principle, and you can say that you can unite all of the factions inside of the gop, and how? >> chris, be clear what this campaign is about, and it is not about donald trump, and he is an entertaining guy, and he is the greatest show on earth, but this campaign is about the greatest country on earth and a president who has systematically destroyed many of the things that made america special. we usually relekt presidents in who want to change the things wrong in america, and barack obama wants to change america, and he wants america to be more like the rest of the world, but we don't want to be more like the rest of the world, but we want to be the united states of america, and that is why hillary clinton cannot win this election, and hillary clinton this week said that barack obama would make a great supreme court justice, and the man who habitually violates the constitution of the supreme court, i don't think.

so if i win, we will unite, and we will turn this country around once and for all after the disaster that is barack obama and defeat hillary clinton. >> governor bush, it is hard for anyone with your pedigree to avoid being called the establishment, but isn't that part of the race that three others on the stage are splitting the mainstream republican vote, and thereby possibly handing the nomination over to an anti-establish memen candidate. >> bret, we rejust starting. let's let the process work, i are trust iowan, and the people in the granite state to have it. and i miss donald trump, and he was such a teddy bear to me, and we have always had a loving relationship with the debates. and everybody else was in the witness protection program when i went after him over what the cause should be. and believe manage the accountability, and leading by

fixing the things that are broken. look, i am an establishment because my dad, the greatest man alive was president of the united states, and my brother who i adore as well and he is a fant sick brother, and he was a great president, andly take the et, and i guess i am part of the establishment, because barbara bush is my mom, and i will take that, too but this is not an election about the pedigree, but about people who are hurting. we need a leader to fix thing, and have a proven record to do it. we need somebody to take on hillary clinton in november, and somebody who has a proven record and has been tested or transparent, and i have released three years of tax returns, and 3,000 e-mails of my record, but to get an e-mail from hillary clinton, you need a subpoena are from the fbi. >> and senator christie, you began this campaign saying that you were from a blue state, and

knew how the reach across the aisle, however, many people believe that reaching across the aisle is not a great thing unless you get some things done, and it is is better to stand on the compromise and why are they wrong and you are right? >> they are not wrong, but what is wrong is your premise in the question, you can do both. no reason that you can't stand for the principles and go to fight for them, and be able, also, to have to get things done in government. you know, what people are fr frustrated about in washington, d.c., and the folks out there tonight, are incredibly frustrated because what they see is a government that does not work for them, and for the 45-year-old construction worker out there, who is having a hard time to make it meet, and he has also $4,000 in the income lost because of this administration, he doesn't care about politics talk, talk, and who is establishment, and grass roots and who is compromise and principle, but he wants something done, and this is difference of the governor and having done that for the last six years in new jersey and

being someone who has not had to be responsible for any of the decision, and barack obama was never responsible for the decision, and hillary clinton has never been responsible for the decisions where they were held accountable, and i have never been held accountable for the democrats of new jersey, and i have conservative things done, and that is what i will get done as senator of the united states. >> senator paul, you are definitely not in the establi establishment category. but at the beginning of the campaign, you said that you were your own man when asked about your father, former texas congressman, and three-time presidential candidate ron paul. and senator cruz's campaign is out with a video saying that cruz is the intellectual and political heir to your father's 2012 campaign and the liberty movement, and your father now says that it is a realistic that donald trump will be your party's nominee, and did you make a mistake by not more fully embracing your father politically in the beginning of the campaign?

>> i have always had a great deal of respect, and probably no person thatey are respect more the country or in recent history than my father. i believe he was the most honest man in politics that ve seen in a generationb and no way i have i ever said they don't love my father and appreciate everything that he has done for the country. and what is interesting a tb liberty vote that my father brought to the republican party, they are not necessarily going to go for ted. ted didn't show up. we had an audit the fed vote with which is is the biggest thing that my dad had been advocating for 30 years, and ted didn't have time to show up, and he is is the only republican who didn't show up for it, and that vote is going to be staying in the paul household, and more of it is coming, and it is going to grow. and the nsa is another big issue. ted said that he was for the nsa reform, but he told marco rubio, no, no, i voted for the bill, because i am for the government collecting 100% of your cell

phone records, and ted can't have it both ways, and they are saying they are getting the liberty vote, but not at all a, and we believe we will do very well in iowa with the liberty vote. >> senator cruz, your response to that? >> well, i agree with rand that i very much respect ron paul, and anybodyb who has to win in the republican party has to bring together the disparate elements of the reagan coalition, and bring together the conservatives and the evan jgel cals and the libertarians and stitch together to a winning majority. when it comes to the audit the fed bill, rand knows i was an original sponsor of the bill, and strongly supported of it, and i had commitments to be in new hampshire, but i had plans to sign that bill, and auditing the fed and provide accountability at the federal reserve. >> senator rubio? >> i think that rand and i have some significant issue on policy, but i respect rand.

he believes everything that he stands for. and i do respect him sh, but i t to be fwrank for what i stand for. the world is a safer and better place when america is the strongest power in the world, and only with a strong america will we defeat this apocalyptic group called isis, and so when i am president, we will rebuild the intelligence capability, and rebuilt u.s. military is going to be destroying the terrorists, and if we capture any of the isis killers alive, they will go the guantanamo bay, cuba, and we will find out what they know, and unlike this president, we will keep america safe. >> may i are respond? >> we will come back to you, senator paul? >> well w i would like to qui quickly respond, the bulk collection data, it did not stop one terrorist attack. you don't have to give up your liberty for a false sense of security. when we look at the bulk collection, and the court has looked at this and the court

declared it to be illegal. if we want to collect the records of terrorists, do it the old fashioned way, and use the 4th amendment, and put a name on the warrant, and ask a judge for it, and respect the history of the country. john adams said that the we fought the war for independence, because we wanted to fight against generalized warrants. and let's not forget that. >> governor kasich. governor kasich, i want to get back to where the conservatives are this year, and you call yourself an inside-outside guy, and reformer who got things done, and you reject the establishment label, and you say, why do you reject it, and why what do you say to the republican voters who view practical government accessibility as a liblgt and not an asset? >> well, there is the establishment lane, and the anti-establishment lane and the kasich lane, and the reason is a

because i have been a reformer my whole life. fighting to reform welfare, reforming the pentagon and to balance the budget, because that is very, very hard to do. and then in ohio, of course, i ha had toing bring about big reform again, because we were so far in the hole, and we just found out that we are up over 400,000 since i took over as governor. the situation is this, that we can't fix everything in the country, the border, balancing the budget, and getting the wages to grow faster unless we lead as conservatives and invite the other people are from the other party, and we have to come together as a country, and stop the divisions. that is my message in new hampshire, and having been in new hampshire and iowa, and i have just received the support of 7 of the 8 newspapers in the state, because they see positive, unity, and coming together and they see a record of change and a record of accomplishment. it is not because i am all that

great, but it is because i am assembling a team of people who want to be involved in something that is bigger than themselves. i will keep heading in that direction, believe me. >> and dr. carson, way want to pick up on that with you, and governor kasich says he likes to land the plane, and you have landed a lot of planes in the o.r., but what about the idea of running for president with no experience in government at all? >> el -- well, i will say that i don't have a political title, and you will hear the truth and not a lot of political speech. and sometimes you have to tell the truth, and it is not always that way around. and i have had more 2:00 a.m. phone calls than everybody put together making life and death decisions put together very complex teams to accomplish things that have never been done before, and we are in a

situation right now in the country that we have never been in before. we need people who think out of the box, and can solve problems. can utilize the resources around them, and very smart people to focus on the problem, and solve the problem. the american people are terrified. that is why we have this abnormal situation going on right now, and we don't need more of the same solutions. we need different solutions to solve the problems, and to save our nation. >> gentlemen, we will drill down on the specific issues of where the voter are, and the first is foreign terror. according to the google, isis was the most searched foreign policy topic over the last year. senator cruz, you talked tough about fighting terrorism, and you talked about carpet bombing into oblivion, and talked about seeing p the sand will glow at

night, but the critics say that your record does not match up to that. you opposed giving president obama awe authority to enforce the red line in syria, and three years in if a row, you have voted against the defense authorization act, and how do you square the rhetoric with the record, sir? >> well, chris, i apologize to nobody with the vigorness that i will fight terror, and hunt isis wherever they are, and utterly and completely destroy isis. you claim is tough talk for carpet bombing, but it is a fundamental different strategy than what we have seen from barack obama. and barack obama offseven years has dramatically degraded the military. two weeks ago, it was the 25th anniversary of the first persian gulf war. a and when that war began, we had 8,000 planes. today, we have about 4,000, and

when that war began, we had 529 ship, and today, we have 272. and you want to mow what carpet bombing is? that is what we did in the first persian gulf war, and 11,100 air attacks a day, and saturation bombing to destroi the enemy, abright now, barack obama is launching 15 to 30 air attacks a day, and not arming the kurds and we need to rearm the people who are trying to fight the enemy, and we we need to enlist the rules of engagement so that the people going into combat don't have their arms tied behind their back. >> and senator rubio, does that match? >> well, the only budget that ted cruz has voted for is one that rand paul is bragging about cutting spending. and isis is the most dangerous jihadist group in mankind, and it is now found in affiliates over 150 country, and it burns

people alive in countries, and sells off little girls as brides and they want to trigger an apock -- apocalyptic arm gedden, and not dubuque which i said incorrectly one time. and they will not be able to continue, and that is going to be increasing the military. we are on pace to have the smallest navy and air force and army. when i am president, we are rebuilding the military, because the world is a better place when smeshg the strongest military in the world. >> and back to you, mr. cruz. >> chris, in 1981 when ronald a

reagan came to the oval office he encountered a military that had been debilitated just as the current military has and just like jimmy carter weakened our readiness, and undermined the ability to defend this country, and just adds barack obama, and the morale in the military has plummeted in the last seven years, so it has then, and what reagan did is to begin with the tax reare form, and tax reform, and unleashing the energy of the free enterprise system, and brought booming economic growth which fueled rebuilding the military. i intend to do the same thing to defeat radical islamic terrorism, and to devote the resources to rebuilding the econo economy, and the air force and the navy and the army and to ensuring that we have the capacity to keep this country safe. >> and now -- >> may i just say -- >> we are going to be continuing the questions about foreign t terror, gentlemen, right after this break. >> but first, you can join tonight's conversation from home

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[ applause ] welcome back. welcome back. let's get right back to the questions. chris? >> thank you. governor christie, you have compared both senators cruz and rubio to barack obama saying that we cannot afford another inexperienced president, and you have also said that senator cruz's vote to curtail the nsa surveillance vote made america less safe.

is either of them the ready to be commander in chief? >> well, let me tell you something that the vote on nsa did make the country less safe, but let me tell you what the country needs to be worried about. i watched that town hall with the democrats, and i heard hillary clinton be asked a direct question, and that is what iowans like to do, and they asked about the e-mail question, and she said she did it for convenience, and she put america's secrets at risk for her convenient, and american intelligence officers at risk for her convenience, and american strategy at risk for her convenience, and let me tell you who is not qualified to be president. hillary rodham clinton did that to our country, and she is not qua qualified to be the president of the united states, and the fact is that we need somebody on the stage who has been tested, through it, and made decisions, and who has sat in the chair of

consequence, and who can prosecute the case against hillary clinton on that stage, and that is what i am red ti to do. >> and governor bush. >> i was mentioned in that question. >> no, you weren't. >> i think that your name was -- >> and sir, sir -- >> and the question -- >> and the question was about, and it is not my question that you get to respond to, and it is his answer. you don't get 30 seconds to respond to me. >> and the question is that you have disagreed. >> and i would like the go on, sir. i know that you like to argue about the rules, but we are are going to be conducting the debate. and governor bush, here is the question, that i want to ask governor bush a question, and you have criticized several candidates in the field for what you call unrealistic ideas on how the fight terrorists including rubio, and cruz on the issue of the refusing to give the president authority to enforce the red line in syria, but giveten fact that your b brother got us into two wars in

iraq and afghanistan that have not ended, what lessons have you learned from his mistakes, sir? >> well, first, i was critical of the senators not giving the president the authorization to use military force, and they should have made it more open-ended for the next president, and the warriors should not have the arms tied behind their back as president obama wanted to do, but they should show support. it is not pop you lart the time, and it was popular after paris and san bernardino, and now we hear that. and in the reagan library, i gave a detailed plan of how the defeat isis, and it is from the lessons of history. if we allow it to fester, we will have islamic terrorism, and multi generations of it. the caliphate of isis a has to be destroyed which means we have to arm the kurds and embed the troops with the iraqi leadership, and get the lawyers off of the backs of the military once and for all, a and have a no-fly zone, and have safe zones

to deal with the refugees, but to train a sunni-led force in syria to the take them out. i laid it out prior to the crisis with the advice of a lot of people including 12 medal of honor of rerecipients they am proud they are supporting my campaign. >> and senator cruz, now a chance to respond. >> chris, i would note that the last four questions have been, rand, please attack ted, and jeb, please attack ted, and -- >> it is a debate, sir. >> no, a debate is a policy issue, but i will say that, gosh, if you guys ask one more mean question, i may have to leave the stage. chris, the most important determination any voter is going to make in the election is who is best prepared to be the commander in chief, and who has the experience and the knowledge

and the judgment, and the clarity and the vision and the strength and the resolve to keep this country safe, and that is what this debate is all about. i suggest that we stay focused on those issues rather than attacks directed at each other. >> and the questions, i believe they were about issues, but s senator rubio. >> i will go first, and please recognize rand afterwards. >> don't worry, i will not leave the state no matter what you ask me. and second of all -- [ applause ] >> and you know, i think that jeb, the attack that was, the authorization that barack obama asked for was not against isis, but against assad, and john kerry described it attacks that would be unbelievably small, but the united states should not be engaged in symbolic military, but it is against assad, and the united states military is

operating under the rules of engagement too strict, and should not be allowed to continue, and when i am president, that will change. >> and senator paul? >> the issue in syria is a very important one, and with one that we need to get right. the question is should we be bombing both sides of the war, and some want to topple assad, and topple isis and assad at the same time, and that is a really, really bad idea and i have said for years that arming the allies of isis is going to make the situation worse, and what we need to do is to defeat isis, but if you defeat assad, what you will end up with is a larger and more powerful isis that occupies the space, and you may have a isis that takes over all of syria. >> chris -- there was a question about the foreign policy and experience and i thought that if i did not jump in i might not be ableb to tell everybody this and they might want to hear about it.

>> and we will go to you a little bit later, but we want to turn the page to the domestic experience, and we want to tell the turn to page domestic experience and this is why. we are parter yg google, and the resu resultz are going through -- >> and thank you, megyn, and it is because the terror issues in america have gone through the roof, and increased 400% since 2008, and people are worried about what is happening in the country, and a domestic threat, and now, in combatting this, senator rubio, and we will get back to you, and you have advocated closing down, closing down mosques, kiners, and any place where radicalization is occurring and you told me that the supreme court has made it clear that hateful speech is generally protected by the first amendment, and in other words, radical muslims have the right to be radical muslims unless they turn to terror. doesn't your position run afoul of the first amendment?

>> well, that is the problem, because it is not hate talk, but it is hate action. they blow people up. look at what they did in san bernardino, and look at the attack in the white house that s is refusing to link to terror, and the guy shot a police officer three time, and said that he did it because he was inspired by isis and to this day, the white house refuses to acknowledge that it had anything to do with terror, and the, look, the threat from isis is unprecedented. we have nef had a jihadist group like this, and they are the best funded radical jihadist group in the history of the world and think are showing a sophisticated understanding of the laws of other countries and how the insert fighter ms. places and actively trying to plot to attack us here at home and around the world, and we have to keep america safe from the threat, and yes, when i am president of the united states, and if there is some place where the radical jihadists are planning to attack the united states, we will go after them wherever they are, and if they are captured alive tashgs they are going to guantanamo.

>> senator paul, you agree with that, closing down the diners and the mosques? >> no, it is a huge mistake to close down the mosques, but if you want to defend the country, you need to have border security. this is is where i have the disa agreement with senator rubio. when he put forward the bill from the gang of eight, i put forward a bill saying we need more scrutiny of those coming as students and immigrants and refugee, because two have come to my town in bowling green and tried to attack us. mar eco opposed it because they made a deal, and made a deal with chuck schumer he would oppose any conservative amendment, and it is a mistake and i don't believe that marco can have it both ways, because you cannot be in favor of defending radical islam if you are not for border security. >> may i are respond, and the first thing, i don't know of anybody who is not in favor of fully vetting people who want to come to this kcountry other tha

hillary clinton and barack obama. and the rand amendment was not the right way to do it. the people who want to come to the united states, and this country has a right to know who they are and why they are comin coming, and that is why i am clear when i am president of the united states, and we don't know who you are and why you are trying to come to the united states, you are not going to be getting in, because the radical threat that we now face from isis is extraordinary and unprecedent and when i am president, we are keeping eyes is out of america. >> and governor christie, let's talk about profiling. >> about what? >> profiling. two radical muslims killed 14 people in san bernardino, and the neighbors of the terrorists said that they did not report the couple to law enforcement prior to the crime, because they were afraid of being accused of profiling, and you have said that you are not in favor of profiling, but how do you scare that? >> you can do it without profiling, megyn, because you can do it on the facts. what they knew is that the folks had weapon, and talking about trying to take our country, and

at tack it, and that is not profiling, and that is law enforcement. that is the difference of somebody who knows how the do this and somebody who has never done it before. >> they didn't know they were doing to attack the country. >> they knew that they were going to going to be talking about the issues of attacking the country. >> and no, that is not true, the neighbors said they saw men going in and out of the garage, and packages being deliver and muslim muslims, and they did not think that was enough to call the cops, and do you? look, people need to use the common sense, and let law enforcement make those decisions. i said that when i was u.s. attorney 13 years ago, it is not for them to make that decision of whether it is legal or illegal or profiling or not, and if you see something suspicious, you call law enforcement, and let them make those decisions, and that can be done without profiling people, what tha just common sense. they felt something was wrong, and that is the country in the problem, because barack obama has made law enforcement the enemy, and hillary clinton has made law enforcement the enemy,

and not supporting the law enforcement, and it is making people nervous to get out of the cars, and if you are a law enforcement, it is nervous the go to the neighborhoods. as president, i will support the law enforcement ashs and we will stop these radical attacks by supporting the intelligence community and the law enforcement community. >> and dr. carson, this week, a female muz h limb who served in the u.s. air force asked hillary clinton a question and asked if the united states is the best place to raise her three muslim children given what she says is a rise of islam phobia in the count country. do you believe that the gop messaging on muslims has stoked the flames of bias on this as the democrats suggest, and how would you answer that? >> well, i don't know about the gop messaging but i can tell you about my messaging. we need to stop allowing political correctness to dictate our policies, because it is going to to kill us if we don't.

in the holyland trial in texas, they had an exploratory memorandum that said that americans would be easy to overcome, and commit civilization jihad because they were going to be trying to the protect the rights of the very people who were trying to subvert them. but i believe in the teddy roosevelt philosophy. and teddy roosevelt said that we are a nation of immigrants, and as such, everybody is welcome from any race, any country, any religion, if they want to be americans. if they want to accept our va e values and our laws, and if not, stay where you are. >> senator kasich, you see sh, back. you appeared to back in another debate, and so call backdoor to encrypted the cell phone technology which protects most of the smart phones that we have from hack, and it includes the

phones, and also the cell phones of the terrorist, and the tech company, and the m.i.t. scientist, and smart guys, right, warn that if they have a way for the fbi to have a back door into the encrypted communicati communication, and the problems will be more -- are they wrong? >> well, the joint task forces need tooshlgs and they are made up of the fbi and the state and the local law enforcement, and megyn, it is best not to talk about the backdoor anymore, because it is going to be solved in the white house with the intelligence folks. >> and that is what is said. >> well, it is best if some of these things are not said. and you knee -- you see, i was there when reagan rebuilt the military and i with tluz when we went into the gulf war and we didn't win that war just from the air, but we did it by assembly a group of arab leaders

who stood in the rose guardtenden to stand with america, and it has to be with with the friends in the arab world, and our friends in europe, and the coalition that we had when we went to the first gulf war, whaen we win that, and we will win that against isis and as it settles down, we should leave, because we shouldn't be policemen of the world, but turn it over to the regional powers to be able to hand that, and we have a unique time in america to connect with people all around the world who understand that there is an existential threat against all of them, the arabs, the jordanian jordanians and the saudis and the egyptians and the friends in europe including the turks, and so we have a unique opportunity to bring everybody together. i saw reagan do it, and other presidents have done it, and fr frankly, if you want to be the commander in the chief, you have to have the experience at the same time that we are doing all of that, the pentagon has to be reformed to get what we need for our men and women in uniform. all of that together, we are

going to be just fine, and america is going to be continuing to lead the world. >> governor, thank you. >> governor bush, just to kaday wounded warrior program is under fire for raising tens of millions of dollars and spending almost half of it on travel and hot hotels and dinners and luxury and lavish conference, and taking care of veterans is a huge issue in the country that has asked so many to serve and sacrifice so much. as president, would you police the charity organizations that say they are helping vets? >> of course. there is all sorts of ways that it can be done at the state, and the local and the federal level to do that, but the first duty of the united states is to fix the mess at the department of veteran veterans affairs, and this is the first responsibility. we have waiting lists for veterans leaving because of the sequester where we are gutting the military and more and more military personnel are leaving and becoming the veterans and the waiting list is growing, and they have give n out $140 millin

to bonuses of veteran department employees, including reducing the waiting list without giving the veterans care, and people died and three people have been fired. i will make sure that we fire the sheer inkcompetence inside f the department of veteran affairs and give them a choice guard so they don't have to travel hours and hours of to get care. if you want them to do a better job, give the veterans choice, and you will get a much better result. as it relates to other organization, and let me give you a good example. in houston, texas, there is an organization in place, and somebody acted on their hearts to make sure there is no homeless vets in houston, and they have come close without any f federal assistance, and we have to figure more dignity and respect to treat the veterans they are getting today. >> and speaking of veterans, we have a question from one of the veteran top youtube creator, and over the course of the evening we will hear from some of

youtube's most followed stars, and here is one of them. >> i'm mark watson. i am known nor the views on youtube, but i am also a veteran who served in the army for eight years. as an african-american living in ferguson, i have seen the strain between the police officers and the communities they serve. there are great tools like body cameras to protect the officers and the citizens, but we currently have better cameras in the pockets than the precinct, and why are we not using the technology available to protect the communities? >> senator paul, that question to you. >> i have supported legislation to allow body cameras, and i have been to ferguson and i have been trying to find solutions to the criminal justice problem, and in ferguson, one-third of the budget for city of ferguson was being reaped by people being fined to death. if we get a $1,100 fine, we can survive it, but on the edge of poverty, and you are fine and the car is towed, you will lose

your job. and the war on drug has disproportionately affected the african-american community, and what we need is equal protection under the law, and we don't unfairly incarcerate a group of african-american male, and in ferguson for african-american women, there are 60 african-american women and men, and 3 of 4 people in prison are black or brown, and something has to change. it is a big thing that our party has to be a part of, and i have been a leader in congress in trying to bring out criminal justice reform. >> senator paul, thank you. this debate is just getting started and coming up the role of the federal government, and first, join tonight's conversation right from your home. go the google.com or open up the google app, and search to fox news debate to find the issue that is most important to you. more from the iowa republican

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welcome back, everybody. we are live in des moines, iowa, and let's get right back to the questions. bret? >> i'll ask some questions about federal spending and the role of the federal government. everybody always said they want to cut federal spending and usually say they'll start by cutting waste, fraud, or abuse, but that never materializes. governor christie, you talk about entitlement reform and say that's where the federal government can get savings to balance the budget. can you name even one thing that the federal government does now that it should not do at all? >> yeah. you want one? >> i want one. [ laughter ] >> how about one that i've done in new jersey for the last six years. that's get rid of planned parenthood funding from the united states of america. [ applause ] >> anything bigger than that? >> bigger than that? let me tell you something.

when you see thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children being murdered in the womb, i can't think of anything bigger than that. [ applause ] >> i realize everyone opposes obamacare and you're not alone. data shows that in the last month when people searched policy repeals, that there were a lot of them. obamacare took the top two spots. but today there are millions of people who gained health insurance from obamacare and they now rely on it. so the question, senator cruz, if you repeal obamacare, as you say you will, will you be fine if millions of people don't have health insurance? and what is your specific plan for covering the uninsured? >> sure. let's take it one at a time. first of all, we have seen now in six years of obamacare that it's been a disaster. it is the biggest job killer in this country. millions of americans have lost

their jobs and forced into part-time work, and been forced into part-time work, and have lost their insurance, and have seen their premiums skyrocket. if i'm elected president, we will repeal every word of obamacare. [ applause ] now, once that is done, everyone agrees we need health care reform. it should follow the principles of expanding competition, empowering patients and keeping government from getting between us and our doctors. three specific reforms that reflect those principles. we should allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines. that will create a true 50 state national marketplace which will drive down the cost of low cost catastrophic health insurance. number two, we should expand health savings accounts so people can save in a tax advantaged way for more routine health care needs. and number three, we should work to delink health insurance from employment, so if you lose your job, your health insurance goes with you, and it is personal, portable and i think that's a much more attractive vision for

health care than the washington driven top down obamacare that is causing so many millions to hurt. >> governor bush, you've advocated for statehood for puerto rico. the puerto rican economy is collapsing under unsustainable debt burden. only about one million of its four million residents are employed. 4 million residents are employed. so should american citizens, who you say are already overtaxed, bail out puerto rico, as well in >> no, they shouldn't. i believe puerto rico ought to have the right of self-determination. if i was a puerto rican, i would vote for statehood. they should have the right of self-determination. before you get to that, though, puerto rico will have to deal with the structural problems they face. it's a fact that if you can pay for $79 one-way ticket to

orlando and escape crime rates, you move to orlando. a lot of people are doing that and the spiraling out of control requires puerto rico to make reforms. the federal government can allow them to do that but should not -- the process of statehood or the status of puerto rico won't be solved until we get to the bigger issue how to deal with the economic problems they're facing right now. >> governor kasich, you're one of two remaining governors in the race. your colleague rick snyder in michigan is under fire for the flint, michigan water krocrisis. how would you have handled that? >> you have to be on top of it right away. i know people are being held accountable, but the fact is, every single engine of government has to move when you see a crisis like that. i've had many situations in the

state of ohio where we've had to move, whether it's storms, whether it was a horrible school shooting. there are many crises that come. the water crisis in toledo. you've got to be on top of it and go the extra mile. you have to work with local communities and the federal government. because you realize that people are depending on you. so you go the extra mile. but people have to be alert. and when you see a problem, you must act quickly to get on top of it and people at home are saying they've got a problem. listen to them. because most of the time they're absolutely correct. so the fact is, we work for the people, the people don't work for us, and we have to have an attitude when we're in government of servanthood that's what matters. we serve you, you don't serve us. we listen to you. and then we act. >> senator rubio -- >> [ applause ] >> -- on the issue of climate change, in 2008 you wanted florida to get ahead of other states and establish a cap and

trade system, a program for carbon emissions, which many republicans thought at the time would hurt the florida economy. now you're a skeptic of climate change science and in fact, you warn that federal efforts to fight climate change will u.s. the hurt economy and cost jobs. why the change? >> first, that's not entirely the story. at the time, the liberal governor of florida, charlie crist, he wanted to impose cap and trade on florida and i was the first person out of the box that then we saw the leads candidate for president at the time both the republicans and democrats all supported it. what we said is they're going to impose this on us, i never thought it was a good idea. i was clear about that at the time. i do not believe it's a good idea now. i do not believe we have to destroy our economy in order to protect our environment. and especially with these programs they're asking us to pass that will do nothing to help the environment but will be devastating for our economy. when i'm president of the united states of america, there will

never be any cap and trade in the united states >> thank you, senator. >> all right. we're going to move on, because coming up, immigration, and something you've never seen before. stay tuned, right after this break. what makes this simple salad the best simple salad ever?

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grant blanket legalization amnesty to folks who have eente stayed in the country el legally. >> earned path to citizenship is code, the reality is this, it's unfair to the people who legally entered this country to create an alternative pathway who entered illegally and knowingly did so. you cannot grant amnesty. they'll never again believe in legal immigration, never again support it. that's bad for our country and future. >> within two years of getting elected you were co-sponsoring legislation to create a path to citizenship, in your words, amnesty. haven't you already proven you cannot be trusted on this issue? >> no because if you look at the quote, it's very specific, it says blanket amnesty. i do not support -- >> you said more than that, sir. >>s i said i do not support -- >> you said earned path to citizenship is basically code for amnesty. >> it was. >> you supported earned path to citizenship. >> it absolutely has been. at the time and context of that was in 2009 and 2010 where the last effort for legalization was an effort done in the senate, an

effort led by several people that provided almost an instant path, with very little obstacles moving forward. what i've always said is this issue does need to be solved. they've been talking about this issue for 30 years and nothing ever happens and i'm going to tell you exactly how we're going to deal with it when i am president. number one, we're going to keep isis out of america. if we don't know who you are or why you're coming, you won't get into the united states. number two, we're going to enforce immigration laws. i am the son and grandson of immigra immigrants. securing our borders is not anti-immigrant. we'll hire 20,000 new border agents instead of 20,000 new irs agents. finish the 700 miles of fencing and walls our nation needs. we'll have mandatory e-verify, a mandatory entry/exit tracking system and until all of that is in place and all of that is working and we can prove to the people of this country that illegal immigration is under control, nothing else is going to happen. we are not going to round up and deport 12 million people but we're not going to hand out citizenship cards, either. there will be a process. we will see what the american people are willing to support.

but it will not be unconstitutional executive orders like the ones barack obama has forced on us. >> governor bush, do you agree senator rubio has not reversed himself on his immigration promise? >> i'm kind of confused because he was the sponsor of the gang of eight bill that did require a bunch of thresholds but ultimately allowed for citizenship over an extended period of time. i mean, that's a fact. and he asked me to support that. and i -- i supported him because i think people when you're elected you need to do things and he led the charge to finally fix this immigration problem that has existed now for, as marco says, for 30 years. then he cut and run because it wasn't popular amongst conservatives, i guess. here's what i believe. and i wrote a book about this called "immigration wars." you can get it at $2.99 on amazon. it's not a bestseller. i can promise you, there won't be any -- you can get it. it's affordable to everybody. we should have a math to legal status for the 12 million people here illegally. come out from the shadows, pay a

fine, earn legal status by working, paying taxes, learning english, not committing crimes and earn legal status, not cutting in front of the line for people that are patiently waiting outside. that is the -- i think that's the conservative consensus pragmatic approach to how to solve this problem. >> go ahead, senator. >> it's interesting jeb mentions the book, that's the book where you changed your position on immigration because you used to support a path to citizenship. >> to did you. >> you changed -- >> so did you, marco. >> you wrote a book where you changed your position -- you wrote a book where you changed your position from a path to citizenship to a path to legalization and the bottom line is this, we are not ghoij oing anything on this issue until we first bring illegal immigration under control. the american people have been told for 30 years they're going to enforce the border, going to build the wall and it never gets build and never happens. it is very clear there will be no progress on this issue in any way, shape or form until you prove to the people of this country illegal immigration is under control and when i'm president, we are going to bring it under control once and for all after 30 years of talking

about it. >> marco, marco -- he brought up my name. i have supported a consensus approach to solving this problem wherever it came up and in 2007 it almost passed bwhen my brothr was president of the united states. when you led the charge with the chang of eight, i supported it because you asked me to. i think it's important for people in elected office to forge consensus to solve problems. there's never going do be perfect bill. >> all right. >> when you didn't do that and asked people to support, you shouldn't cut and run. >> megyn -- >> stick with it, that's exactly what happened. he cut and run. that's a tragedy. now it's harder and harder to solve this problem. >> the last one. >> there's not going to be consensus on this issue until we enforce our immigration laws. that is abundantly clear, you're not going to be able to ram down the throat of the american people your approach. the only way to move forward after two migratory crises with

minor minors, first bring illegal immigration under control. until that happens there's not going to be consensus on this issue. >> let's move on. senator cruz, when senator rubio proposed that bill creating a math to citizenship, you proposed an amendment. it would have allowed for legalization but not citizenship. yes, it would. pressed last month on why you supported legalization, you claimed that you didn't. right, like you just did. saw that. you argued that this was just a poison pill amendment, basically something designed to kill the bill and not actually get it through. but that is not, however, how it sounded at the time. watch. >> this bill to be voted down. i don't want immigration reform to fail. i want immigration reform to pass. i believe if this amendment were to pass, the chances of this bill passing into law would increase dramatically. i believe if the amendments i introduced were adopted that the bill would pass and my effort in introducing them was to find a solution that reflected common

ground and that fixed the problem. if the proponents of this bill actually demonstrate a commitment not to politics, not to campaigning all the time, but to actually fixing this problem, to finding a middle ground, that would fix the problem and also allow for those 11 million people who are here illegally a legal status with citizenship off the table. >> was that all an act? it was pretty convincing. >> you know, the amendment you're talking about is one sentence, it's 38 words. anyone can go online at tedcruz.org and read exactly what it said. in those 38 words, it said anyone here illegally is permanently ineligible for leadership. didn't say a word -- >> the bill you're amending allowed -- >> megyn, the bill was 1,000 pages. i introduced a serious of amendments each designed to fix problems in the bill. the fact that each amendment

didn't fix every problem didn't mean that i supported the rest of the bill and i'll tell you who supported my amendment. jeff sessions, the strongest opponent of amnesty in the united states congress, and he did so because taking citizenship off the table was important and it revealed the hypocrisy of the proponents of this bill who were looking for votes. listen, we can solve immigration. we just heard an argument back and forth that we can't solve immigration. i have a detailed immigration plan that is on my website, tedcruz.org. it was designed with iowa's own congressman steve king and jeff sessions, and we have the tools in federal law to do this now. we can build the fence. we can triple the border patrol. we can end sanctuary cities by cutting off funding to them. we can end welfare for those here illegally and what is missing is the political will because too many democrats and, sadly, too many republicans don't want to solve this problem. if i am elected president, we will secure the border and we will end the illegal

immigration. >> senator paul, you know how washington works. do you buy that? >> i was there and i saw the debate. i saw ted cruz say we'll take citizenship off the table and then the bill will pass and i'm for the bill. the bill would involve legalization. he can't have it both ways. what is particularly insulting, though, he is the king of saying, oh, you're for amnesty, everybody's for amnesty except for ted cruz, but it's a falseness. and that's an authenticity problem that everybody he knows is not as perfect as him because we're all for amnesty. i was for legalization. i think, frankly, we could have border security, you can have legalization. so was ted, but now he says it wasn't so. that's not true. >> two ahead, sir. [ cheers and applause ] >> you know, john adams famously said facts are are stubborn things. the facts are are very, very simple. when that battle was waged my friend senator rubio chose to stand with barack obama and harry reid and chuck schumer and support amnesty.

and i stood alongside jeff sessions and steve king and we led the fight against amnesty. and if you want to know who's telling the truth, you should look and ask people like jeff sessions and steve king and rush limbaugh and mark levin, all of whom say as jeff sessions said responding to these false att k attacks just recently in alabama, he said if it wasn't for ted cruz, the gang of eight rubio/schumer bill would have passed but because ted stood up and helped lead the effort, millions rose up to kill it. >> senator rubio, even chuck schumer, your co-sponsor of that bill agrees with ted cruz on this. >> i understand, but let me respond. that was mentioned in this answer. i'm going to respond this way. this is the lie that ted's campaign is built on and rand touched upon it that he's the most conservative guy and everyone else is, you know, everyone else is a rino. the truth is, ted, throughout this campaign you've been saying to do or say anything to get votes. you worked for george bush's

campaign. you helped design george w. bush's immigration policy. when you got to the senate, you did an interview with cbs news, i wasn't part of the video, you said on the issue of people here illegally we can reach a compromise. in the committee you said i want to bring people out of the shadows. now you want to trump trump on immigration. you can't -- we're not going to beat hillary clinton with someone who's willing to say or do anything to win an election. >> go ahead, senator cruz. [ applause ] >> you know, i like marco. he's very charming. he's very smooth. but the facts are simple. when he ran for election in the state of florida, he told the people of florida if you elect me, i will lead the fight against amnesty. when i ran in texas, i told the people of texas if you elect me, i will lead the fight against amnesty. we both made the identical promises. but when we came to washington, we made a different choice. marco made the choice to go the direction of the major donors, to support amnesty because he thought it was politically advantageous. i honored my commitments and as

president, i will honor every commitment that i make to the men and women of this country. >> all right. go ahead, governor christie. >> i want to ask the people in the audience i'm standing here, i watched the video of senator cruz, i watched the video of senator rubio. i heard what they said. and this is why you need to send someone from outside of washington to washington. i feel like -- [ applause ] i feel like i need -- i feel like i need a washington english dictionary converter, right? i mean, i heard what they both said. i saw it on video. fact is this is what makes a difference when you're a governor. you can change your mind. ted can change his mind. marco can change his mind. it's perfectly legal in this country to change your mind. ben you're a governor, you have to admit it. you can't hide behind parliamentary tricks. that's the difference. that's the kind of leader we need in the white house. stop the washington bull and let's get things done. >> all right. let's go to a youtube question. let's get to a youtube question.

this is a question from a youtube creator with over 2 million subscribers. watch. >> i'm dulce candy, a youtube creator who immigrated to the united states from mexico. i'm proud to say i served in the armed forces in iraq, became a citizen, i'm now an entrepreneur. there are many immigrants who contribute positively to the american economy. some of the comments in the campaign make us question or place in the country. if america does not seem like a welcoming place for immigrant entrepreneurs, will the american economy suffer? >> dr. carson, that one's for you. >> oh, great. [ laughter ] as i said before, we are a land of immigrants, but we have to be intelligent about the way that we form our immigration policies and that's one of the reasons that i have called on us to

declare war on the islamic state. because we need to reorient our immigration policies and our visa policies for people who are coming into this country because there are many people out there who want to destroy us. now, i recognize that the vast majority of people coming in here probably are not those kinds of people, but that's not good enough. if you've got ten people coming to your house and you know one of them is a terrorist, you're probably going to keep them all out. you know, we probably have to figure out a way to make sure that we keep america safe. >> i just -- >> go ahead. >> that beautiful young woman who's an entrepreneur who served in the military, first of all, is deserving of our respect for service in the military and the fact that she's an entrepreneur. and we should be a welcoming nation. our identity is not based on race or ethnicity. it's based on a set of shared values. that's american citizenship.

dulce candy, pretty cool name, actually, that is now an sbrup na entrepreneur over youtube is part of the american spirit. we should celebrate it as conservatives. that's what we believe in. deal with the threat of terror and also recognize this country shou the board. >> i think that's the -- [ applause ] that's the false choice in this whole debate about immigration. of course, we're going to be a nation of immigrants. every single year close to a million people emigrate to the united states legally. there's no nation on earth that comes close to that number. are we not a sovereign country, choose who comes in, when they come in and how they come in? that's not what's happening now. >> all right. >> i think the other problem is we have an immigration system that's outdated, primarily based on whether you have family members living here. in the 21st century, it has to be a merit-based system and that is why our legal immigration system is in need of modernization and we will always celebrate legal immigration like dulce's great story. >> all right.

we're moving on. >> gentlemen, we're going to turn now to what we call ele electabili electabili electability, issues you face in a primary or general election. you may not be altogether unhappy if you're not included in this round. senator cruz, you pride yourself on standing up to the d.c. cartel. as we see to a turn degree tonight, there's a price of standing up to the d.c. cartel. 13 republican senators have endorsed other candidates, none have endorsed you. you twice last year, you asked for a colleague to second a motion, a routine courtesy on the senate floor and no senator would do it. top gop officials worry that if you're at the top of the ticket, some officials, that not only will you lose the whouite house but tank the ticket all the way down the line. question is does your style sometimes get in the way of your ability to get things done, sir? >> well, chris, you are exactly right that i am not the candidate of career politicians in washington.

[ applause ] i'll tell you the endorsements i'm proud of are the over 200,000 volunteers across this country who have signed up to volunteer for our campaign. the endorsements i am proud of are leading conservatives like iowa's own congressman steve king who's the national co-chairman of my campaign. the endorsements that i'm proud of are conservative leaders like dr. james dobson and over 700,000 contributions nationwide, people going to our website, tedcruz.org. this is a grassroots campaign and, you know, when i ran for senate in texas, i told the people of texas that i'm not going there to go along to get along. washington is broken and the people i have been accountable to every single day in the senate are the 27 million texans who i represent and i made a promise to them that i make to you today which is if i am elected, every single day i will do two things. tell the truth, and do what i said i would do. >> thank you.

>> governor bush. poll after poll shows you running among the worst in your party against hillary clinton. even mitt romney said that a bush v. clinton head to head would be too easy for the democrats. yet still you and the superpacs supporting you continue to blanket the airwaves with cutting ads, not against mrs. clinton but against your fellow republicans especially senator rubio. do these attacks do more harm than good by targeting those candidates who appear to have the best chance of defeating mrs. clinton? >> first of all, i've seen polls where i'm beating hillary clinton pretty regularly. i believe i can. i have a proven record. cutting taxes, shrinking the government, reforming education, challenging the status quo. eliminating career civil service protections, shrinking the government workforce by 11 but leading the nation in job growth. hillary clinton has no record of accomplishment. i'm confident if i win this nomination i will aggressively go against her and beat her as it relates to the superpacs, i have no control over that.

and this is beanbag compared to what the clinton hit machine is going to do to the republican nominee. the simple fact is we all have record. it will all be scrutinized. it's give and take. it's call the politics and that's the way it is. i'm running hard and i believe i'll be the republican nominee and be the one best suited to beat hillary clinton who should not be president of the united states. [ applause ] >> senator rubio first before i ask you a question, any response to governor bush? >> well, i believe, and i know that if iowa helps make me the republican nominee, i will defeat hillary clinton. hillary doesn't want to run against me, but i cannot wait to run against her and cannot wait to earn the opportunity to do it because she cannot be the president of the united states. she wants to put barack obama on the supreme court of the united states of america. she said that here in iowa just two days ago. that would be a disaster for this country. so i hope and pray and cannot wait until this state and others give me an opportunity to serve this party as its nominee because i will defeat hillary clinton. >> now let's talk about electability, senator. "time" magazine once called you

the republican savior. rush limbaugh and others said you likely will be president someday. but if you look at the recent average of polls in your home state of florida, you're in third trailing donald trump by 24 points. if the people who know you best have you there, why should the rest of the country elect you? >> well, let me be clear about one thing. there's only one savior and it's not me. it's jesus christ who came down to earth and died for our sins and so i've always made that clear about that cover story. as far as the polls are concerned, iowa, on monday night you're going to go to a caucus site and you'll be the first americans that vote in this election. you will be the first americans that get to answer the fundam t fundamental question what comes next for this country after seven disastrous years of barack obama? let me tell you what the answer better not be. it better not be bernie sanders. bernie sanders is a socialist. i think bernie sanders is good candidate for president of sweden. we don't want to be sweden. we want to be the united states of america.

and hillary clinton, hillary clinton is disqualified from being the commander in chief of the united states. in fact, one of her first acts as president may very well be to pardon herself because hillary clinton, hillary clinton stored classified information on her private server and hillary clinton lied to the families of those four brave americans who lost their life in benghazi, and anyone who lies to the families of americans who have died in the service of this country can never be commander in chief of the united states. [ applause ] >> governor christie, two of your former top aides go on trial in may for fraud and conspiracy in the bridge-gate case. the politically motivated closure of lanes to the george washington bridge. another former aide who has already pleaded guilty and will likely testify for the government, as you know, says that you knew about this whole deal. can the gop take the chance of nominating you with this scandal still out there, sir? >> sure, because there's been

three different investigations and proven that i knew nothing. and the fact is that what i did do, what i did do from the beginning, chris, as soon as i found out about it, i fired the people who were responsible and that's what you expect from a leader. and i'll tell you something else, i inherited a state in new jersey that was downtrodden and beaten by liberal democratic policies, high taxation, high regulation and this year in 2015, new jersey has had the best year of job growth that our state has ever had in the last 15 years. that's because we put conservative policies in place. and i'll tell withdrew oyou one thing. you know why the republican party will want to take a chance on me? because they know that hillary clinton will never be prosecuted by this justice department and they're going to want to put a former federal prosecutor on the stage to prosecute her next september and there is no one on this stage better prepared to prosecute the case against hillary clinton than i am. i will be ready, i will take her on and when i take her on, i guarantee you one thing, she will never get within ten miles of the white house. the days for the clintons in public housing are over. [ applause ]

>> much more to come including where the candidates stand on foreign policy and, once again, you can go to google.com, or open the google search app and search "fox news debate" to vote on which candidate you think is winning the debate tonight. we'll be right back.

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welcome back, everybody. let's get back to the questions. chris? >> gentlemen, almost 60% of republican caucusgoers identify themselves as evangelicals. i'd like to spend a few minutes

exploring social issues. governor kasich, you talk a good deal about your faith. in fact, you said it played your role in a decision to expand medicaid and say when you meet st. peter at the pearly gates he's going to ask what you did for the poor, not what you did to keep government small. senator cruz is on the opposite side of this issue if you. does that mean you're getting in and he isn't? >> no, you know, chris, here's what happened with medicaid in my state. we took the growth of medicaid from over 10% in my second budget to 2.5% without cutting off one person or cutting one benefit because we innovated the government. now mom and dad can stay in their own home rather than being forced into a nursing home. and then we decided we could bring $14 million of our money, washington doesn't have money, our money to tend to the mentally ill because i don't think they ought to live in prison or live under a bridge, to treat the drug addicted so they're not in an in and out of door policy out of the prisons and help the working poor so

they don't live in emergency rooms. how's it worked? we treated the drug addicted in our prisons and released them into the community and our recidivism rate is less than 20%, that's basically bordering on a miracle because of our great prison director. the mentally ill, they've been stepped on for too long in this society and we're beginning to treat them. in terms of my faith, look, when i study scripture i know people who pllive in the shadows need chance. i'm not deciding anybody has to make these decisions the way i do on the basis of what i do, bull. the time to come to stop ignoring the mentally ill in this country, begin to treat them and get them on their feet along, of course, with treating the drug addicted because we don't want them in and out of the prisons. give people a chance. we talked about criminal justice reform. we've enacted it in our state. look, the conservative message is economic growth, and along with economic growth goes opportunity for everybody in

america. everybody ought to have a chance to be able to rise to their god-given purpose. and that is what we have done in ohio. we're running surpluses. we're up 400,000 jobs. guess what, the formula is working. i'd suggest people take a look at it. thank you. >> gentlemen, we had a case study on religious liberty just this last summer. a county clerk in kentucky named kim davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the supreme court ruling saying that it violated her religious beliefs. governor christie, you said that she must follow the law or be moved to another job that would be in keeping with her conscience. but some conservatives say that that violates her religious liberty. >> no, what i said, chris, was the law needs to be followed and that someone in that office has to do their job. so if miss davis wanted to step aside and get rid of her ability to be able to do that, there should be someone else in that office who it didn't violate their conscience so they could follow the law of the state of

kentucky. i never said miss davis should lose her job or she had to do it. what i did say was the person who came in for the license needed to get it. if there's someone in that organization and it turns out there was who was willing to be able to that, that's what we should do. but just as importantly, and i agree with what john said, you know, we all have our own individual interpretations of offer faith. and here's the problem with what's going on around the world. the radical islamic jihadists, what they want to do is impose their faith upon each and every one of us. every one of us. the reason why this war against them is so important is that very basis of religious liberty. they want everyone in this country to follow their religious beliefs the way they do. they do not want us to exercise religious liberty. that's why as commander in chief, i will take on isis, not only because it keeps us safe, but because it allows us to absolutely conduct our religious affairs the way we find in our heart and in our souls as a catholic, that's what i want to do, and no matter what your faith is, that's what i want you

to be able to do. >> thank you, sir. senator rubio, during the last debate, you said governor christie had changed his position and his mind on gun control, on common core, and backing president obama's nomination of sonia sotomayor to the supreme court. he said you're wrong on the facts and can't, quote, slime your way to the white house. i assume in the last two weeks you've done some fact checking. do you want to take anything back? >> yeah, i would encourage people to go on marcorubio.com. we'll put all the facts up so people can see it for themselves. you asked a fundamental question about the role of faith in our country. i think this is an important question. i think if you do not understand our judeo-christian values are one of the reasons america is such a special country, you don't understand our history. you see, why are we one of the most generous people in the world, no, the most generous people in the world? why do americans contribute millions of dollars to charity? it is not because of the tax write-off. it's because in this nation, we are influenced by judeo-christian values that teach us to care for the less

fortunate, reach out to the needy, to love our neighbor. this is what's made our nation so special and you should hope that our next president is someone that is influenced by their faith because if your faith causes you to care for the less fortunate, it is something you want to see in your public figures and when i'm president, i can tell you this, my faith will not just influence the way i'll govern as president, it will influence the way i live my life because in the end, my goal is not simply to live on this earth for 80 years but to live an eternity with my creator. i will always allow my faith to influence everything i do. >> thank you, senator. senator paul, in may, in may on the campaign trail you, said you didn't get into politics to fight about abortion. you said you were more concerned about the national debt. your answer is to turn abortion back to the states the way it was before roe v. wade. does that mean that if a liberal state, let's say, wants to make abortion legal, that you're okay with that, and what do you say to conservative voters who believe deeply that abortion is

murder? >> i think abortion is always wrong. i've supported a variety of solutions. both state as well as federal. in fact, just last week, i introduced the life at conception act which would say that the 14th amendment would defend an individual even in the womb. but i think on the broader question of religion and politics, you know, i think liberty, itself, requires a virtue, require the a virtuous people. in fact, washington said that democracy virtuous people. a theologian said liberty requires restraint but the only restraint consistent with liberty is self-restraint. there's a lot packed into that statement, but the bottom line is we must have virtue, we must have a religious bearing as a nation. the government's not always going to save us and it's not always going to come from government. if we don't know right and wrong, i think we have lost our way, i think we become unmoored and without the religious foundation that guides us all,

we have a great risk of going horribly in the wrong direction. >> sir, 30 seconds to answer my specific -- [ cheers and applause ] just 30 seconds to answer my specific question. do you favor the idea that abortion should be a states rights issue and if a liberal state wants to make it legal, that that's their choice? yes or no? >> both. both federal and state approach. i have said that we could leave it to the states but i've also introduced a federal solution as well. so the federal solution would be the life at conception act which is an act that would federalize the issue. but i've also said for the most part these issues would be left back to the states. so there might be an occasion if we did overturn roe v. wade, roe v. wade nationalized the issue. if you had the court reverse roe v. wade, it would become a state issue once again. i think it would be better the less abortions we have so the more states that we have that made abortion illegal, the better as far as trying to save and preserve lives. >> thank you, sir. gentlemen -- [ cheers and applause ] like to ask you a few questions about foreign policy broadly. dr. carson, many experts believe

russian leader vladimir putin has greater ideas, bigger designs for the region beyond russia's actions inside ukraine. fast forward to february 2017, and it is president carson, and russian ununiformed commandos cross the estonian border and they occupy a city in estonia. estonia, a member of nato, essentially invokes article 5, an attack on one is an attack on all. what do you do? >> well, first of all, recognize that vladimir putin is an opportunist, and he's a bully, and we have to face him down. and i would, first of all, face him down in that whole region, the whole baltic region. i think we need to put in some armored brigades there. we only have one or two. we need much more than that. we need to be doing military exercises if not only estonia but latvia and lithuania. they're terrified by the saber rattling. i think we ought to put in our

missile defense system. i think we ought to give ukraine offensive weapons and i think we ought to fight them on the economic basis because putin is a one-horse country, oil and energy. and we ought to fight them on that level. we ought to be helping in terms of the technology for fracking keeping the price low, quite frankly, because that's what's keeping him contained. so, yes, i'd absolutely would go in if he attacked, i think article 5 of nato, we would definitely protect all of our allies. >> gentlemen, you've all said that the iran nuclear deal is a bad one. senator rubio, you're among the candidates who've said you would tear it up on day one. but as you know, iran has already received tens of millions of dollars, tens of billions of dollars in this deal and has quickly reestablished ties economically with europe. the major concessions, in other words, are up front in this deal. so should you win by the time you take office, the remaining parts of the deal would be the

constraints on iran. so why blow up those constraints on day one? letting iran off the hook? >> well, let me first describe iran because they're not just a normal nation state. we have no quarrel with the iranian people. the iranian leader, supreme leader is a radical shia cleric who has an apocalyptic vision of the future. he views himself not simply as the leader of iran but the leader of all muslims, all shia muslims on the planet and have a desire not simply to conquer the middle east and become the dominant power in the region but be able to hold america hostage. that is why they're building right now and developing long-range missiles capable of reaching the united states and that is why they're going to use those $100 billion to expand their conventional capabilities and one day buy our build a nuclear weapon. we will -- when i am president of the united states, on my first day in office we are canceling the deal with iran and nations will have to make a choice. they can do business with iran or do business with america and i am very confident they're going to choose america before they choose the iranian economy. >> governor kasich, you've said that marco rubio is wrong, that

senator rubio is wrong with tearing it up on day one. >> look, we don't know what's going to happen in ten months. and if i were president of the united states right now, i'd be lining up our allies to say that if one crossed "t" or one dotted "i" does not occur they violate the agreement, we slap back on sanctions. we can slap on sanctions alone on day one, but it's not going to be anywhere near as effective. but the president needs to be laying the groundwork right now for the ability to slap those sanctions back on worldwide. and i'll tell you what i'm worried about. i'm worried about money. you read about all the companies now that are doing business, about to do business in iran, and we don't get this settled down with other countries in the world about sanctions, then iran could violate that agreement and we're the only ones putting the sanctions on. we need to move aggressively now. but i would say this to you, brett, number one, if they violate it, we need to move against them and number two, if we find out they're developing a nuclear weapon and we know how to get to it, we're going to go

take it out. that is what we have to do. we cannot let things get farther down the road like we did with north korea. >> governor kasich, you know the most powerful sanction are the multilateral ones. >> that's right. >> these european countries are reestablishing these ties. i know, bret. bret, here's the problem. you take a look at belgium, i talked to a diplomat from belgium, i said how's it going? he said we have the military in the streets right now, we never dreamt we'd ever see it. i think there's an opportunity to bring the world together. the turks are being threatened. we know about the french. we know about the belgians. we know about the brits. everybody is under fire and under attack. we have to stand together as an alliance. so actually the opportunity is there because of the threat to all of these countries to bring all of us together and say there is something more important than money, it is the future of the world and the future of our children and grandchildren. that's the kind of leadership this country needs and it has not been in effect during the

administration of barack obama and that's only the beginning of the failures that they have committed not only in the middle east but all over the world including russia and china. >> governor, thank you. governor christie, libya is the newest base for isis. just today defense secretary ashton carter said isis is consolidating their footprint there and setting up training facilities. if you were president, would you deploy u.s. troops to libya to take out isis there? >> bret, let me tell you, this is another one of those places where hillary clinton has so much to answer for and why she is completely unqualified to be commander in chief. in a previous democratic debate, three times hillary clinton was asked about the failure in libya, a policy she took credit for and said what is your measure of responsibility, madam secretary, for the failure in libya? three times she refused to answer the question because she refuses to be held accountable for anything that goes wrong.

if it had gone right, believe me, she would have been running around to be able to take credit for it. here's what i'd do. this is about the bigger broader war against isis. we need to bring together our european and sunni arab allies and develop a strategy together to take on isis every place that it is around the world so that together all of us can take isis out, destroy it, and then move on to come back to our country, protect our homeland security and make sure that the american people are safe. as president of the united states, that is exactly what i will do. >> thank you, governor. we're not finished yet. more to come from the presidential debate live from des moines, iowa. next. and remember, to see how the campaigns are responding to the debate in realtime, go to google.com or open your google search app and search "fox news debate" and please stay with us.

iowa, resume the debate. >> senator paul? >> you have said former president bill clinton's history with women is fair game in this campaign. how do you answer those who say you don't hold the sins of the husband against the wife? >> you know, i've never really brought this up and asked the question but i have responded to the question. i don't blame hillary clinton at all for this. i don't think she's responsible for his behavior. i do think the position promoting women's rights and fairness to women in the workplace that if what bill clinton did, any ceo in our country did, with an intern, with a 22-year-old, 21-year-old intern in their office, they would be fired. they would never be hired again. [ cheers and applause ] fired, never hired again and probably shunned in their

community. and the thing is, she can't be a champion of women's rights at the same time she's got this that is always lurking out there, this type of behavior. so it is difficult. >> of her husband's. >> yeah, but i combine this also with the millions upon millions of dollars they've taken from regimes in the middle east who treat women like, like cattle. [ applause ] >> we have another question from one of youtube's top creators. here it is. >> i'm nabela noor, i'm a muslim-american born and raised in the u.s. who creates beauty and lifestyle videos on youtube. in 2015, the membnumber of hate crimes against muslims in the u.s. has tripled. on social media where i've spent a lot of times i've seen many attacks directed toward fellow muslims. this culture of hatred is only driving isis to radicalize, recruit and insight violence.

as president what would you do to address this toxic climate and promote increased tolerance in the united states? >> how do you answer nabela? >> first of all, it's important when running for the highest office in the land we recognize we're living in dangerous times and have to be serious about it, that our words have consequences. donald trump, for example, i mentioned his name again if anybody was missing him. mr. trump believed in reaction to people's fears that we should ban all muslims. well, that creates an environment that's toxic in our own country. nabela's a rising entrepreneur. she wants to pursue the american dream. she's an american citizen. she should not feel uncomfortable about her citizenship. she's not the threat. the threat is islamic terrorism. we need to focus our energies there, not these broad-blanket kind of statements that will make it harder for us to deal with isis. we need to deal with isis in the caliphate. we need a strategy to destroy isis there. you can't do that without the cooperation of the muslim world

because they're as threatened as we are, so i think it's important for us to be careful about the language we use which is why i've been critical of donald trump disparaging women, disparaging hispanics. that's not a sign of strength. making fun of disabled people, we're never going to win elections if we don't have a more broader unifying message. [ applause ] >> governor, thank you. senator cruz, change of subject, you've called for an end to the renewable fuel standards which mandate that refineries blend biofuels including ethanol into gasoline. as you well know, ethanol is a big industry in this state. $10 billion a year. last week terry branstad, the popular governor of iowa -- [ cheers and applause ] -- who is in the hall tonight, said that bankrolled by big oil and iowa voters would be making a mistake supporting you. why should those voters side with you over the six-term governor of this state, sir?

>> well, chris, i'm glad to discuss my views on ethanol and energy. i think god has blessed this country with enormous natural resources and we should pursue all of the above. we should be developing oil and gas and coal and nuclear and wind and solar and ethanol and biofuels, but i don't believe that washington should be picking winners and losers and i think there should be no mandate and no subsidies whatsoever. indeed, my tax plan i've introduced, it's available on our website, it's a simple flat tax for everyone, produce enormous economic growth and eliminates every mandate, every subsidy so there's no subsidies for oil and gas, no subsidies for anyone. now, it is true there are a bunch of lobbyists and a bunch of democrats in this state spending millions of dollars trying to convince the people of iowa that i somehow oppose ethanol. it's not true. i've introduced legislation that would phase out the ethanol mandate over five years but that is in the context of having no mandates whatsoever for anyone and i would note there's a much

more important government regulation to ethanol and that's the epa's blend wall that makes it illegal to sell mid-level blends of ethanol and gasoline. i will tear down the epa's blend wall which will enable ethanol to expand its market share by up to 60% all without mandates, all without any government mandates whatsoever through the marketplace. i'll note finally, chris, there's a reason iowa's congressman steve king the fiercest defender of farmers in this state is chairing my campaign. he understands i'm committed to a fair and level playing field for every energy source without lobbyists and without washington picking winners and losers. [ applause ] >> dr. carson, i'd like to ask you about exactly that issue. where are you on the mandatory ethanol standard and precisely this question, should government be in the business of picking winners and losers? or should it be left to the marketplace? >> well, as anyone knows who's

been listening to me, i'm very much against the government being involved in every aspect of our lives. you know, we -- last year there was an additional 81,000 pages of government regulations, if you stack that up, it would be a three-story building. this is absolutely absurd. they've insinuated themselves into everything. as far as the renewable fuel standard is concerned, certain promises were made, certain government contracts were issued which extend all the way into the year 2022. and i believe that it's probably unfair to withdraw the rug because people have invested money, people have invested a lot of energy into that. but, you know, we are blessed with tremendous energy in this nation and need to be talking about new sources of energy. 70% of our population lives bicoastly. what about hydroelectric power? we can develop that. you know, we have so much

natural gas now and can liquify it, transfer it across the seas. we can make europe dependent on us instead of putin, put him back in his little box advantage of the tremendous opportunities in energy god has given us, not get involved in these little petty arguments and we and get a lot of them out if we get the government out of our lives. >> doctor, thank you. argument. we can get a lot of them out if we get the government out of our lives. >> coming up, closing statements from our candidates as our debate continues, live, p be good.

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welcome back, everybody. and now, it is time foreclosing statements. the candidates each get 30 seconds and we begin with kentucky senator, rand paul. >> thanks for having me.

it's great to be back. i'm an eye surgeon from kentucky, i miss doing eye surgery, did a little bit of surgery over christmas last year, got to be on the floor of the senate and it's been amazing to me. the thing that is most important to me and caused me to run for office is i'm worried about the country and how much debt we're adding and i'm the one true fiscal conservative that will look at all spending. that is the only way we'll ever balance our budget, thank you. >> iowa governor, kasich. >> one of our national security issues is that we look at each other and say why can't we solve problems? we can. we can in fact create jobs and provide job security. we can create a situation where

wages begin to rise. we can create a situation for our children to be able to get a decent job to pay down debt and resume our role in the world. all of us have to come together with an ability for us to set the tune as conservatives. to invite other people in to be part of that orchestra. i'm an optimist and we can do it again, together to strengthen this country. work together. thank you. >> new jersey governor, chris christie. >> on september 11th, my wife was two blocks if the world trade center. when the buildings came down, she was trapped and i didn't hear from her. we have three children and i had to confront the possibility of being a single parent. terrorism in this country scares everyone. the fact is that we need a

commander in chief that feels in here the possibility of loss. i've faced it, prosecuted terrorists, may have had the decisions that need to be made to protect us and as president of the united states, no one will keep this country safe than i will. >> florida governor jeb bush. >> i have a proven record as governor of the state of florida as a conservative leader and detailed plans to fix the mess in washington, d.c. as president i will restore and rebuild our military, restore alliances and keep us safe. as our party nominee, i will defeat hillary clinton. i ask for your support monday night and make you proud as our party's nominee. thank you very much. >> dr. ben carson. >> i want to thank the people of iowa for being so welcoming to me. please think of our founding fathers as you listen.

we the people of the united states... in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the benefits of liberty to ourselves do ordain and establish this constitution of the united states of america. folks, it's not too late. enough said. >> senator marco rubio. >> the bible commands us to let our light shine on the world. over 200 years, america's light has been shining on the world and the world has never been the same again. now, the world is dimming a little because of barack obama. that is why what will happen in iowa is southern. i'm asking for your vote. i will unite this party and

defeat hillary clinton and when i'm president, america's light will shine again, and the 21 century will be a new american century. >> texas senator, ted cruz. >> 93 hours. the media noise will soon are over and it's now for the men and women of iowa to decide. our country is in crisis. we're worried the future of our children and have been burned, over and over again. the central question in this race is trust. who do you know will kill the terrorists, defend the constitution and repeal obamacare? who do you know will secure amnesty and defend the borders? defend religious liberty? and i will be honored if you and your family will come, caucus for us on monday night. >> gentlemen, thank you all so much for being here tonight. we appreciate it greatly.

that does it for the republican debate. but the kelly file starts in just a moment and guess who is going to be there? senator ted cruz. >> after the talk, the voting happens in just four days. the first americans to vote, the iowa caucuses are monday and fox news will have complete coverage. >> we have you covered from iowa to the conventions and to the general election. thanks again for joining us. for all of us here in des moines, have a great evening.

♪ you're? "watters world" now and i'm your host? it's. down to the wire. thursday's night debate republican candidates on fox news squared off and even though trump wasn't there we'll get to that later there were great lines. >> barack obama wants to change america. barack obama wants america to be more like the rest of the world. we don't want to be like the rest of the world. we want to be the united states of america tlnkts is 2340 one on this stage better prepared to prosecute the case hillary clinton better than i am. she will never get within ten days of the white house. the days. clinton and public houng